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Sunday, 02 October 2005 |
The Invicta S1 sportscar is designed to be two cars in one - a luxurious Grand Tourer and a no-compromise sportscar with the potential to become a class-winning GT racing car.
For the S1 to achieve these often conflicting goals, The Invicta Car Company adopted several innovative approaches in both the design and construction phases of manufacturing its first car in modern times.
Design & Construction
The Invicta S1 is the world's first car to feature a one-piece carbon-fibre bodyshell. This shell, when bonded to the steel tube spaceframe chassis, creates an immensely strong, but lightweight, structure and results in a car with high flexional and torsional rigidity (for responsive handling) and excellent impact resistance (for high levels of occupant safety).
Crucial to the successful building of the one-piece bodyshell was the decision to manufacture much of it in a new type of carbon fibre material. It gives an 'A Class' surface finish ready to accept a top-quality paint, makes use of composite tooling which can be produced in under 12 weeks, and does not require the use of an autoclave or the high laminator skills typical of previous carbon fibre manufacturing in the motorsport and aerospace industries.
The spaceframe chassis is more conventional and incorporates all the 'best practice' features of this well established construction method. It weighs 160 kilos, but the vast majority of that weight is low down, below the car's roll centre. Made from 2 mm thick steel formed into 40 mm square tubes and cross-braced for maximum strength, the chassis construction uses TIG welding to give a smooth surface in the areas that are bonded to the bodyshell.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 10 July 2006 )
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