Building a car like the BellaRiva is not something you do alone. Behind every part are partners who push their craft as far as we push ours. Suppliers of materials, machining, electronics, trim. Without them, the specifications cannot be met.
Today, we are introducing one of them.
Isomatex, and its material TENRON®
Isomatex is a Belgian company. It produces TENRON®, a 100% mineral material made from a blend of minerals quarried in Western Europe, melted in a furnace at very high temperature and then extruded into filaments of 9, 10 or 11 microns. Seven times finer than a hair. Those fibres are then woven, and combined with a resin to form a composite.
TENRON is an aerospace-grade fibre. Isomatex has co-developed a patent with Airbus Helicopters. It turns up elsewhere too: with ski manufacturers, in body armours, on professional racing bikes. In applications where materials must withstand impact, remain lightweight and retain their structural integrity.
For us, the only choice was to work with Isomatex. TENRON combines material innovation with practical answers to the challenges of building this kind of car. Four of them, to be exact.
1. It absorbs impact where carbon does not
Carbon fibre is a lightweight material, but it does not absorb energy well.
TENRON absorbs energy under impact while preserving its structural integrity. By combining it with carbon, or using it on its own in certain places on the car, we get two things at once: flex where a part has to be able to work, and greater stiffness and strength than we would have with carbon alone.
It is the kind of trade-off you cannot see once the car is finished. But you feel it on the road.
2. It resists fire
TENRON holds up against fire, and for a long time. On a supercar the point is obvious, even if a fire remains an extreme scenario that nobody would ever want to face.
The real benefit is day to day. A car like this one produces heat, a great deal of it, and you need to know where it goes. Being able to insulate it, spread it, or on the contrary contain it within certain specific areas, is a genuine gain for the rest of the car.
3. It is light
On a car whose performance you are trying to push, every kilo counts. And every kilo is a trade-off.
On the BellaRiva, some material choices were forced on us by other requirements, and they weigh. So we choose materials that reduce weight while delivering the strength the car demands. That is exactly what TENRON allows.
4. It recycles completely
Many high-performance composites are difficult to recycle. They are partly recycled, and what remains is practically unrecoverable.
TENRON recycles completely. It is a full cycle loop.
For a car designed to stay on the road for years to come, recoverability matters from the very beginning. Building it generates offcuts, test pieces and rejected components. Being able to recover these materials and give them a further use matters to us.
A Belgian material on a Belgian car
Designed and hand-assembled here, with a material produced locally. That is not a coincidence of timing, it is a way of working.
These are only a few words about a partnership we are very proud of, and one we will have the pleasure of setting out in full when the car is unveiled, with pictures of the BellaRiva to go with it.
Don't miss a thing
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and sign up to our newsletter at gillet-automobiles.com.