Double wishbone suspension layout is conventional, but there’s a complex ducting arrangement that controls airflow through and around the rear of the car Driver controls were mocked up in the early development stages using the Stratasys Dimension 3D printing machine, then manufactured in house Engine location is not stressed, but is supported by a triangulated structure that picks up on the bellhousing Being an in-line configuration rather than a V, engine layout is asymmetrical, with the plenum on the right-hand side and exhaust on the left
may have been too ambitious too, according to its top man. ‘If there is one issue that has compromised this, it is the fact that the two programmes have been running in parallel. It wasn’t about the design side, it was about when we came to manufacturing. Over the last three months we have had a big fight for resources. All our capacity was taken and, at the same time, all of the Formula 1 teams are looking for spare capacity as well, so we couldn’t outsource anything. Our composites division has been working 24/7 for four months, all 88 people. Everyone has been going flat out to produce parts. Motorsport has gone through this funny period where, over the last three years, everyone has de- stocked, run resources down, kept overheads and personnel levels very low, then suddenly we are looking for outsourcing, and you just can’t get it at the moment. It has been a nightmare.’
Company philosophy But it seems that the AMR-ONE programme is coming out of the other side of its early problems. Rival manufacturers’ technical staff go out of their way to point out that the other two works teams probably have the same issues at this stage of their programmes but they do it in private. Aston Martin Racing is ironing out the bugs and getting the car right before it releases it to customers. ‘Te philosophy of everything we do, and the way we work it across every project we have ever worked on at Prodrive is that
we never hand over a car to customers unless we have operated it ourselves for a period of time. By the time it goes to them, the specification is sealed, there is no change. If the customer wants to make changes it is up to them, but we will not do any further changes after that point in time. Consequently, what you see in the GT2 cars is a product we have developed and handed over and, to be fair, we have not run that car enough ourselves, certainly not compared to the GT1 car which, when you see it in the World Championship, doesn’t require putting a spanner on it. It just runs and runs. Te GT4 car is the same and the new GT3 will be run by ourselves until the end of the year. It is the same with the LMP cars – I was talking to the Marc VDS guys (who run one of the old AMR-developed Lolas) and they were saying it is just incredible – turn up and drive it and bolt it together and it works.’ Something undoubtedly Richards hopes he can say about the
AMR-ONE when it takes to the track at Le Mans in 2012. Just six examples are being built and all of them have been sold ahead of time, such is the lure of an Aston Martin Le Mans racer.
“sometimes in life you have to make commitments about things”
10
www.racecarengineering.com • August 2011 11
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