Not Ranked
Voted for billet. Prefer LeMans/FIA cars. Small blocks, but 8000rpm.
Not on the list: monocoque. i know it is very very difficult and still keep the interior look.
Chassis stiffness is just so very important for control and predictability, IHMO. CV joints are simply de rigor. They correct a horrible world of hang-ups and chassis jacking. Getting the inside front tire to bite and turn really demands a stiff chassis and rising-rate sticktionless linkages and spring/shock geometries.
Once you've tried a stiff chassis, you will never go back. Low weight & more aft CG & low polar moment are also primo on the list of reliable performance mods. All these point to monocoque.
On the other hand, a billet chassis was also considered 'impossible'. But, very beautiful and likely a serious improvement in every specification.
Check my flicks. We still take the M6B out for a Sunday drive or two and it always rewards, although the lift and loss of downforce in a 90 degree crosswind (you know, sideways!) has been proven in practical tests to be not acceptable.
Having said all that, i don't really care much for the old frames either, stiff or loose, they were flexible flyers. But Superleggera construction is our history, tubes and trusses were in aircraft first, then metal monocoques took over the world. Then composite monocoques.
But, the billet is absolutely a beautiful artistic expression and you ought to do a paper for the SAE. i know of no engineer that would not contratulate you both for such beauty and advanced engineering as art.
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George Washington
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