Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bread
Only if it's the same stamping. If they can run equal mass of aluminum it will be stronger. So a middle ground will be lighter and stronger. Of course the draw back is that aluminum can be brittle. Hence R8 cracked shock towers and doofus Dinan hacked up Z8 frames failing.
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Well, for volume steel is way heavier, and way stronger, but even in thinner gauges it's usually stiffer than aluminum, so yeah it's a give and take affair. You can't really build a bike frame as light and stiff with steel, if you do it ends up a noodle due to flex, but just a few pounds heavier than the aluminum version it ends up far stiffer. The higher end GM chassis used to make cars like the ATS-V, Camaro, CTS-V, etc., were beefed up with high strength steel in places just for the rigidity factor. Aluminum is definitely a better material in general to make a frame from, just more costly and harder to weld/requiring heat treatments. It comes with a fatigue life, but if designed properly it shouldn't be approached in 50 years.