Composites-intensive Squalo sports car to incorporate three-piece monocoque design
The as-of-yet hand-built car by GTO Engineering and Dexet Technologies is still currently in its design phase, but will have composites at its base.
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The monocoque for the Squalo sports car will consist of three composite components: front, middle and rear, which will be bolted together. (Visible here, too, is the GTO Engineering-developed naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V12 engine.) Photo Credit: GTO Engineering, Dexet Technologies
The goal being pursued by (Twyford, U.K.) is to develop a sports car that weighs less than 1,000 kilograms. To this end, its engineers have been working with those at (London, U.K.), a composites design and engineering consultancy to develop a three-piece monocoque design for car named Squalo (“shark” in Italian).
The monocoque pieces comprise the forward section for the V12 engine and manual transmission, a central section for the interior and the fuel tank and the rear subsection, which supports the rear suspension as well as a differential. All three pieces will be bolted together.
Currently, with the exception of an interior buck — which consists of 3D-printed polymers and pieces of wood (yes, like something you’d find on a shelf at Home Depot) — the Squalo monocoque is a CAD rendering. GTO Engineering and Dexet personnel note that they are going to continue development in the virtual world, running finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics on the chassis models before building it in the real world.
When they do build it, though, the companies will be incorporating composites. When asked for specifics, GTO Engineering engineers told CW, “Material selection is awaiting full analysis of the strength, stiffness, mass and thermal management requirement.” So more math. Then physical material.
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