Westfield sportscars develops lightweight chassis

Westfield Sportscars, a West Midlands-based vehicle manufacturer, has sold more than 10,000 sports cars worldwide and currently produces more than 400 cars a year for driving enthusiasts.

Now, working in a collaborative research and development project with analysis and design partners Penso Consulting and Delta Motorsport, the company has completed a ’light-weighting’ project with tubing specialist Reynolds Technology, creating a new car chassis and wishbone by replacing much of the traditional mild steel with alloy tubing used in Tour de France bicycles.

The project was part-funded by Advantage West Midlands through its Advantage Niche Vehicle Programme and is managed by CENEX to promote collaborative working and accelerate adoption of new technologies.

The chassis are made using a spaceframe, onto which wishbones and non-structural body panels are then attached. These spaceframes are constructed from tubes - traditionally made of steel - that are placed in a triangulated format to support the loads from the suspension system, engine and driver. A common approach used in low-volume car manufacturing, such spaceframes result in lower tooling costs, as well as allowing companies to quickly make modifications to the design.