I wasn't entirely sure where to post this due to the mutiple angles it can be pitched from, so I posted it in the most frequented related forum.
Caution: The following post is in metric
Once upon a time I came across an almost unique construction method in todays world of making a structural monocoque out of honeycomb panels, then covering this in foam and sanding it to (the arguably attractive and certainly aerodynamic) final shape.
Detailed here
Honeycomb Monocoque Chassis
And here
Polystyrene Body
The key points are that the 3 wheel two seat chassis (with one door) weighed in at 32kg, the painted body 22kg, and the acrylic canopy 10kg. That's just 64kg... (The complete electric vehicle weighs 300kg) and the whole construction can be done at home...
The author of the articles estimates that a similarly constructed body for a 4 wheeled car with no roof coming in at 150kg...
So my plan was to take something small, late model, and cheap, and construct a new open-top chassis for it, using the same suspension pickup points.
A 2009 Suzuki Alto weighs in at 880kg, and has 50kw to its name. It also conveniently has acceptable handling (yes I have driven one), passable performance, exceptional economy, cheap available parts, and all of those fancy acronyms that people like to see (abs, stability control, electronic brakeforce distribution, etc etc).
By making a new body with the above method and fitting it with the alto mechanicals and installing the bare necessities (basically some lightweight seats and a few marine grade guages and stereo bits) I could see the complete car coming in at 500kg.
This gives a power to weight ratio of 100kw/tonne (as a comparison the alto has 57kw/tonne stock, and a Toyota Aurion has 125kw/tonne).
Of course the benefits are also found in braking, cornering, and efficiency.
If you wanted to spend more money and weight you could opt to rip the heart out of a new Swift Sport (100kw, 1050kg, 95kw/tonne). This would probably up the vehicle weight to 600kg (extra cylinder, extra gear, bigger wheels, bigger brakes, and heavier duty suspension) but the power to weight ratio would be a needless 167kw/tonne.
So have any of you done this? Essentially re-bodied a car with an arguably advanced lightweight chassis?
Plenty have done spaceframes with mix and match suspension, but I haven't seen a single kit car that uses one donor vehicle for ALL mechanical components, and I also haven't seen a kit car with a chassis like this.
I want a fwd spider...