Here is part of your reason...

Someone is putting a HUD in a 2010 Camaro.

 

they couldnt have done a better job designing that?

 

At least it looks pretty solid and rugged

 

That's typical of just about every late model vehicle. The dashboard is now considered by most manufacturers to be a structural part of the vehicle.

 

Thats pretty stout, does the 200 lbs weight include the ducting, wiring, and other plastic and stamped metal doodads or is it say just the stamped metal and round metal tubing?

LMAO, this pic will probably pop right into my head when somebody says; "they dont build'em like they used to, they are all plastic these days".

 

That would include the frame, the support, everything that's attached to it.

The shiny metal tubular part that stands out in the picture is not the only part of the dash support, and it does not weigh 200 pounds. There is a lot...and I mean a lot... more to it than what you see, and the entire thing is part of the actual structure of the Zeta. As such, the entire thing is beefy.

One fact that was missed or omitted in all this is that the Camaro (like all Zeta cars) has no traditional firewall.

The thing we'd call a dash section actually takes over as the structural piece that would have been performed by the thing we'd call a firewall.

The dash support not only serves as the thing all instrament panel stuff is attached to, and it not only ties the structures that include the "A pillars", it also ties together the front upper "frames" (those projecting things that the top of the struts hang on and that adsorb a huge portion of impact in frontal crashes) to the rest of the body structure.

It actually gives the Zeta a more solid feel, increases chassis ridgidity over a normal stamped steel "firewall" and contributes to those handling comparisons to BMWs. It's also one of those items that combined with everything else about Zeta, gives Zeta a bit more flexability in configurations than a traditional firewall would.

In short...

.... this is not a simple overweight item that the dash simply hangs on...it's a vital load bearing, reinforcing, and safety part of the body's structure without which, there would be nothing to hold the 2 sides and the front of the structure together above the floor.

 

Looks like the space frame of a purpose-built race car- or like how an engineer would like to design a car before the stylists and bean-counters have their way with it. Rigid frame to let the suspension have a solid platform to work from.

 

And sadly, it's only a matter of time until someone who doesn't understand its structural importance cuts it out or hacks it apart for "weight savings"

 

That is interesting, and now it makes me wonder about the dash structure in my Mustang? I've seen pics of an S-197 T-boned right at the A-pillar with the other driver hitting the Mustang at a high rate of speed. The dash was bowed and there was some bent sheetmetal but both driver and passenger of the Mustang walked away with no injuries to speak of. Ford has said that the firewall in the S-197 isn't a structural member either.

 

Got a link to a build thread? I need to give a phone call to someone over at Yazaki...

 

Lol nice point.