Ah yes, the chassis (pronounced “chassey”). The chassis, or “rolling chassis” is the term given to sum of all the mechanical parts of the car. It includes the frame, wheels, steering, brakes, and suspension. These are the fundamental systems that allow the car to be a rolling, controllable vehicle. The most vital portion of the chassis, though, is the frame. The frame of the car is what houses the driver and supports every other part of the car. When designing our frame, we had to consider both where we would need to attach every part in the car and how it could protect the driver in case of some sort of emergency. On the top of the frame is what’s called a “roll cage.” Basically, if for some reason the car crashed and rolled over, the rounded portion above the driver’s head would support the weight of the car and protect the driver. The frame completely covers the driver in the sense that if you were to tightly wrap a blanket around the outside of the frame with a driver inside, the blanket would only touch the aluminum bars. This is important because it means that if the car were to crash or roll over, anything that it would come in contact with (another car, the road) would hit the bars and the driver would be left untouched inside. Although the driver is effectively surrounded, the frame also leaves plenty of open room in front of where the driver sits so that he or she can jump in and out as needed. You may also notice that there are no sharp corners or edges in the frame. This is because rounded corners distribute weight or force more evenly, so if a collision occurred, the frame would be able to spread the force from the hit around itself rather than letting the shear force act directly on a joint with a sharp corner which would break more easily.