Tuesday 17th September 2002
No 4
Discussion
. Unless there's something new to be contributed...?I was wondering how they get the torsional rigidity so high? The car is 50% stiffer than the Elise, but also heavier, so the torsional rigidity per unit mass (NM/degree/kg) is probably about the same as the Elise (147 Nm/degree/kg). How do they do that with steel when I thought it was the Elise aluminium that made it so stiff for such a light weight?
About the looks - FBS are in the enviable position of knowing exactly what the problem is with their car - most people dont like how it looks - so they are very lucky that the problem is within their control to fix.
About the looks - FBS are in the enviable position of knowing exactly what the problem is with their car - most people dont like how it looks - so they are very lucky that the problem is within their control to fix.
Just found this thread.
Steven, it's not the material that makes the stiffness, it's the design. We just did it properly from a clean sheet of paper and using state-of-art CAD and FEA (as do Lotus but very few other specialists). As to weight, it's not the structure it's the powertrain and trim: if we had tiny little engine mounted directly to the transmission; no interior to speak of; race style seats; etc. we would weigh about the same as an Elise (no idle boast, our very first car had an iron I4 engine and weighed little more than an Elise). However, then it would be an Elise and Lotus already make it! Similarly BTW, if it was bigger and had a V8 it would be just be a better TVR which again would be pointless.
Scruff, please forgive me being such an old duffer but what do all those cartoon heads mean, please?
Steven, it's not the material that makes the stiffness, it's the design. We just did it properly from a clean sheet of paper and using state-of-art CAD and FEA (as do Lotus but very few other specialists). As to weight, it's not the structure it's the powertrain and trim: if we had tiny little engine mounted directly to the transmission; no interior to speak of; race style seats; etc. we would weigh about the same as an Elise (no idle boast, our very first car had an iron I4 engine and weighed little more than an Elise). However, then it would be an Elise and Lotus already make it! Similarly BTW, if it was bigger and had a V8 it would be just be a better TVR which again would be pointless.
Scruff, please forgive me being such an old duffer but what do all those cartoon heads mean, please?
quote:
Scruff, please forgive me being such an old duffer but what do all those cartoon heads mean, please?
The top one links to your site and shows pics of you guys testing the car without a body... the second means he finds the pics humerous.
Personally, I've found that the cars looks grow on you... wasn't convinced at first, but actually starting to like it. At least you can say it is different AND easily identifiable.
I assume you'll be at the motorshow Andrew?
Podie, thanks for the explanation. We found the bare chassis testing pretty amusing as well. Except for the one where I am hanging off the side watching the rear upright at 70mph which was just terrifying. Still, we couldn't afford strain gauging at the time (July 1998 as I recall) and it was the only way to see what the loads were doing to the rear upright. It convinced us of the need to go from a floppy fabrication to a nice rigid casting which is what we have used ever since (a rigid upright is important in many pleasures in life!).
Yes, we will be at the motor show with two customer cars (lent back to us for the event) on the stand and a recently revamped prototype no.3 outside for testing.
Yes, we will be at the motor show with two customer cars (lent back to us for the event) on the stand and a recently revamped prototype no.3 outside for testing.
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