Rob:
Ref. Your reply #30 - Updated chassis tube layout
Your overall vehicle concept seems to be quite well conceived and mercifully would appear to be aero stable which is a significant advantage. However, since you are still in the early stages of frame/roll structure layout and are open to comments, here are a few more for your consideration.
... You need to prevail upon Blue to allow a generous fillet, or better yet, a straight line tangent to the fuselage side and the canopy, so that the kinks can be eliminated. ...
Thanks for the advice, and it is being followed. After seeing the indirect load paths, I recommended we go to a more classical top fuel style cage. Specifically the later generation with the diagonal upper bracing from the shoulder area across the top of the steering wheel to the forward bulkhead. It also gives us easier entry and exit. The Fossett LSR assistant crew chief is a AA fuel licence holder and is helping with the re-design. I have a little bit of experience with truss structures and firmly believe that every good idea is worth copying:
http://www.bmeltd.com/Dragster/braced.htmlvs.
http://www.bmeltd.com/Dragster/current.html"mercifully" stable? Thanks, there some here that don't believe in the advantage of un-coupling the downforce and weight trade. Decades ago, it was thought that we needed weight for all that power. Remember "leading down" the front and rear? Then someone went light and went faster. Now we have weight minimums in almost every motorsport to keep the wanton use of carbon from making formula cars into feathers.
As far as the aero goes, we'll get a good cage design re-done and bump the aero to fit. While fillets are not preferred, the better course may be to simply increase the width of the canopy and possibly the "shoulder" lines of the OML (outer mold line). As Brandon points out, this is why the whole thing is in cad first. We appreciate all of the comments.
The earlier see-through rendering shows how everything fits, the biggest volume items are the coolant tanks for the engine and intercooler. Chute tubes are above the tranny, forward of the diff. The doors will be hinged at the front and open with a standard pull cable just like the flaps of a chute pack. The tubes are short and fat, easing packing and giving us a nice quick deployment. Pull point is inside the tube, so there's no exposed riser. All of this is oriented up and aft so that the chutes go into clean air, the risers don't crease the bodywork or chute tube lips, and they pull straight through the CG at the flying height of the chute.
The axle is tied to the wing section (since the wing can generate so much downforce, it has to be) and the wing loads the axle and wheel fairings. There's a lot of structure back there, it's mostly carbon. I'm putting plenty of design margin into these areas, since I'm the one fabricating the bodywork and aerostructures. If I can find the budget, I'm also building one for myself.