Automotive scribes the world over enjoy repeating legendary Lotus founder Colin Chapman's famous mantra: adding lightness. In motorsport, keeping the weight down makes for a nimbler race car designed to slay its heavier opposition and deliver podium results.
The same principle lends itself to road-going cars. Improved handling and efficiency can be immediately achieved by shedding weight. With favorable aerodynamics, a lightweight vehicle simply won't need as much energy to putt around, from any fuel source.
Chapman would likely be contemptuous of today's cars, which continue to balloon in size and weight to meet a bevy of safety, emissions, and customer demands. But all is not lost for the enthusiast. We test a lot of vehicles here at Motor Trend and accrue mounds of data, so we've compiled a list of the 11 lightest automobiles from the 2011 model year we've had so far on our digital scales. And in addition to the usual fuel economy figures and 0-60 mph times, we've thrown in braking distances. The vehicle's curb weight has as significant an effect on stopping distance as tire contact patch and brake swept area.
Let's start the countdown.
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