Access to AMA Shipping Weights?

[Larry Hill]

Where would I find or be able to purchase the sheets of cars that I want to do research on?

I have viewed and copied some of the AMA Specifications and it makes for some interesting reading.

On one sheet I down loaded from from the web showed that the V8 is 115# heavier than the I6, but you had to figure the difference in shipping weight.

I just want to make sure my car is in compliance.

[Larry Hill]

Looking at some of the older AMA sheets each car had two weights; a curb weight and a shipping weight *.

* Those are weights that are reported to states for licensing purposes.

I did the math on a few and it looks like shipping weight is about 95% of curb weight.

Some of the information I would like to look at I can’t find on the sheets.

Help!

[SSDiv6]

Shipping weight is a stripped average car model with a standard engine and no optional equipment and no driver. It includes fluids and just a few gallons of gas to start the car and move it a minimum distance.

The curb weight is a ready to drive car model, with specific options, with no driver, passengers, or cargo, with all the required fluids with a full tank of fuel.

Gross weight is the curb weight, plus the weight of the passengers, driver and cargo.

[Larry Hill]

I believe NHRA will disagree with your definition, but I hope they do agree with you.

[Dwight Southerland]

Shipping weight is literally what the name implies. There was an agreement between the members of the AMA and the transportation providers (trains and transport trucks) about a system to report weights for billing and logistics. The assumption was that the vehicles would be shipped with a minimum of fluids for safety concerns and that all options that would have a significant affect on the shipping weight would be documented and standardized. NHRA (Farmer Dismuke) determined that was the industry standard of weight and adopted it for NHRA's classification system. Before that, the cars were actually weighed at the track and the class break calculated then. It doesn't take much imagination to see why that didn't work.

[Adub464Q]

Originally Posted by Dwight Southerland

Shipping weight is literally what the name implies. There was an agreement between the members of the AMA and the transportation providers (trains and transport trucks) about a system to report weights for billing and logistics. The assumption was that the vehicles would be shipped with a minimum of fluids for safety concerns and that all options that would have a significant affect on the shipping weight would be documented and standardized. NHRA (Farmer Dismuke) determined that was the industry standard of weight and adopted it for NHRA's classification system. Before that, the cars were actually weighed at the track and the class break calculated then. It doesn't take much imagination to see why that didn't work.

So does NHRA use curb weight or shipping weight on their classification sheets? Because in one particular instance, there is a 455 lbs difference between the two weights and NHRA has the curb weight listed as the shipping weight on the classification sheet.

You can see why it is very interesting to see what NHRA actually uses for classification purposes. This would move this particular car up 2 classes.

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

I believe NHRA will disagree with your definition, but I hope they do agree wit you.

As Dwight stated in his post, that is the industry definition for shipping weight.

[SSDA Hemi]

So who stirred the shipping weight pot? or more specifically is Brandon working for NHRA now....

[Ralph A Powell]

If I remember the American Auto Manufacturers Association was disbanded about 30 years ago at that point the people at the auto companies sent the weights to NHRA and from that point in time there was alt of stretching the truth!

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by Ralph A Powell

If I remember the American Auto Manufacturers Association was disbanded about 30 years ago at that point the people at the auto companies sent the weights to NHRA and from that point in time there was alt of stretching the truth!

Yes, it was dissolved due when foreign companies started to purchase ownership of American car companies. The new group is called Alliance for Automotive Innovation and it includes all worldwide companies so they can share innovation and technologies.