Alloy Chassis!?
Discussion
I had a thought the other day...i'm still looking to buy an S3 by the way!
But there is clearly a common maintainance issue with the S Series (and i guess other TVRs) that the chassis is prone to corrosion as we get so much wet weather.
I figured that there must be quite a few owners registered on PH, and other could easily be tracked down through meets and TVRCC.
With the skills available amongst owners, and finances available if resources were pooled, i don't see why an identical chassis couldn't be made out of a more suited material.
Naturally this would change just about every handeling characteristic of the car and would not be popular with many purists. But as long as the design criteria took this into account i don't see why it would have to be too far off the mark.
Would this not be a good venture to look into? if everyone chips in we could get one designed and a prototype built, then i guess we would need to find someone to take the design and manufacture the item, but as long as there was enough interest, economies of scale would kick in and hopefully the maths would work out to be quite reasonable.
Obviousley taking peoples money would require an official setup, contributors to the design are shareholders in the company that owns the design, once designed they would need or order a new chassis and i guess we would need a minimum order to make it cost effective.
Grand ideas i know....but it just seems like a good idea to me!
Discuss....
Simon
But there is clearly a common maintainance issue with the S Series (and i guess other TVRs) that the chassis is prone to corrosion as we get so much wet weather.
I figured that there must be quite a few owners registered on PH, and other could easily be tracked down through meets and TVRCC.
With the skills available amongst owners, and finances available if resources were pooled, i don't see why an identical chassis couldn't be made out of a more suited material.
Naturally this would change just about every handeling characteristic of the car and would not be popular with many purists. But as long as the design criteria took this into account i don't see why it would have to be too far off the mark.
Would this not be a good venture to look into? if everyone chips in we could get one designed and a prototype built, then i guess we would need to find someone to take the design and manufacture the item, but as long as there was enough interest, economies of scale would kick in and hopefully the maths would work out to be quite reasonable.
Obviousley taking peoples money would require an official setup, contributors to the design are shareholders in the company that owns the design, once designed they would need or order a new chassis and i guess we would need a minimum order to make it cost effective.
Grand ideas i know....but it just seems like a good idea to me!
Discuss....
Simon
I don't know what the issues would trying to make an aluminium chassis, but the MSA specifically prohibit its use in roll cage construction (I think because it has some nasty fatigue failure modes) which can't be a good sign. Surely it can't be *that* difficult to protect a steel chassis against corrosion?
Strength might be a major issue here!!!!!!! Most alloys are very soft. Alloys are also very difficult to repair (unlike steel)
You could go galvanised steel, but hot dipping a spaceframe is difficult as it may twist unless a lot of care is taken.
I think GreenV8S is right, just protect the steel one well and it will last countless years
davidy
You could go galvanised steel, but hot dipping a spaceframe is difficult as it may twist unless a lot of care is taken.
I think GreenV8S is right, just protect the steel one well and it will last countless years
davidy
An alloy chassis has to be designed and constructed in a different way to a steel one. As a consequence designing one that will fit within the confines and mountings of an existing body could be extremely difficult. Also the chassis is probably a smallish part of the overall weight of the car.
Reckon (as mentioned above) consideration of galvanising or better quality corrosion proofing would be money better spent.
Reckon (as mentioned above) consideration of galvanising or better quality corrosion proofing would be money better spent.
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