Aluminum showcased From page 33 This was evidenced by the debut of the Acura NSX all-aluminum sperts car back in 1990. Honda had to specify special equipment for welding the car in the plant, and also had to spend an enor- mous amount of time training body shop workers on how to repair the sensitive, expensive aluminum parts of the NSX body. Wf the launch of the new Audi V8 becomes successful, then it will decrease costs associated with the production of aluminum compo- nents and therefore will pave -a way for more Audi and Volkswagen products with alumi- num bodies. This in turn may help cars like the AVUS come closer to produc- tion reality — although Audi recently announced that the Spyder will not be produced. The second significant issue the AVUS or other proposed vehicles must face before reaching the showrooms is receiving an OK signal from the aggressive, cost- conscious new management at Volkswagen’s European head- quarters, who are ready to slash expensive programs and unneces- sary projects in an attempt to reduce ‘costs and bring profits, back maker. The huge Volkswagen group is now led by a new chairman,, Fer- dinand Piech, and new purchasing head, Jose Ignacio Lopez de Ar- riortua, who has more than stirred up the news media in recent weeks because of his controversial to Europe's largest car- departure from General Motors in- the U.S. ; Lopez, whose aggressive cost- cutting style resulted in savings of ‘more than a billion dollars while at GM in Detroit, brought himself woridwide attention when he gave in his resignation to his boss, Jack Smith, about a month ago. -At VW, Lopez is expected. to perform the same kind of cost- cutting miracles as he did back in GM by tightening up control of everything from the design to the manufacturing stages. _ It remains to be seen whether the AVUS or any other sports car will survive through the corporate ’ chopping block to hit the street within the next several years. Still,. high-tech features showeased in the AVUS may ‘ap- pear in one form or another over the next decade. The AVUS’. 12-cylinder engine, for example, certainly deserves at-- tention on its own because of its, unique so-called W-12 design. In- stead of the conventional V con- figuration with two banks of six cylinders, the AVUS’ highly com- pact power unit utilizes three banks of four cylinders to pump out all 509 horsepower. The three crossflow cylinder heads each have two camshafts with five valves per cylinder — three for the induction Stroke and two for the exhaust — to optimize power while minimiz- ing unwanted emission, A complex engine management control, fuel ‘injection system, knock control, and sophisticated emission control with built-in heaters in the catalytic converters round up the powertrain package. Other interesting features in- elude electronically and hydraulically. controlled rear- wheel ‘steering, anti-lock brakes that take into account the lateral (side) forces, sports seats made from kevlar, and hydraulically assisted swivelling doors. Although this concept car, the design of which was inspired by the 1930s Auto Union race car, is perhaps too exotic to be consid- ered for production by the Audi/VW executives, the idea of using a light, friendly aluminum body (weighs oniy 150 kg, 330 tbs.) will definitely stay alive. environmentally’ THE FOLLOWING are the scheduled road closures and detours for the coming week in North Vancouver District, City, West Vancouver District and along area highways, Loreto, @ North Vancouver District: Doran Road: Fromme Road to Mountain Highway: Water main replacement. Loval traffic only. East 18th Street: Mountain High- way to Alderlynn Drive: Water '93 PLYMOUTH VOYAGER 24 T package. *6 Cyl. eng, *Auto.trans. § "Driver's side airbags °Alr cond. «Pwr asst. rack & pinion steering «Colour } keyed body side midgs. «Dual foldaway § outside mirrors «Front recl. bucket . seats *7 pass. seating sLuggage rack « ames: AM/FM stereo cass. ‘Rear w/defroster oomme=*Pwr front disc brakes