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Old 09-25-2010, 07:26 PM   #168 (permalink)
NeilBlanchard
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I am planning to have at least 2 latches each on the rear doors and at least 3 latches on the hatch; including connecting the hatch firmly to both rear doors.

Also, the driver's seat would be supported off of two (more or less) vertical steel tubes that connect the floor with the roof and a roll bar; just ahead of the hatch door's hinges. The sides of the CarBEN are uninterrupted by door openings, so they are acting like very deep web beams; and the floor structure is a flattened box beam, as well. So, torsional stiffness I think will be excellent.

The crash protection on the front and sides are helped by a continuous wraparound structure. And for rear crashes, the floor structure and the shallow 'V' of the rear doors (when viewed from above), which are backed up by a stop behind them on the underside of the hatch, should be very strong. The two rear doors are not very large: they are each no larger than 14" wide and about 35" tall. The "license plate" on the rear is a standard 12" x 6" automobile size.

The analogy of a cube is fine as far as it goes, but the top and sides of the CarBEN are closer to being a truncated pyramid laying on it's side, with slightly curved surfaces. The floor is double thick, as it were, and the sides have only the window openings. The hatch opening has the curved "lip" at the two long sides that extend all the way down to the back. So with the doors open, there could be some flexing, but when they are closed and latched, I think/hope it will be negligible.
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