The factory's ability to custom-build a chassis without halting production was also key.
Once a team has built a new chassis, the team have to do all the crash tests before they can go testing.
Instead, Dana builds a "rolling chassis," so called because it's complete with tires, springs, shock absorbers, fuel tank, brakes and steering components.
Powered by a 7-liter Ford V-8, it was built on a chassis of honeycomb panels and tubing.
If cars were still built with a chassis and a separate body, like Henry Ford's Model T, the industry might look very different.Some of the alternative business models currently being touted would, in effect, attempt another revolution, with companies outsourcing more and more of the car.
The RC is built on a chassis that borrows heavily from the GS mid-size and IS compact sedans, each of which have benefited from infusions of high-strength, flex-resistant steel.
So, as Painter sees it, you would buy a Duesenberg with, say, an engine built by Toyota, a chassis by Dana and exterior panels by Owens-Corning.
It's amazing what people can do with one of AMD's new eight-core FX processors, a specially built chassis, and a few tanks of liquid helium.
That is, while you'll find below our detailed commentary on the Cayenne's earnest off-road chops, the far more significant challenge for Porsche was to make a SUV/crossover (a vehicle built on a car chassis but sitting at a truck-like height) that could still perform like a Porsche on the road and track.
(Mr. Rolfe works in a garage that builds racecar chassis and is in the unusual position of racing against some of his customers).
