S1 Chassis

The chassis is not designed to absorb impact during a crash and repair is a complex and expensive process, often resulting in a write-off if damage is sustained. On newer cars the chassis is sometime replaced but this is a time consuming process. The carbon fibre 'crash box' at the front of the car is designed to protect the chassis and driver in the event of a frontal crash. Trust me, it works very well! Within the various Elise Internet forums you may come across the term, 'chassis job'. This is a humourous (by British standards) reference to the relative ease with which expensive damage can be inflicted on the Elise.

The chassis side rails can get quite warm in the summer, especially on the right hand side. This is due to the pipes that run from the radiator to the engine, along the inside of the side rails.

Problems

On some very early cars there were problems with internal rivets rubbing on the collant pipes that run internally through the length of the chassis side rails. These would cause the pipe to fail resulting in loss of coolant.

It is a well known fact that aluminium will burn once a certain ignition temperature is reached. This means that a burnt out Elise leaves littel to reapir as the following sites show:

• Site 1
• Site 2