A vehicle’s chassis is an engineer’s masterpiece as well as showpiece. Designing a chassis that is strong yet ligh and is superbly balanced yet functional and practical is a chassis engineer’s forte.

The chassis itself describes a vehicle’s frame or skeleton plus the running gear. The running gear includes systems like the differential, suspension gear, driveshaft, transmission gear and engine, just to name a few. The chassis in the automobile world is the framework that supports the body of the vehicle. The body is therefore built onto the chassis to complete the vehicle. To put it in animal terms, the chassy is the equivalent of the skeleton which supports the main body bits – the muscles and the skin, etc.

Obviously, the chassis of a truck or four wheel drive will contain vastly different characteristics and purpose driven design features from the chassis of a family car or sports car. And in the motor racing world, the design of the chassis can make that all-important difference between first and second on the results table.
We hope that helps answer the question ‘What is What is a Chassis?’!

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