The Altair judging panel has selected the
Ferrari Portofino's Body in White as a winner of the
2019 Enlighten Award in the
Full Vehicle category held recently at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, USA.
The Award honors the
greatest achievements in vehicle weight savings each year and the Ferrari Portofino was selected for its
all-new aluminum chassis and body-in-white--defined as
the stage in automobile manufacturing in which a car body's components have been joined together--which is significantly lighter than that of the model it replaced, the California T. Ferrari's engineers set themselves a very ambitious target for the global weight-saving combined with higher structural rigidity, a fundamental aspect for an open car.
All the body-in-white and chassis components were redesigned and integrated to an even greater extent. The A-pillar, for example, now consists of
just two pieces compared to 21 different components in previous models. Modern production technologies, most notably sand-casting which allows the creation of hollow components, allowed designers to create innovative forms that are lighter.
These technologies also
improved body stiffness by 35 percent while weld lengths on the body-in-white and chassis are
30-percent shorter than in the previous model, enhancing assembly quality still further.
The winning innovations will be showcased at the Nasdaq Opening Bell Ceremony in New York, on Tuesday, August 27th.
