Still focusing on the body shape and the inveil to see which goes first on the mil. As far as running gear and parts list, that is not a bad idea and we are probably closer than most would think to an accurate BOM and donor/subaru parts list
Lastly, the diesel tech from west philly was discussed at length with Simon at the Open House as he was anxious to plug this into a car (the 818) with less frontal area, lower coefficient of drag and a much lower vehicle weight. I committed to Simon that he would get one of the very first 818 chassis for his powerplant which is TDI 4 cylinder with audi trans. His very enthusiastic predictions are 75 mpg in regular driving so IF one body design (coupe) can deliver a low drag number, low frontal area, and meet the 1800 lb weight target... then all we have to do is deliver good weather sealing (HUGE effort there) then one variant can be a build-it-yourself high mileage capable car that can be built for a reasonable cost. Even more exciting is the R&D access we have with Ford Racing (I just tonight spoke to one of the managers there about a variant of the ecoboost four and three that Ford wants us to look at with the firm belief that the direct injected gas turbo motors they are still developing can meet or exceed the tdi plant).
Exciting stuff, but we have been careful to stick to claims we can meet based on our actual data and experience as well as stick to nodes we've promised (next up is model and body selection).
The 818 must be our best new product launch by a log scale... it is that important.
oh, one more thing about the body shapes. It will be a giant slayer and the shape MUST not go to production unless the great majority of people who see it in person have their hair burst into flames the second they see it.