These are some of the cars I've owned in the past and present. The 1988 Audi 5k Quattro had an onboard PC with a 15" LCD mounted to the dash, the rest was in the trunk. The Tacoma was a wild creation with boatloads of mods, and it had 200,000 miles and many offroad excursions on it before it was retired. The 1987 Audi 5k Turbo Quattro is my current vehicle, eventually it will be fully restored with the only mod being wastegate and ECM adjustments to get the boost up. It will have an additional 75 HP when I'm through! It looks sweet, reminds me of the 80's and how groundbreaking the car was in those days. I always wanted one back then but it cost about $30,000 at the time.
I drew this sketch in 1994. It is my own design for a high performance car. This is unfortunately the last of my sketches of this car, the Calisto. All the other ones including the engine cutaways are gone...
Here is a paper I wrote in 1998. It explains the differences between Unibody and Spaceframe design....
Driving may be a simple affair to most, but engineers have labored many months over a car’s design. Certain components will take priority over others in the design according to importance. The most important component or group of components in any automobile would be the chassis. This rigid structural element is more significant in an automobile’s design than any other. There are three main reasons for this: support for all component assemblies including engine and suspension, requirements for the body design, and safety. No other part of a car carries this extreme burden. With so many functions, it is not difficult to comprehend why so much thought goes into chassis designs. There are two types of chassis that have been proven to be acceptable and capable in the automotive world. These types, Unibody and Spaceframe, each have their compromises and advantages. Even though these chassis types differ quite a bit, both Unibody and Spaceframe chassis have a lot in common.
Unibody and Spaceframe designs both serve as the foundation for a production automobile. A car is held together both structurally and mechanically by its framework, called a chassis. Unibody structures are composed of many sheets of steel, bent and welded together to form not only the chassis, but also the roof, floors, rear quarters, and pillars. The total unit that is formed can also be called the body of the car, since both chassis and body are integrated. An example of this type of car would be any modern Volkswagen. This type of structure is cost effective, allowing companies to be very profitable. Manufacturers tend to like this type of design over Spaceframe designs primarily because of the costs of its construction. The costs associated with Spaceframe designs are prohibitive in mass production for a low selling price. Often aluminum or composite materials are used in these designs. These materials are not cost effective either. Spaceframe designs are constructed using a variety of materials, bonding technologies, and structural members. A vehicle with this style of chassis design is constructed without using the body as support for the overall rigidity of the car. Tubing is welded together in some cars to form a skeleton. Others use carbon fiber and/or kevlar sections bonded with a special adhesive. A manufacturer will tend to use this design in a high performance or racing application where the chassis must be strong, light, and durable. A good example of a Spaceframe design would be a Ferrari 512TR. Regardless of the reasoning involved for the decision to use one or the other, both support and cradle all assemblies in the application. The engine and transmission must be attached to something, and so must the seats. Cost is the only factor in determining which chassis will suit the purpose of the vehicle when the foundation of the vehicle is the only concern.
Automotive body designs also reflect the internal structure of the vehicle. With two choices of underpinnings, there is another reason why a manufacturer would choose a Unibody design. Body designers have more flexibility with a design built on this platform. A perfect example of this trend towards a single platform across a range of vehicles would be Chrysler’s K-car from the eighties. This automotive giant built minivans such as the Caravan line, small economy cars like the Shadow and Spirit, and luxury cars like the New Yorker, all on the same basic Unibody chassis. Today many other companies, like Chrysler, have taken the same approach. Unibody vehicles can be externally modified without changing much of the chassis. Spaceframe designs, on the other hand, tend to be proprietary in nature. Having been designed for a particular application, usually one or two vehicles; a Spaceframe design will end its life cycle earlier than any Unibody design. The main reason for this is that the Spaceframe chassis has no structure in its body panels. Designers modify the appearance of the same body style a few times to keep up with trends in styling. After that, the car must be redesigned. A good example of this would be the Audi A8, an aluminum chassis luxury vehicle built with a Spaceframe design. Audi will not use this chassis for longer than the body design will last competitively on the market. A Spaceframe chassis cannot be turned into a totally different car without substantial modifications. This forces designers to create a new chassis. With Unibody designs, the vehicle does not need to be significantly redesigned for the transition between station wagon and sedan like a Spaceframe chassis would need to be.
Both Unibody and Spaceframe vehicles have to be well built, since safety is a priority these days in automotive technology. Every car built needs to conform to crash testing standards by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This government agency is responsible for making sure all cars sold in America are safe enough to withstand crashes at speeds of five and thirty miles per hour, resulting in little injury to seatbelted passengers. The manufacturer of the vehicle provides side impact, front, rear, and offset tests for submission to the NHTSA. Besides wasting perfectly good cars, these tests allow companies to get important data on the safety of their vehicles. Using crash test dummies, the impact of the tests is measured in units of gravity. These tests are performed on more than one car, to apply changes so the vehicle will fare better in the next test. Since all vehicles apply to the standards set by the NHTSA, both Unibody and Spaceframe vehicles have to be safe enough to pass these tests, making them similar in that aspect. But the way that a Spaceframe chassis is designed gives it a substantial advantage. Even though both types of chassis provide occupant protection in an accident tested in these ways, a Unibody chassis depends on the external panels as support for its structure. This makes damage to the passenger compartment more of an issue when travelling at speeds above what the NHTSA believes to represent real world situations. Spaceframe vehicles were originally designed for racing, allowing body panels to fall off the car if they were damaged. When vehicles with this design are in a high-speed accident, the passenger compartment will remain intact, almost up to the vehicle speed potential. This provides occupants with a different level of safety when compared with a Unibody design. At sixty miles per hour, Spaceframe vehicles give additional protection over Unibody vehicles due to the fact that a Spaceframe chassis is constructed around the passenger compartment.
Since Spaceframe designs have little justification in a mass-produced vehicle, most cars will be built with a Unibody design. The economic penalty of using exotic materials and compositions hinders major production of the Spaceframe chassis. A Unibody chassis is cheap to manufacture. It is also easy to configure for different body styles. Spaceframe designs fit the application much better in racing or low volume specialty cars. These rugged chassis will withstand greater crash impacts and they will be lighter due to the materials used in their construction. Both will function well supporting the car and its internal components. Both must also be certified as safe vehicles by the NHTSA. After the similarities and differences are found, the best chassis will always be the one that fits the application best.
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