I know that the Atom is old news at this point, but it is still influential and it's specs are quite impressive. Has anyone done a technical analysis of it's chasis design? While sexy, I'm not convinced that it's that stiff. Has anyone emulated the Atom in terms of the curved tubing construction? I notice in Dale's avatar that he's using some curved members. One positive aspect is that it gives a bit of much-needed side impact protection.

Thoughts, rants, references?

Only what i've herd so don't take this as gosple, but curved tubes are no were near as strong straight ones which is why the curved tubes on the atom are so big.

exactly what i thought myself. triangles dont have bent sides! maybe it was just a packaging issue forcing them to use bent sides.

my favourite chassis idea is to have 4 straight bars from front to back, triangluated and converging to form the front suspension box. Then you get forces carried neatly from front to back. The downside is that the cockpit gets a bit narrow at the foot end.

The curved square tube on the rear of my chassis is kerfed and welded - I am assuming no structural strength there as its probably brittle as hell.- its only there to give a curved surface for the alloy. To do it again - it would not be worth the pain in the ass to do-- I would go straight and use some morgan tech to do the curves- wood covered in alloy.--- I have considered cutting out and redoing it that way.
Dale

Dale - from your Avatar I thought that the top side tube was curved, but now it appears that's an optical illusion.

The Atom designers were obviously "thinking outside the box" The tube dimmensions may be large, but the car is quite lightweight, so something's working.

A bike designer I know said that he was laughed at several years ago when he said that most mountain bike would be made of large diameter aluminum tubing - but guess what? They are.

Seen in terms of vertical loading the Atom's side tubes are practically horizontal. I don't see that it'd make that big a difference torsionally, and I wouldn't think that the compressive loading would be that big a factor except in an accident. Maybie they aren't so dumb after all?

The thing is, the bent beams qualify nicely as "styling." If instead proper straight tubes are used, IMO the car won't look nearly as good, especially if left open like the Atom. My hat's off to them for attaining both structural and asthetic requirements. I think the Atom is very good looking.

Yes it is an optical illusion- it is angled down toward the elbow rest and then a boxed section is curved up. The scuttle will be curved down to where the angle is initiated to give a curved cockpit side.
Dale

Looks a rather 'Boxy' design to me.

Yeah, but it's a clean design. Just washes those curves away!

I'm using curved sides on my car, although not as curved as the ariel they still have a bit of a curv and i'm trying to make up the strength lost by making a stiff tunnel .
Mike.
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