Exoskeleton car

An exoskeleton car has a visible external frame, being made of steel, aluminum or carbon fiber tubes.

The chassis has four large longitudinal tubes, two on each side of the car body, inboard of the wheels.

A drawback to the exoskeleton is that there is no chance to cut doors through the upper suspension tubes.

The simplistic construction of the vehicle follows Colin Chapman's philosophy of maximizing the power-to-weight ratio by minimising weight rather than simply adding power.

Early monocoque racing cars such as the Lotus 25 had their chassis exposed but the term exoskeletal is more usually reserved for vehicles with an exposed space frame, such as sandrails, dune buggies or specialized light weight track cars.