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


Nice article. I had never seen that.

The Lola 5000 chassis was nearly identical to the Lola Formula Atlantic
chassis. It had an added sheet of aluminum along the inside of the tub,
and thicker attach points, (every one in the wrong place). And the extra
300 pounds of cast iron behind your head. I helped a friend who bought
one dressed up as a CanAm car with a full body. The stiff part was the
loop that held up the steering wheel and it had an "X" tube brace down
to the front spring mounts. I gave him one of mine from the Atlantic car
and it bolted right on.You could jack up one corner until the tire would
spin, and the other three tires would still be on the floor.  It was as
limp as a garden hose. It had no weight and 550 HP Chevrolet and was
very fast. But it was a vile piece of crap to drive fast. Every lap was
different.
It went back to England as a 5000 car. A [Lynn] Hanover engine with a Jerry
Mong rebuild on it.

A bunch of famous people drove those things really fast. Every braking
area looked like it was ice covered.
It made my skin crawl............................Brave beyond words.

Lynn E. Hanover


Thanks Lynn.
Lots of people drove those cars. Almost every one had a suspension mounted
wing on it I built. No failures. I sold the wings to Carl Haas and he resold them with the car.

The Formula 1 guys were too dumb to figure out how to do it without breaking the wing struts and that includes Colin Chapman :) As I recall both wings on both Lotuses(s?) broke on the same lap on the same corner in the Spanish GP. As a consequence suspension mounted wings were outlawed. Now Formula 1 is thinking about bringing them back.

Back in those days we considered 3,000 foot pounds per degree chassis stiffness a lot. Now a days it is much higher I would guess and hope, with carbon fiber.

Paul Lamar


I forgot how many Locust Elans were made and sold.  Was it two or three
hundred total?  ds


Very funny Donald ROFL.

Paul Lamar