Hitting a bump or pothole doesn't generate the quiver one might expect with a body-on-frame design.
There wasn't much debate about getting rid of the body-on-frame design, said Frank Davis, the executive director for North American product programs.
The previous version employed a body-on-frame design, a common type of vehicle construction for pickup trucks and heavy-duty sport utilities.
The 2014 Sport's structure is based on a new aluminum unibody, replacing the previous steel structure, which was a body-on-frame design.
It has an integrated closed-box frame rather than a body-on-frame design, and instead of a rear live-axle, features fully independent front and rear suspensions.
For example, although the body-on-frame design of the original Range Rover has been scrapped in favor of a unibody, this new chassis is 250% stiffer than the old truck the chassis is so strong, you could hang a Range Rover from its front bumper and still hang another one off the rear bumper without the first car's frame bending.
Mr. Welburn, who has been in charge of body-on-frame designs, will report directly to Robert Lutz, product development leader and chairman of GM North America, but will work closely with Mr. Wagoner and other top G.M. executives.
The "utility vehicle" part of its designation bespeaks the rough-and-tumble life, justifying such rough-and-tumble mechanicals as an antediluvian body-on-frame chassis design, lifted intact -- along with myriad other key components -- from that humble industrial tumbrel, the pickup truck.
Additional research on different frame design should be envisaged to confirm this observation.
Buildings with the dual CFT system generally had improved seismic performance, depending on the moment frame design, the number of stories, and the intensity of the ground shaking.
