What Do We Know About The Elio Chassis?

[Ty]

i would bet the actual vehicle WHEN it makes it to production has less than 10% in common with the mule (maybe less tab 5%)
the mule is JUST something to hang body panels on to get investment monies from potential customers !
it is going to take hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars to actually produce the REAL VEHICLE , engineer and test the real engine/transmission, develop the ABS/anti-roll/air bag system, etc etc etc
does the orange P4 have three airbags ?
does the orange P4 have electronic safety systems ?

they do NOT allow test drives, THAT should tell us something !

that P4 is PRICELESS !

They have allowed test drives to media. It does not have airbags installed or the ECS or Anti-lock brakes. It won't take hundreds of millions of dollars to produce the real vehicle. They already have the expensive stuff in hand - the factory and all the machinery. The car has already been designed. The engine is being tested. The transmission has already been tested (it's currently in use on an actual production vehicle). The other stuff is all designed on computers these days. Long gone are the days where they have to manufacture parts piecemeal and hope they fit. Shoot, if it came down to that, 3D printing can pop out smaller things that need to be test fit.

 

[Jay3wheel]

You bring up a great point. While the hand crafted frame is fine for a prototype, they'll have to have the frame finalized very soon if they are going to be doing much testing. I'd expect crash testing for sure and probably a little NVH testing as well. They don't have to do all the same testing that a car requires. But, they will do quite a bit of testing, I'm sure. They don't want the Elio to become the next Yugo so they'll make sure to have it pretty sorted out. I commend you for bringing up a topic I haven't seen on the forum before. It may be here but I haven't seen much about it.

The door is definitely a donor in the pictures. You can clearly see they used tubes to lengthen it. Paul touts that the Elio will have a full roll cage making it very safe. And I know he's mentioned steel tube frame. The body panels will be composite, of course. And they will be attached using adhesive (I didn't want to say they'll be glues on as that just sounds cheap) as is done by anyone using composite pieces (bumpers, fenders, etc). There will be enough metal to set off the sensors. I've never had a problem with my bike either. It doesn't take much metal to set those off.

I don't understand the second paragraph? Set off what? The door is a donor?

 

[Folks]

Tube chassis with FRP composite body panels and floor bonded to the frame. This is what will be on the production car. The benefit is a ridged frame will make the Elio handle well. Elio has more in common with a Nascar stock car than a conventional street car.

Wait a minute...................Aren't we getting a little carried away here? This is in no way a chase frame for the Elio. HEY BIO, whose frame is this?

 

[Ty]

I don't understand the second paragraph? Set off what? The door is a donor?

Set off the road sensors. Sorry. I didn't re-quote the previous post there. That door panel is not a tube frame like the rest of the Elio. Elio did not have a company press out a specialty door panel... too short for the Elio which is why it's finished off with tube steel... If you notice, the tube extends the door on the forward edge what looks like about 5 inches. If they had a door pressed out for them, Elio wouldn't have had to do that.

 

[Bert]

Wait a minute...................Aren't we getting a little carried away here? This is in no way a chase frame for the Elio. HEY BIO, whose frame is this?

That's a NASCAR rollcage, not the Elio. If you think about it the statement is correct. Elio is close to the NASCAR cage than a normal street car. Safety first!!
Unibody cars are usually lighter, but with composite panels it is moot in this case. Unibody cars tend to crunch up in an accident, the rollcage built into the Elio is designed much safer. IMO

 

[BlioKart]

Wait a minute...................Aren't we getting a little carried away here? This is in no way a chase frame for the Elio. HEY BIO, whose frame is this?

Its just an example that its more similar to a Nascar and or race car tube chassis than a unibody street car. Image is just a cad drawing of one not sure who made it just a google image search

 

[goofyone]

As has been discussed, as far as I am aware the final vehicle will indeed be a fully boxed steel 'roll cage' chassis and not the normal stamped steel unibody we are used to seeing. There is some weight penalty in doing it this way however when they studied it this is apparently the most cost effective way of doing this while ensuring the safety requirements are met. While using a stamped steel unibody would use less material the issue is that in this configuration special high-strength steel alloys would be required which are also more expensive.

It is my understanding that it is not that hard to build this chassis as it will be mostly automated. Automation will cut and bend the chassis components then these components are placed on jigs which hold them in the correct position for robots to weld them together in various steps. In reality while the type of welding is different it really should not be a big deal for the vehicles to proceed through various chassis welding steps.

 

[Jeff Bowlsby]

Wow, a full tube chassis? Its much more than a 'roll cage' its the entire chassis assembly.

This should really be promoted hard because it is so unusual for a street 'car'.

Also I wonder then why they used a donor door panel structure for P4, they could have just tubed it all for the door hardware mounting points.

 

[pistonboy]

Wow, a full tube chassis? Its much more than a 'roll cage' its the entire chassis assembly.

This should really be promoted hard because it is so unusual for a street 'car'.

Also I wonder then why they used a donor door panel structure for P4, they could have just tubed it all for the door hardware mounting points.

But did they really use a donor door panel on the P4? I am not so sure. They probably used existing pieces from other cars such as window regulator, lock, hinges, handle, window handle, etc. But these could have come from many different doors. They are just pieces they could have mounted on their own hand made door "chassis/frame".

 

[pistonboy]

I don't understand the second paragraph? Set off what? The door is a donor?

This is probably in response to my post on page1, the second post. I was referring to the sensors in the pavement at traffic lights that sense the presence of vehicles and trigger the traffic lights.

My post was as follows:
You have brought up a very good subject. Everyone talks about the engine but not the chassis. In sporty cars, I consider the chassis more important than the engine. The chassis determines the feel and handling. I wonder what the "performance" feel of a three wheel vehicle this size will be?
I believe (not 100% sure) the body panels will not be metal but will be a composite material that may be glued onto the frame/cage. I think one of the suppliers listed will be providing the body panels.
If it does not have enough metal near the ground, does that mean it will not activate the road embedded sensors at traffic lights. I have enough problems with that on my motorcycles.