Caterham boot

[Ngh30]

Is there a technical reason why there is a piece of wood in the boot floor ?  Why wasn't it aluminium ? 

[Jonathan Kay]

What do you see as the advantages of aluminium? If the piece doesn't have to be a special shape then plywood will be about the same mass and cheaper.

Jonathan

[DJ.]

Solid alloy sheet of similar weight will be less rigid unless it is honeycomb which would be much more expensive. By the way, it's worth putting some varnish (or I used danish oil) on the plywood

[Ngh30]

It's just a question really whilst I was tinkering / cleaning today  , half the boot has ally and half wood !  

 

 

 

[jimh]

I thought it was so that we had something in common with Morgan owners?

[Ngh30]

  I bought the Caterham as I'm fed up with doing D.I.Y on the house ( loft conversion was my last job ) I now find myself working with wood again !!  lol 

[Wrightpayne]

I'm sure I read it was crumple zone.

Ian

[Ngh30]

That makes sense , thought there would be a techy  reason  for it ! 

[JNC]

Perhaps it is less of a Guillotine to your back in impact from the rear ?

[vertew]

I took the boot floor out of my 2006 CSR a while back to check the fuel pump connections and the floor material is alu / honeycomb sandwich.  Perhaps used for other S3 / S5 cars around this era too?

[Carrotland AR]

I built a live axle crossflow in 1996. The wooden panel was standard but I remember fitting an ally honeycomb panel during the build because I preferred it. I think the honeycomb panel was for the race cars? It fitted without alteration at the time. Maybe reduces fire risk?

[Tazio]

The honeycomb was part of a kit, which originally included a piece to fit across the end panel and was for crash protection.

[Geoff Brown]

I met Jez Coates at Dartford in the early 1990s to discuss certain issues with my Seven. In general conversation I questioned the plywood as part of the boot floor. He in reply stated that it was part of the crash protection structure !

Think what you like & of course he may have been joking but when you look at it in the round he may have also been telling the truth..........

That piece of plywood has always been there probably for good reason, just not cost cutting.

[ScottR400D]

I find it hard to believe it could make a significant contribution in an impact. It's not really a progressive energy absorbing structure, especially how it's oriented, and it's held in place by a handful of self rappers IIRC. 

 

[OliverSedlacek]

I would have thought it dates back to the earliest Sevens, which never had anything as Hi-tech as aluminium honeycomb. It's certainly cheap and effective. I think the honeycomb was first offered to comply with race regs that called for a fireproof separator between drivers and fuel tank.

[Tony P]

I think there was a sheet aluminium boot floor option before the honeycomb board, which made it a bit easier to seal the boot from the tank area.
When the honeycomb floor was made available (along with the kit for the tank), the usual procedure seemed to be to keep the plain ali panel for the front part - or the plywood piece if you weren't racing, only lightly fixed down (if at all) - in order to have something more 'deformable' if you got smacked from behind, a bit of space before the honeycomb punched into the bulkhead, but still reduce the chances of the tank being crushed and split. I think that was the theory at least...