In a Spanish automotive forum, we are currently wondering how these compare in terms of proper triangulation and safety in a crash. What do you guys think?

Cheers,

Alex

I was looking at the caterham chassis in the Caterham showroom this morning funnily enough and there does seem to be a little more metalwork but not much so i think theres not allot in it.

From what I have seen on a Caterham Superlight and the pictures of the chassis for the new CSR I think that Caterham are a lot better with triangulations than Westfield. But if this only adds strength to the chassis or if it also adds safety for the driver I'm not the right person to judge...

My personal belief is that all Se7en cars are really bad when it comes to safety on the road with trucks, lorries, SUV's etc. On the track with other cars of the same type/weight it's probably not as bad but still it's a car designed for racing and not for safety...

Cheers guys,

How about the more traditional Caterham and Westfield chassis, i.e. not the newer Superlight but the classic models? Do they look very similar to the book chassis or any stronger?

Thanks!

If you put a Locost book chassis and an older Westy chassis side by side you would be hard pressed to see the difference with the naked eye, this was the reason for some litigation I believe . A friend of mine built a Westfield and a lot of the measurements are identical but details like the roll bar mount section on a Westy are solid 2x1 steel not rhs must be to add strength.

[Edited on 23/5/06 by Peteff]

I would compare a seven not with a car but with a motorcylce or quadracylce.

If you hit something.....

The locost, tiger, locust, dax, rush, vm77, donkervoort, caterham, HKT, or wt*. it will all about the same. In an full-head collisian the prop and gear-box will come visit your legs..
By a side impact you will be a sand-wich

So the only thing you could do is watch what the other drivers are doing, pray and place some extra triangles in the drivers compartment.

you just need to give it its tits and just when you are getting sandwiched you could escape..

that the way i see them...

- good brakes
- good accelrator
- good steering
- good handling

Sow i see it has a safety factor wich is also important..

Tks

I would have thought that all seven chassis ( except robin hood ) are designed for angular torsional rigidity, not frontal/side deformation protection. If the car does strike a wall head on, the chassis may well survive, but without the use of shock absorbing crumple zones your internal organs probably wont

JB