Motoring News Issue January 2014 Issue 1 Jan 2014 | Page 7

Motoring News

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power to squeeze into the space available for the powertrain reflecting the
benefit that the new regulations and
relevance of F1 technology will bring to
road cars. In fact, many race formula
regulations now actively reward efficient fuel consumption.”

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. On display
is the VW WRC gearbox which helped to
win the 2013 World Rally Championship.
Xtrac has worked closely with its customers to create components and
transmissions able to meet the latest
motorsport regulations. Its new P1159
7-speed gearbox for LMP1 Sportscars,
for example, has been designed to
withstand the newly introduced wheel
tether loads, rear impact and side
push-off tests. This new transmission
has also been developed to accommodate hybrid powertrains. Other Le
Mans products on display include a
1059 gearbox which facilitates KERS
technology for LMP customers. For international sports car racing, including
the American Le Mans Series (ALMS)
and various series that race to the GT3
regulations, Xtrac has developed a
number of gearboxes and differentials.
For the British Touring Car Championship (BTTC) and World Touring Car
Championship (WTTC) Xtrac has developed its 1046 front wheel drive
gearbox, now entering its fourth successful year of racing. Completing its
showcase of touring car gearboxes is a
transverse-layout endurance transmission, supplied as a ‘spec’ gearbox for
the Argentina TC2000 touring car series
and the Brazilian Marcas series. This
versatile 426 transmission is also used
in the Sports Car Club of America
(SCCA) Pirelli World Challenge GTS
class, for GTE and GT4 cars racing in
the USA, and as a four-wheel drive
(4WD) gearbox for short course off-road
racing.
Other products on display include a
Moto GP cluster; ‘Dakar’ differential; a
precision steering rack assembly; and
last but not least an F1 transmission, 7speed gear cluster and driveline assembly raced during the 2013 season.
For 2014, Xtrac has developed for F1
teams a new 8-speed gear cluster and

bevel gears to meet the requirements
of FIA revised technical regulations and
powertrain specifications. Teams are
now restricted to choosing their optimum eight ratios, which are then fixed
for the entire season, with each sealed
gearbox having to last six races equivalent to a duty cycle of 3,300km (compared to 4,750km for the 2013 Le Mans
winner).
Aside from the FIA requirement to
move from a 7-speed to 8-speed gearbox, all parts have become more sophisticated and complex. As well as the
need for these critical components to
last even longer to reduce operating
costs, the revised regulations have also
pushed the limits for reliability even
further. Besides the need for increased
durability, the increased torque from
turbocharged engines and more time
permitted per lap for energy recovery
has further increased the power transmission demands upon the gearbox
and differential.
“The development of a new cluster and
bevel gears caters for these increased
demands, while allowing for increased
freedom of design of the transmission,”
said technical director Adrian Moore.
“The regulation changes also make the
F1 powertrain technology more relevant to road vehicles.”
“In motorsport, we're continually striving for ever smaller, lighter gearbox designs using Xtrac engineering principles, which have been proven in all
forms of motorsport since the company was formed in 1984, and not just
Formula One, which we’ve supplied
since 1988,” said Moore who represents
the £6 billion motorsport industry on
the Automotive Council Technology
Group.
“The downsizing and lightweighting
trend is highly relevant to the packaging of an internal combustion engine
and electric motor into a hybrid road
car, where you have two sources of

Xtrac also celebrates 30 years of distinguished export business. The company
won the Queen’s Award for Exports in
1992, and has an excellent track record
of entering new export territories, initially with Europe, Japan and then
North America – where the business
has additional facilities in Indianapolis
and at Mooresville in North Carolina.
More recently South America has been
delivering good growth for the company. The company also has its sights set
on China, Russia, India and the Pacific
region, which it recognises as largely
untapped motorsport markets, where
the car is becoming a more essential
part of life.
“This, ultimately, leads to increased
levels of motorsport activity to support
automotive brand awareness and
showcase the performance of carmakers,” said managing director Peter Digby recently named by the UK Institute
of Directors as ‘Director of the Year’.
Attending the Autosport International
Engineering Exhibition with Peter Digby and Adrian Moore and other members of staff is design engineer Mark
Brogden, who has been given the commercial responsibility of focusing on
China, which he now regularly visi