POWERTRAIN
❝ Lighter weight gears will make for a better performing gearbox in terms of gear shifts.
a spare gearbox that we could use to make changes to as required during development, ready to swap into the car straight away after removing the gearbox that was already in it.”
RIGHT WEIGHT CHAMPION Pondering the compromises of design, Ashton continues, “With gearboxes, we need to strike a balance between strength of the gears and the rotating mass. Lighter weight gears will make for a better performing gearbox in terms of gear shifts, as they can change their rotational speed faster, but to achieve a lower weight material will need to be lost, which can reduce the strength of the gear and therefore reduce the power they can transmit.” The vast majority of the fi rm’s
gears are manufactured from specifi c grades of steel alloys, where the intended application will govern the precise composition. There are however occasionally unusual requests for more exotic materials, like titanium or lithium aluminium for customer-specifi c products. When analysing the motorsport
market, Ashton observes, “The advancement in the ECUs being used has changed dramatically over
the last 5 years. They are not only becoming more aff ordable, but also far more advanced. More and more aftermarket ECUs are now capable of fl at shift strategies which in turn extends the life of the gearbox.” Quaife off ers sensors for gear
position and oil temperature on some of its gearboxes. Like many in the segment, the
company is keen to take advantage of electrifi cation. “The rise in EVs has meant an increased demand for quiet transmissions,” notes Ashton. “Historically, transmission noise has never been the primary concern in motorsport, however, with the EV market growing and Quaife Engineering receiving more and more
External view of the QBE60G gearbox
enquiries from our motorsport and automotive customers for quieter transmission solutions, we have been working tirelessly with our R&D team to develop quieter gear sets so that we can apply this knowledge to all of our new developments, opening up the EV transmission market to us.”
For more information visit
www.quaife.co.uk
This is a QBE60G sequential gearbox, showing the internal mechanisms. It is fi tted with an air actuator for the paddleshifter
Future feelings
So, how will diff erential technology evolve over the next decade? Ashton speculates, “We have already seen the introduction of torque vectoring technology in cars like the Mk3 Focus RS, which relies heavily on sensors and electronics to distribute torque across an
axle to limit slip, or indeed induce it when it comes to the drift mode. So I suspect more development will happen in this area, especially as EVs become more popular. That said, I think there will always be a demand for a genuine mechanical diff erential, so I can’t see that electronic
torque distribution systems will eliminate the need for mechanical solutions altogether as they are much more cost eff ective to manufacture, and less likely to go wrong due to their simplicity, and have no reliance on complicated electronics to govern their operation.”
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