The RX8 has a great chassis but it could be better.
I was cleaning out some old files and I ran across
the first article I ever had published way back in 1966.
I had a lot of help from Jerry Titus the editor
of Sports Graphic back in those days and later to become
a famous race car driver. Read the pdf.
My wife says my attitude has not changed since then :)

It took Chevrolet about 30 years or so to incorporate
these ideas into the Corvette despite the Chaparrals being
designed with these principles in mind. Colin Chapman invented
it with the Lotus Elan way back. Here is a tubing copy of
a sheet metal Lotus Elan chassis.

The RX8 center tunnel comes close
with one fatal flaw. It needs an X member under the drive
shaft tunnel. Real easy to add if you would like a better
handling RX8. Don't get me wrong. The RX8 is a fabulous
handling car but it could lose some weight and still be
as torsional stiff as it is.

In the course of RX8 chassis development the engineers were not
satisfied with the torsional stiffness. A decision was made
to add heavy structures to the side sill members to improve the
torsional stiffness. IMHO that was a mistake. It is not the most
efficient way to add torsional stiffness. It would
have been better to add this X member under the car. It is
easy to do as there are two bolt on cross members that a
tubing based X member can be welded to.


Paul Lamar