Chassis

[talos]

Most manufacturers chassis are made of mild steel and some are made of stainless steel. What are the pros and cons. And someday would there be one made of aluminum.

[strictlypersonl]

When you compare the stiffness/weight and strength/weight of those materials, they are very similar. The advantage of aluminum and stainless is corrosion resistance at the expense of being more difficult and expensive to weld.
It's the basic design layout that really defines how "efficient" a chassis is.

[talos]

But none are made of aluminum yet?

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by talos

But none are made of aluminum yet?

Kirkham has built 2 with billet aluminum frames that I am aware of.

Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

The first one was apparently sold for $1 million USD to the CEO of Oracle.

Pace in Austrailia has a reasonably priced kit with an aluminum frame.

http://www.absolutepace.com/images/brochure_pace427.pdf

[t walgamuth]

My VSE has an aluminum Monocoque with a cast aluminum subframe up front designed and built by the well known Engineer Herb Adams. Herb and Matt built about 25 cobras with the Monocoque chassis. Four or five are aluminum, the rest steel. With an aluminum small block chevy and an aluminum rear end by Winters it weighs in at about 2000#.

[Snake2998]

Aluminium has one big disadvantage in engineering use - it is prone to fatigue failure so has to be very carefully engineered if it is to last through the years.