Consumer and features editor
Interview
Richard Rackham
Vehicle architect of the Series 1 Elise
AT the heart of the Elise lies an extruded aluminium chassis that, crucially, is bonded and riveted, not welded, together. Using adhesive saves enormous weight from the structure, and it was this technique the Series 1 Elise’s team of engineers pioneered.
“Bonding systems did exist, but they were aerospace-based and very, very expensive,” Richard Rackham, who led the Series 1 Elise’s engineers, remembers. He and all others involved in the development stress the car was very much a team effort, with the firm’s adhesive experts playing a huge role, for example. “We did know that bonding was lighter than welding; if you weld you upset the material properties in aluminium, and have to start off with…
