7Fan7 wrote:
...the stiffness of the chassis has increased about 30%, 40kg weight saving was inclusive of the rotary engine but if you're looking at the chassis only, it's about 10% weight saving.
I think they will need to be a lot more radical in their thinking if they are intending to actually sell any of the Wankel engined cars, in that case. The price the AIE were quoting me for the engine was ludicrous, and would make it a very expensive car (especially for one with only 120bhp). I'd be looking for a lot more than a 30% increase in stiffness over the Westfield spaceframe (which has pretty poor baseline stiffness) and a 40kg weight saving, if I was spending that sort of money.
You could get a 40kg weight saving from the tub alone (along with a much more substantial increase in stiffness), if you went to a full carbon monocoque instead of using steel subframes... as was demonstrated by the FW400. Which would mean you could forget about the expensive, specialised and unreliable Wankel engine and just use a standard drivetrain.
They should be looking at 'productionising' a cheaper, simpler version of the FW400 tub instead of fannying around with fancy engines in a mongrel, hybrid chassis.