ASTON MARTIN - AMR-ONE
Double wishbone suspension layout is conventional, but there’s a complex ducting arrangement that controls airflow through and around the rear of the car
monocoque may be a bit lower, but there is not much in it. One big thing with the closed cars is visibility. If you get rain and oil on the ’screen you are screwed in a closed car, while on an open car it’s just a visor tear off. This is a car for both us and our customers and, with the mandatory air conditioning regulation going away, when it gets really hot you’ll see the drivers outside of a proper works-team fitness programme not being able to cope. ‘Doing a closed car also gives
you the additional complexities and cost of designing doors, windscreen, wiper and ventilation systems. If you put all of that effort into another area of the car that makes you go faster, you end up in the same place or better, unless you have infinite resources, and we do not. You have to choose how to spend your time and money.’
PARTNER COMPANIES To maximise resources, Aston Martin Racing partnered with a number of companies, including PTC, who allowed the team to use its new Creo software package to design the car,
www.racecar-engineering.com • Le Mans
despite the fact that it was not even released at the time. ‘It was a bold move, but we were happy to do that. It’s a good partnership on both sides and, to be honest, that hasn’t given us any grief at all, we are really happy with it,’ enthused Howard-Chappell. Other partners include TotalSim for CFD and rapid prototyping firm, Stratasys. ‘A technical partnership works on two levels – one is effectively a fast route to technology that helps you move along, and two is the potential cost saving. Some of these things are available, so you could just go out and buy them but, if you can get it through a technical partnership, or sponsorship, and get the gain as well, then that’s a saving all around. And it is ultimately the job of a technical director to make the fastest, most reliable car for your budget.’ Overall, the AMR-One has a
fairly conventional chassis with double wishbone suspension front and rear, and most other systems being modified or updated versions of existing technology. ‘All round, the gains to be had in the mechanical design of the car, through doing
Driver controls were mocked up in the early development stages using the Stratasys Dimension 3D printing machine, then manufactured in house
something revolutionary, are very small. But that’s not what makes these cars tick. We have gone for something where we have very nice geometry, good stiffness and good control, and that’s what we wanted. We believe that what we have is a nicer solution than what we had on the Lola. The bits are lighter, for example. On the Lola we never ran the car with three springs and dampers front and rear, but it works very nicely on this car. We never found the gain on the
old car, partly because it was not designed for it. It was a later addition. We are very objective about these things, and are not going to bolt something on just because it’s what everybody else runs, or because people tell you it is supposed to be faster. We will do it when it is faster, and that’s what we found with the AMR-One.’ One area where Aston Martin
has followed the pack is on the front tyre size, with Audi, Peugeot and Lola following the
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