CAVGT mono ,the facts

There seems to be a lot of misconception out there as to what a monocoque chassis actually is.Whether it has a steel roof or not is irrelevant,the important difference being a unitary construction rather than a seperate frame (space,ladder or otherwise).
A Mercedes 500 SL for example, does not have a steel roof, does that make it a spaceframe? of course not.
The original GT40s with a steel roof were
actually semi monocoques as they had subframes and stiffeners in critical areas and for radiator supports etc.
The new CAV monocoque is bent and formed tig welded high grade stainless steel .
It is extremly rigid in fact in TO RIG tests showed an 80%improvement on a comparative spaceframe chassis.
This is important for us as the same chassis will be used for our race verison and roadster.
We have added tubing at critical areas such as the rear firewall which forms part of the roll over bar and we have side impact protection bars ,desirable features one would have thought?
As in the original GT40 the sill/rockers are major structural members and house aircraft style fuel cells.
Footwell space has been increased substantially as well as leg and head room.
There is no 'drop floor' model but the pedal box moves forward 65mm from standard to accomodate tall drivers.
Our new 'local' website is in its infancy but you can look at www.cavgt.com ,I will get some close up chassis pics on there soon for all to see.

Hi Bob
please post some photo's of the CAV monocoque.

Also do CAV supply GTD with GT40 kits to be sold as GTD's whats the relationship?

Chris.

Bob

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure there is
any right or wrong answer here.
Todays cars are mostly unibody (unitized)construction. Are they monocoques?
Not by my definition.

I think the issue is actually one of
authenticity vs performance. I have no doubt
that your monocoque has excellent torsional
rigidity. However if it does not have a steel
roof, it is not as authentic as if it did.
Does that reduce performance (rigidity)?
Not necessarily. But certain customers will trade some rigidity for more authenticity.

Obviously as a manufacturer, you must decide
what compromises best meet what you perceive
to be the largest potential customer base.

Good luck, and hope to see a CAV at Carlisle.

MikeD

For those readers of this forum who are also members of the GTD 40 Car Club, you will be getting your magazine posted out during the first half of next week, or at least that is the plan!

In this issue we have published a letter from John Wyer offering to sell a GT40 to a club member at the time when they cost about £7,000. In this letter he describes the chassis as a semi monocoque. Now he should know, shouldn't he? For more details you need to get our magazine....

Malcolm

encarta

monocoque mon·o·coque [mónn kk , mónn kòk ] (plural mon·o·coques) noun 1. metal outer shell: the metal outer shell of an aircraft, boat, or rocket that absorbs most of the stresses to which the craft is subjected
2. integrated car design: a type of motor vehicle design in which the body and frame are integrated
[Early 20th century. From French, literally "having a single shell," from coque "shell."]

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Forbes Aird (Race Car Chassis) has a chapter on "stressed skin construction" he prefers this term over monocoque

origin(french aviation industry) "single shell" "a structure formed as a single skin"

"but for several reasons, a single skin structure is ill-suited to the loads faced by ANY race car chassis before or since...or for that matter aircraft structures"

"But as with Budd's unibody, the outer surface is supplemented and supported by various bulkheads, box sections, and other internal stiffeners. ... While the aeronautical and race-car applications of this type of construction are sometimes called "semi-monocoque" that term has also been applied to structures using a mixture of stressed-skin principles in some areas and space frames or other structural forms elsewhere, so we'll stick to the term stressed-skin here."

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to my thinking the GT40 is more of a unibody construction, how can it be said to have a single outer shell.

Bob has provided an alternative to someone that wants a stressed skin/ unibody/ semi monocoque but doesn't have the major ducats. The purists will have to pay a bit more.

[ March 28, 2002: Message edited by: Kalun D ]

[ March 28, 2002: Message edited by: Kalun D ]

Bob, thanks for the new site and the pictures look great. I hope you are able to post some pictures of the assembly of a car.

Are there any thoughts of a partialy assembeled version for us who want to do some of the assembly?

I looked at the pictures on the CAV website, but concluded something is wrong with my computer. The images I got showed the driving position on the left, and the gear lever in the middle? I must now get my computer looked at!

Frank,
You guys over there must be dyslexic, wanting
to put everything on the right.
Didn't you hear that jousting went out of style after the Middle Ages?

Bill

Bill, I thought that all of the original racers had right hand drive / right hand shift! We like to build replicas - so we still think right

The 40 racers were all RHD.
Middle age knights held their lances in their
right hand during a jousting match,and thus, you guys wound up on the left side of the road with right hand drive.
I've driven both LHD and RHD cars on the left
side,when abroad. WAY too confusing for me!
Had a few close calls at intersections.
I'll stick to the right side of the road.
Not that the left is wrong, but the right
is right! Right?

Bill

Doesn't it have more to do with which hand you hold the horse-whip (also known as a PED - Performance Enhancement Device)?

Either the "righties" are mostly left handed or they don't mind inadvertently (or otherwsie) whipping the odd pedestrian. I'm just waiting for someone to invent one that doesn't damage the paintwork. Now where did I put that PED?

I don't know about right hand or left hand, but it is fun to watch a "left hand driver" go through a round-a-bout in the UK.

If Napoleon had been right handed we wouldn't have any issues and jousting would have carried on as normal In South Africa we have been trying for years to convert to driving on the right in fact the taxis here still do while eveybody else drives on the left.
cheers
Dave from sunny Johannesburg