Materials for a transportation design project

[DangDangDingy]

Hi all, I'm a student studying transportation design at university and I've been given a project where i need to design a lightweight family vehicle. We've been told to especially look deep into new materials that are lighter than the materials currently in use that don't compromise the safety of the passengers. I am entering in a competition with this concept project and the end product won't be made, so costing isn't of the utmost importance. I'm designing a high end family vehicle for 2013 so materials can be as exotic as i'd like, within reason. I need to find alternate materials that the chassis and other components would be made from that maintain the vehicles integrity.

I've been looking into carbon nanotubes especially but don't know enough about them, and could do with a little rundown on how they work, how they are used, what they can be used to create and other general information regarding their properties.

Any guidance or ideas on materials at all since i know so little about materials i could use are much appreciated, thanks =)

 

[Enthalpy]

As exotic as i'd like, within reason => This excludes nanotubes. Unavailable, probably brittle.

For a chassis, I'd consider only metals.