V-8 Car of the Future

[colcol]

The slow gearchange is to do with the rotating mass of the driveshaft spinning at the same revs as the motor, nothing to do with the location of the transaxle as they both use cable 'motorbike' gear changes, heard lots of horrible things about Alfetta gearchanges, but when i drove one i thought it was quite good, long travel, but still ok, what irkes me about the V-8's having a transaxle is that, it takes them even further away from a road car, sure they will handle better due to better weight distribution, but all the cars, Holden, Ford, Nissan and Mercedes will all be the same cars, where with Group A, they had to use production components, which meant the car maker had to build so many for homoligation, so good strong components would filter their way down to us, Colin.

[Duk]

The slow gearchange is to do with the rotating mass of the driveshaft spinning at the same revs as the motor, nothing to do with the location of the transaxle as they both use cable 'motorbike' gear changes, heard lots of horrible things about Alfetta gearchanges, but when i drove one i thought it was quite good, long travel, but still ok........

Who has has cables??? COTF use a rod from gear lever to G'box.
The V8 Supercars used a flat shift cut that 'unloads' the gearbox enough to pull the next gear. The Holinger's were constantly engaged to the engine and they worked, so why would the Albins be any different because they have tailshaft between the engine and gear box? The dogs don't do any speeding up or slowing down. They can't. The unloaded g'box should reasonably easily go for a higher gear, but it's the job of the driver to match the revs for the down change. Greg Murphy was a noted left foot braker who never used the clutch for down changes, he just matched the revs as he selected the lower gear and the everything was sweet. The same can be done with a synchro 'box.

The TA Alfa's syncro's DO NOT speed up or slow down the tailshaft or clutch flywheel only the gears inside the 'box and the clutch disc.

[colcol]

Lowndes said that the shift is slower and you can brake faster than you can downchange, see what happens at the Clipsal 500, there was a test day last Saturday at Eastern Creek, and the fastest team was Brad Jones Racing, with Jason Bright in the BOC Commodore fastest, 2nd was Fabian Coultard in the Lockwood Commodore, 3rd was Craig Lowndes in the Red Bull Commodore, 5th was Rick Kelly in the Jack Daniels Altima, 7th was current champion Jamie Whincup in a Red Bull Commodore, 11th was the new German Driver in the SP Tools Mercedes, thats all i can remember, nothing on channel 7 about it, cause they were talking about the VFL Football, watched it on the internet, looks like another top year from channel 7, the new brake suppliers are having some dramas with cracking rotors, record crowd in attendance in Sydney of about 17,000, at the VFL match in Adelaide there were about 1,000, [my estimate], watch out for Fiat Chrysler supplied 300C Chrysler safety car, Colin.

[colcol]

Listen out to the Mercedes V-8 at Clipsal, it has a flat plane crankshaft, which makes for an interesting different note to most V-8's, and the Mercedes have been granted permission to use fly-by-wire, no throttle cable linkage to the engine, to the surprise to its compeditors, Colin.

[colcol]

Race 1 kicked off today at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, some of the mechanical carnage included Ford's poster boy Mark Winterbottom in the Pepsi Falcon leading for one lap until his Transaxle blew up, the Mercedes getting so hot in the cabin in the Maro Engel SP Tools AMG the fly by wire sensor packed up on the first lap, Leigh Holdsworth's Mercedes pedals got so hot it melted his shoes and the had to 100MPH tape some insulation material to his shoes, the Jack Daniels Nissan Altima of Rick Kelly had a power steering pump fail, cars were about the same speed as last years cars, but they will get faster and more reliable as time goes on, never got to see the Fiat/Chrysler supplied Chrysler 300C safety car once, a rarity at the Clipsal 500 with all the concrete walls, in the Dunlop development series Casy Stoner started 30 [last], due to a meeting with Mr Concrete on the previous day and drove through the field to finish 14th, go Casy in the red Bull Commodore!, Colin.

[Mick A]

Very impressive drive from CASEY Stoner.

[colcol]

Choderboy, i have taken a clip across the ears and written down Casey 100 times, so i won't spell it wrong... until next time, looking forward to seeing the Car of the Future race next week at Albert Park, always good to see new incarnations of race cars, seen the V-8's debut in 1992 and the Group A [best of all], debut in 1985, will be the last time we see and hear 2.4 litre V-8 Formula 1 motors this year, to be replaced by 1.6 litre V-6 turbocharged motors, remember when in the early 90's Turbo's were replaced because they were too expensive?, anyone with a Alfetta, 75 or 90 racecar, should keep an eye out for some ex V-8 Car of the Future transaxle's, they are proving rather fragile, and there may be a few second hand ones kicking around at the end of the year, all the race teams sell their surplus parts at the end of the year as they are said to have a life of x amount, then they are moved on, a few race parts turn up in the 'for sale' section in Auto Fiction, see you at the Grand Prix, Colin.

[colcol]

The Pepsi Max Falcon of Mark Winterbottom's blew the left hand rear tyre and the flapping of the tyre carcass caused the FIBREGLASS, rear 1/4 panel to get ripped apart, i knew that the front gaurds were plastic and have been for years, to stop a metal gaurd cutting the tyre when they rub panels, but the back panels, apart from the badge on the grille, is there anything the cars share with their road going lookalikes?, the crew 'repaired'  it by putting big sheets of 100mph tape, in the old days, when race cars were made of metal, they would beat the panel out with a big hammer and or slide hammer, the next day the same thing happened again to 'Frosty', and the sheets of 100mph tape are even color coded so it looks like the real thing, unlike the Clipsal 500 the Pepsi Max's transaxle lasted more than 2 laps this round, Colin.

[pasey25]

i knew that the front gaurds were plastic and have been for years, to stop a metal gaurd cutting the tyre when they rub panels, but the back panels, apart from the badge on the grille, is there anything the cars share with their road going lookalikes?

i think they still share exterior lighting with the road going counterparts. At least the external lenses.

[Neil Choi]

Colin, are you telling me that the Confalcomadore I bought on Monday after the race is not the same as a V8 Supercar right down to the nuts and bolts.  That was what I was led to believe with all that hype and marketing. 

[colcol]

The EKOL Commodore that was badly damaged in The Microsoft 365 round in Tasmania has been repaired at....Nissan Motorsport Australia at Braeside, the 'chassis' on the Commodore is the same as the Nissan Altima, so it went straight onto the jig used for the Nissans, and the EKOL Commodore is a triple 8 car, so it has triple 8 front suspension, which is also the same suspension on the front on the Nissan, so the front suspension on the Altima is made by triple 8, which saves time and money after a crash, but there is no Car Manufacturer DNA in the Car of The Future, Colin.

[colcol]

From V-8 Supercars website, Tuesday 23rd April,
Upgrades are expected to start flowing for the new V-8 Supercars Transaxle in time for the Chill Perth 360 in early May.
The control transaxle, which is designed and constructed by Australian company Albins, has shown some unusual signs of gear pitting and dog ring wear since its introduction as part of Car Of The Future.
However, the cause of the issues have been difficult to pin down because they have not been consistant across all cars, Nor did they appear through the 18 month testing process prior to the C.O.F.T.
At one extreme, Garry Rogers Motorsport cars have run seamlessly, while at the other end of the spectrum Ford Performance Racing has had some very public problems.
"While dog ring wear is a common issue with racing gearboxes of this type, the pitting of the gears is more unusual", said V-8 Supercars Technical Manager Frank Adamson.
"We are getting some gears that are getting good mileage, and some that aren't", he told v8supercars.com.au. "The pitting is related to either the metal or lubrication and we are working through various scenarios".
"Albins is working on some variations as we speak, When available they will be introduced to the cars...the first stage will be Perth".
For the Tasmania Microsoft Office 365 at Symmonds Plain and the ITM 400 Auckland at Pukekohe, V8 Supercars mandated shift cut settings to reduce shift loads and give itself and Albins a uniform base.
A shift cut momentary interrupts the torque output of the engine, allowing the driver to rapidly change gear while maintaining wide open throttle.
At the moment some teams are swapping gearboxes at 500km intervals, when the original intent has been for the boxes to last 5,000km. While this has been mostly considered an insurance policy, Adamson was sure the confidence would be reinstalled before the endurance races came around.
"Well before Bathurst we will have proven the function of the transaxle", he said.
Albins General Manager Steven Mc Donald told v8 Supercars.com.au the current exposure experienced from racing was not a complete surprise.
"There is a greater load in the racing car than we could create in the test car", he explained, "Nearly all the time you are going to get more loads through the gearboxes.
"When you are racing and the red mist is on and you are bouncing off kerbs and you are chasing the bloke in front of you, you are more concerned about the walls, passing and all that sort of stuff than you are driving the car cleanly".
"The layout of the transmission at the rear with the long prop shaft, means there is some driveline dynamic stuff that happens during the shift that we have learned about since Adelaide. That means there can be some pretty high loads go through the transmission if the timing of everything is not quite right".
"We will get some good data out of Tasmania and New Zealand with those changes so we can move forward"
End of Article, Colin.

[colcol]

Rumors persist in Auto Fiction that there will be a fifth Car Manufacturer joining the V-8 Supercars next year, It has been linked with Garry Rogers Fujitsu Valvoline team and more recently Brad Jones Racing from Albury with the BOC - Lockwood - Wilson security team.
The car in Question is the Chrysler 'gangsta' 300c, that is currently doing the rounds of the series as the Fiat - Chrysler safety car.
Being a brother of Alfa Romeo, Chrysler is one of the Marques under the control of its parents Fiat brand.
If it happens, i wonder what team will run it with a Chrysler badge and who will run it with a Lancia badge!, Colin.

[Duk]

Being a brother of Alfa Romeo, Chrysler.................

DISGUSTING!!!!

[Evan Bottcher]

I prefer 'retarded half-cousin'.