Video: 2013 Cadillac ATS at the Nurburgring

[Kyle2k]

Originally Posted by lil_chef

maybe i'm thinking of rigidity differently but decreasing the size of the frame while keeping the same design would make it harder to "bend/twist" and therefore increase rigidity?

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Actually, it does ... but its on a different order of magnitude than whats required. Tweaking the dimensions a bit can make it, lets say for the sake of argument, 5% stronger. But to meet increasing regulations, some things need to be say 50% stronger. And for something like the torsional rigidity (for handling), an automaker can improve it by a factor of 10, or even more in some instances.

Smaller doesn't mean more rigid if you literally mean smaller - as in all ratios are affected from the shrinking. Size/thickness of body panels ratio is what I am getting at. I guess I could understand it from an application of torque - smaller "lever arm" applying the forces at stress points due to a smaller sized car. Obviously if the dimensions are just shrunk it is going to be lighter but reinforcements and dynamics will need to be changed from the addition of an IRS, etc. That is what I was getting at....

Now if we say all things being equal except for overall size then, yeah I guess you are right. However, that isn't going to happen so...