Motoring Weekly

A while back I described the use of the monocoque to produce a very strong but heavy chassis that probably 90% of the world's mass produced cars use. As a follow on, I’ll talk about the space frame chassis that really took off after World War 2, however like many technologies had it’s birth closer to the start of the industry. A space frame is a truss – multi interconnecting tubes that provide strength and support for multi directional forces. Many early cars used a ladder chassis that was strong but could flex when forces were applied from the side for example. They were good at handling acceleration and deceleration but when a sideways force was applied in cornering, the chassis would twist slightly even with a body bolted on. The space frame removed much of the ability of the chassis to flex when subjected to different forces. The original concept was defined by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, around 1900, when he was researching new forms of aircraft – … [Read More...]