There was a shot in the first practice session where they showed the Lotus floor & some side pieces. It appeared that the floor was basically the chassis. It looked like a very stiff floor pan with the other bits set inside or tacked on.
It reminded me a lot of the old slot car chassis I used to build. Is it really that simple?
But in one way it seems to make sense. Aren't all the large loads on the suspension going through the lower A arms?
That would make it appear the Locost guys are doing it wrong, or maybe a better way to say it is that it could be done a lot better with a stiffer set of base rails and lesser other tubes instead of all of them basically being the same size as it is now.
ransom
SuperDork
11/17/12 8:16 p.m.
I don't think that's accurate. It's very hard to make a flat thing stiff. It's bad enough that the primary cell has to have a hole in it for the driver to stick out of (half-joking; obviously it wouldn't be a car without it, but it really is the biggest detriment to the rigidity of the cell).
You are correct about the larger loads going through the lower control arms, but that doesn't take into account the loads through the dampers, springs, and sway bars, nor does it address torsional rigidity.
The floor itself might be the tacked-on bit. Aren't they required to have a chunk of plywood (sorry, organic fiber matrix) on the bottom?
Once the Locost guys start building monocoques, you might see some different designs. You have to look back a few years to see racing space frames in F1.
Sorry for that, the shot was in the Debrief not in the first practice session. When you watch program after program back to back they tend to run together.
Well the floor wasn't exactly flat. If I had to explain the shape it was more like 2 rectangles joined by a piece of plywood, thick ones of course.
this may explain some:
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns24161.html
In reply to carguy123:
I believe I saw that same segment on the F1 Lotus in Debrief. If it was the same I believe they just used portions of body shell like a demo/ cutaway (not entire chassis itself) to show/ discuss rule changes in exhaust outlet placement over the body.
But I dunno, I'm not a real F1 guy.
.. and somewhere later on Speed, Hobbs and Matchell donned hideous foam cowboy hats prolly only seen on the NFL drunken fan highlight reel before.
Varsha abstained 
