Help requested for those who've FSAE or CAD stress packages

[Matra et Alpine]

The F440 IIRC used a rigid axle. The car in question looks like it's the same philosphy as the new F1000 class in SCCA. The F1000 class is conventional tube chassis with bike power. It would be interesting to see how they did the chain drive since that's one of the parts that was a teething issue for the F1000 class.
Here's an example of a Van Diemen converted for chain drive.
http://billmaisey.com/DSCF0003.jpg

That's good example of the problem of taking a "normal" open wheeler and putting a biek engine in. LONG chain
If you look at the OMS - and all the designed ones - it's a much shorter distance from final drive on the engine/transmission to the axle.
That long chain loses you time as it whips and stretches

Mind you I'd not want to run a short wheelbase OMS on a large race circuit. Hillclimb "straights" are usually <100 yards

[culver]

280kg is nice and light! Some of the F1000 cars have hit that limit. Piper and Citation are both around that. The US rules are 1000lbs (373lb) at the end of the race. I think the Firman and Stohr are a bit heavier. These cars are basically built like F2000 cars so I don't know how they price compare with the hill climb cars.
Piper Race Cars - Piper DF5 F1000 (FB)

[RacingManiac]

Gould design judged(and probably still do) FSAE competition....he probably was trying to steal some ideas for his day job...lol

[Matra et Alpine]

Gould was designing winning race cars in the early 80s
I would suggest he judges because he's tried everything anyone is going to come up with They are very expensive so I've only been close to one and it was carbon fibre while F1 were THINKING about using it
For lightness in sprints/hillclimbs for a LONG time he was THE expert and most of those who are now leading lights worked with him or started by copying

[Matra et Alpine]

@Culver. Arent' the F1000 series just the old F2000 chassis and designs but with bike engines in place of the old Ford 2litres ? Make for fast, but longer wheelbase, heavier and slower than the sprint cars.

As sprint/hillclimb cars are on track on their own then it's OK to have less protection (and thus weight) than a 'proper' race car has to have. So weights are stupidly low and handling excessively "twitchy" so they turn in fast.

[culver]

The class started off with the idea of putting bike motors in F2000 cars with F2000 type aero. The cars are about the same weight as what you listed since part of the weight of the F2000 is the much heavier motor.

What ended up happening is the rules allow a purely converted F2000 but they also allow aero and chassis designs that aren't F2000 legal. The cars are probably longer and designed to run at faster speeds than would be ideal for a hill climb. However, the lightest chassis (Piper, Citation) are light. The Piper is 283kg empty though the as raced weight needs to be over 373kg