Chassis and its History

The birth of the automobile was made possible by the development of the
internal combustion engines. Then, engineers had to face new practical
problems, such as the steering and the braking systems for the vehicles.

In this phase, the construction of a supporting frame for the body and the
mechanical components was considered of secondary relevance: there was no
need for severe requirements in terms of weight and stiffness, due to the
limited powers of the engines.

While the engineers had no previous experience with brakes, transmissions

and steering systems, for the body and the chassis they could use the know-
how developed for the horse coaches.

At the end of the 19th Century, the first automobiles had coaches structures
adapted for the internal combustion propulsion. Even the body terminology
(phaeton, tonneau, landaulet, wagonette) was taken from the coaches world.
 Source: "Types of Body" - The book Schustala - Koprivnice
Coaches

The structures were made of a wooden frame with wooden body panels mounted on it.

The limited powers and maximum speeds enabled these structures to easily stand the static and dynamic
stresses.

About in 1900 with the introduction of steel and aluminum sheets and the development of drop-hammering
and power-hammering manufacturing processes there was a revolution in the concept of the body
structure: the wooden panels, straight or bent into very simple curves by means of steam pre-treatment,
were replaced by metal sheet panels.

This enabled the designers to create shapes with more freedom.

The body panels were mainly made in steel, but for the more luxurious cars they were built with aluminum
sheets.

These body panels were mounted on conventional wooden frames, reinforced at the more stressed nodes
with steel components.

This type of structure (metal sheet body on a wooden frame) was the most common for about ten years,
until 1910.
Dodge Brothers (1914)
Lancia Lambda (1922)
In 1915 H.J.Hayes introduced a new solution: a body with structural functionality,
with benefits in terms of lower costs and reduction of noise and vibration.
This structure was adopted on the Ruler Frameless, a limited series car built in 3000
units.
In this car the body panels had a tubular shape and provided the necessary
stiffness, while the engine and the suspensions were mounted on a horizontal floor-
pan.

In the same years Edward G. Budd proposed a car made entirely of steel: the
original idea had steel sheet shells welded together. Anyway, the stamping
technology of that time was not very advanced and didn't enable to form sheets
with complex curves, so many reinforcing members and a high number of welds
were necessary.
Anyway Budd's idea was the base for the future development of the steel unibody.
This solution was used on the Dodge Brothers (1914), the first high-volume
(thousands of units) all-steel car.

Lambda's structure was entirely made in steel. The floor-pan included the
transmission tunnel and the load-bearing body, was made by a "skeleton" covered
by steel sheet panels that gave their contribute to the overall stiffness (see Figure).

In the meantime, Auburn presented the "X-Frame" structure, with benefits in terms
of torsional stiffness and vibration reduction.
 Lancia Aprilia structure (1937), with
"Touring Superleggera" body and
chassis
Citroën Traction Avant (1934) - Monocoque body
The Citroën Traction Avant (1934) was the first mass-production car with a
monocoque structure.
In 1935-36 the body-shop Carrozzeria Touring developed the "Sistema
Superleggera" (in English: Superlight System) construction scheme: the frame was
made by a mesh of small diameter tubular elements in Chrome-Molybdenum steel
welded together.
This chassis was then welded to the frame rails. The stamped aluminum sheet body
panels were clinched to the tubular chassis and had no structural functionality.

The main application was the construction of racing cars, but some luxury
production vehicles also adopted the solution.
During the 1940's, the World War II caused most of automotive indutries to be
converted into military production, and the automotive technologies had a
temporary stop.

After the war, in the USA the Car Manufacturers started to look to
"performance" as the main scope of their research, and the weight reduction
became of secondary relevance.

In the meantime in Europe the lack of steel pushed the industry towards the
development of lighter cars, with a large diffusion of aluminum alloys both for
components and car body panels.

The Land Rover (1948) with its riveted aluminum body was a result of this
phenomenon.
Starting from the 1950's and for about twenty years, the automotive market
demand was very high: the industries could produce vehicles at a very high
production rate, with great benefits in terms of scale economies. This led to the
diffusion of the stamped steel unibody structure: the primary material was
cheap, the vehicle was easy to produce and assembly at high production
volumes, with very competitive costs per unit.

On the other side, niche-cars adopted different solutions.

The Chevrolet Corvette (1953) was the first production car with a fiberglass body
(46 components in total). The frame was a steel space frame

1953 Chevrolet Corvette - Click to enlarge

(Photo by Raymond Wong, Quad Photo)
1953 Corvette - Body and frame

Demonstration of lightweight fiberglass

(GM Media Archive)
In 1959 Maserati launched the Tipo 60
racing car, with a tubular chassis
made by 200 tubes (diameter of 10, 12
and 15 mm), that formed a complex
skeleton. From this structure came
the name "Birdcage".

The front structure was made by three

horizontal planes, connected together
by triangular meshes and reinforcing
plates in the most stressed locations.
The other parts of the structure were
less complex, and adopted holed
sheet plates as reinforcing elements.

The tubes were built with mid quality

steel and were designed so that the
elastic deformations could not cause
the fracture of the weld seams.

1961 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage Cutaway Drawing

(James Allington Collection)
 Mercury (1950) - Ladder Frame
(source: J.M.Flammang "Cars of the
fabulous '50s", Publications International,
Ltd, 1995)

Lotus Elan - Backbone chassis

During the Sixties the European car makers made extensive use of the steel
unibody: at the end of the decade they were able to develop the first internal
standards and procedures.

In the meantime several researches were performed investigating the use of

alternative materials, mainly the new emerging composites.
Lotus Elan - Backbone chassis
In 1962 Lotus lunched the Elan, with a so called Backbone Chassis (see Figure),
a frame made by a central steel load-bearing hollow element that supported the
engine and the suspension and contained the transmission
The body panels were in fiberglass and connected to the frame with structural
adhesives.

In 1963-64 in Italy several city cars with unibody structures that used fiberglass
reinforced plastics were launched: the Autobianchi Stellina, the ASA 1000
Spyder, the LMX, S.S. 100, the Bagheera.

In 1967 Bayer built an experimental vehicle with load-bearing plastics body that
made use of "sandwich panels", with two glass-fiber reinforced plastic layers
and one polyurethane foam inner layer.

In the USA the Body-on-Frame solution was still the most adopted structure for
production cars.
 Fig. 1 - Space Frame of the Fiat VSS (Veicolo
Sperimentale a Sottosistemi), designed in 1978 by
Renzo Piano

Renault R16 (1970) - Unibody exploded

view (Source: "Style Auto" N.6, Edizioni
Style Auto, Torino, Italy, 1965)
During the Seventies the market demand showed a need for higher product
differentiation, so the Auto Indutries were forced to develop several different
platforms.
The 1973 energy crisis changed the perspective of car makers.

The Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard was enacted in
1975: it required auto makers to meet certain mileage standards across their
entire fleet of vehicles.

In order to meet these standards, between 1976 and 1982 the average content of
steel per vehicle was lowered from 1035 Kg to 795 Kg. This was made possible by
reducing the vehicle size and switching from the body-on-frame to the unibody
layout.
In addition to this, Auto Industries started new researches investigating the use of
light materials.

In 1979 Ford created a prototype based on the LTD sedan, entirely made of carbon
fiber composites: this enabled to obtain a primary and secondary weight
reduction respectively equal to 315 Kg and 215 Kg.
 The Fiat VSS prototype (see Figure) was based
on the Fiat Ritmo, and was the result of the
collaboration between Fiat, the I.D.E.A. Institute
and Renzo Piano's team.

The structure was a steel spaceframe and the

Fiat VSS (1978) body (with plastic panels) had no load-bearing
capacity, but for the first time this choice was
made in order to reduce the vehicle weight and
to obtain a high flexibility in terms of external
shape, production and assembly.

After twenty years these issues became of

primary importance for the whole Automobile
Industry.

In the original concept the 9 external panels had

to be produced separately (as complete
"subsystems") and then assembled in a final
production line.

Today this philosophy of production is being

investigated by many Car Manufacturers.
Pontiac Fiero (1981) - Steel Space Frame and SMC body panels
(source: Calgary Fieros - 'Build a Fiero')
In the 1980's the increased market competitiveness leads to the development and application of
new materials and manufacturing processes and technologies (like electronics). The Auto
Industries have new design objectives.
Environmental question is more and more relevant and new regulations guide the Auto Makers
towards the reduction of emissions and fuel consumption.
In this scenario one of the Industries' objectives is the weight reduction, so new alternative
structural solutions are investigated.
In 1984 General motors launched the Pontiac Fiero (see Figure), with a steel space frame and SMC
body panels. The main structure is made of three basic subframes (front subframe, rear subframe
and floor-pan) welded together during the first phases of the assembly process. The other
members are then connected in a single step, that includes the drilling of the holes for the
connection with the mechanical parts. In the whole process about 4000 weld points are used. The
external composite panels are prepared and assembled at the end of the production line.

Even if Fiero's market success was not relevant, the innovative concept of the body structure and
the assembly process was the base for many researches.