Quote Originally Posted by denkimi View Post
there clearly are some serious issues with the tubular chassis concerning the puncturing of objects into the cockpit.
The issue is that penetration of a rally/race car by an object with small cross section is virtually impossible to prevent because the kinetic energy of the car is way too much for creating any sort of working protection. Moreover in most cases the objects penetrates the cockpit through the windshield or side windows. Even if you put a bullet proof glass (which is super heavy) it will not be enough to prevent penetration by something like a steel pipe at higher speeds. It's not an issue of a tube frame.

Just to illustrate what I am talking about. The WRC car with the crew weights around 1400 kg. If it is going 100 km/h it has a kinetic energy equivalent to a shot from this.


If you have an object with a small cross-section it will penetrate whatever you can build into a car. I remember I saw a railguard penetrating an engine block of a BMW X5 in a Kubica-style accident.