comingbackdown wrote:And may I add that body roll and "higher center of gravity" (negligible if it's built right) aren't that much of a problem if you put a proper suspension on it? Think about this... Unibody came about in like, the '60s. quit was still rolling on leaf springs back then... They needed unibody. With a pro-kit low suspension and quit, you don't need a unibody. If it's low enough to the ground, it won't be affected by a higher center of gravity.
Something that I always found funny was that my friend's '94 Honda Accord was dropped like 2 inches, but the roofline was still like 2" higher than my car (and my car has stock springs). He dropped the hell out of that Accord, he could barely make it over speedbumps, and yet my car still had much lower center of gravity, and you could feel it while driving.
And in terms of frame design you missed 1. The Spaceframe.
This is a Fiero with the body panels completely removed:
The car is perfectly rigid and drivable without the body panels on it. My cars were designed with this, it provides a strong frame with lightweight plastic body panels. Every exterior surface on my car is plastic.
Most real race cars are built on a spaceframe too, because of it being able to resist flex and still be lightweight. I may sometimes hear the frame creaking when I go over bumps, but it never actually flexes. That's another reason why Fieros are popular for engine swaps, its almost impossible to twist the frame. Some older hotrods like to twist the frame if they have too much power, due to the restrictions of a unibody setup.
If you can also see that picture, you see that the frame extends over the passenger compartment too. Its similar to having a built-in rollcage. I've heard of Fieros flipping over before, and I've seen pictures, I've never seen the roof crushed. Fieros are small cars and I've heard people call them deathtraps, but they did get 5-star crash tests due to the spaceframe , you'd be surprised how much steel surrounds you.
Body-on-frame vs. Unibody though, I don't like either.