[trimmed]
The baja... Well,
at least they didn't waste too much money developing it since it is
just an edited legacy.
You sure of that? Changing the cage means a whole lot
of new modeling to check its strength to various forces
with subsequent crash testing. I somehow suspect sedans have a
slightly
stronger cage than wagons despite the folding rear seats and a pass
thru trunk.
I remember watching a Lotus
infomercial a while ago where they mentioned
that it was a whole lot easier for them to design a new engine
than to design a new door. Since I don't know if Lotus even
builds their own engines I wonder if that was some kind of
an inside joke though.
You might have a good point... or two. I don't know who built the
esprit engine, but I think it was Lotus. Maybe it was Rover. I know
the toyota engine wasn't always in the Elise, but I don't know what
was in it before the celica powerplant.
As for the redesign of the structure and crash tests... It would
create a lot of regulations nightmares, but I'm pretty sure that they
got to reuse the entire body forward of the B pillar, which saves a
lot of engineering that might go on in a totally new vehicle. Then
again, a totally new vehicle is so rare nowadays. Lexus SUVs pull in
twice the money of the toyota camry that they share a frame with. The
300, Charger, challenger, and magnum are all the same platform with a
few major edits. Even the new 1 series from BMW is based on the 3
series and has the mass to prove it.
Speaking of which... (and getting back to the original thread.) I
wonder if the new subaru legacy is based on the same platform as the
previous generation. It's a good place to start.