Project-Scuderia

Do you think that Ti will be strong ?

 

Yes. I am not a metallurgist, but I have seen the analysis, which is proprietary, so I can't release it. The engineers chose an alloy that exceeds the strength of the parts they are replacing, so whatever SF was built into the stock parts by Ferrari, these parts are exceeding that.

 

Step 3 is to slide the lower A-Arm pivots back onto the studs. Before you slide them all the way on, you have to re-install the inner two washers and nyloc nuts. Once the pivots are seated, there is not enough clearance to get the nuts on the studs behind the A-Arm. Once the A-Arms, washers, and nuts are installed, but before the nuts are fully tightened, install the desired camber shims. Since I don't have an alignment rack in my garage, I'll just get it close enough to drive to an alignment shop.
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The rear A-Arms have the same shortfall in the Scuderia's suspension design (that limited the amount of camber) that the front A-Arms have. I acquired a set of extended lower rear A-Arm press-fit bolts from the same source. These bolts are also 10mm longer than the factory bolts, which is long enough to provide the same advantages.

The bolts are also made of Aerospace grade Titanium, so they are lighter than the stock bolts, even though they are longer.

Rear lower stock steel bolts (set of 8) = 0.425 kg/0.94 lb
Rear lower titanium bolts (set of 8) = 0.290 kg/0.64 lb
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The US Importer of Carbon Revolution carbon fiber wheels toured Austin today with a sample of his wares. He was kind enough to let me put it on my scale and take some photos. I hid the wheel after I weighed it, but he found it, and took it with him when he left.

Carbon Revolution CR-9 1-piece carbon fiber wheel (12" x 19") = 8.250 kg/18.19 lb

BBS FI 1-piece forged aluminum wheel (11.25" x 19") = 9.190 kg/20.26 lb

Even though it is larger, the CF wheel was more than 2 lb lighter than the BBS FI, which is the current benchmark for lightweight Ferrari wheels. The rep acknowledged the styling was "conservative" (for purposes of certification), but the technology is just amazing. The wheel is much stronger than it needs to be, so there is margin for more aggressive spoke designs. He shared a lot of test data, but could not reveal any future product data.
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Here are the press-fit bolts removed from the lower rear A-Arms. They had to be pressed out with a hydraulic press. Also shown are the A-Arms with the bolts removed from the pivot points. Total weight savings of 0.150 kg/0.33 lb just with 8 new bolts.
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Here are the new Titanium press-fit bolts installed in the rear. As per the recommendation of F430GT, I installed them into the chassis, not the A-Arms. This is the last time the rear diffuser and the underbody tray have to be removed to work on the suspension or perform an alignment. That will save countless man-hours and wear & tear on the panels. As I did on the front suspension, I removed the spacers from behind the rear upper A-Arms, which gains about 0.8 degrees of negative camber.
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The cores for the Ti brake posts arrived from the 3D printers. They look like castings in raw form. They still require de-burring and final machining.
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Stunning!

 

Fascinating thread. I have read the entire thread many times and taking notes.
Hope to put together a punch list with sources and approximate costs.

What about brake cooling ducts? Anyone with experience on this? I saw several mentions by F430GT but no specifics.

 

The Ti 3D "printed" parts are amazing. How long before we can print a chassis? Thanks for sharing this very interesting technology.

 

Thanks to a useless Ferrari battery maintainer, I had to yank a dead battery from the car and replace it. Not one to pass up an opportunity to throw parts on the scale, this is what I found:

Optima Red Top 34R battery = 17.705 kg/39.04 lb (37 lb according to factory website)

Battery tray + hardware = 2.410 kg/5.31 lb

Total = 20.115 kg/44.34 lb

The battery tray consists of 13 major parts, assembled with 29 pieces of hardware (9 bolts, 9 nuts, 11 washers) that require 4 different tools to remove/reinstall.

I am working on a lightweight battery design that will reduce the battery weight by 29 lbs, and now I think it's important to reduce the weight and the part count of the battery mounting assembly. For planning purposes, I should be able to cut the part count and the hardware count in half, cut the weight down to 3 pounds, cut the tool count down to 1, and make the battery itself removable without the need for tools.
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Yes, I have used brake cooling ducts on all my race cars. They do work, but require a lot of maintenance. They are a wear item because they are subjected to a lot debris and contact in the wheel wells. Ferrari offers them for the F430 Challenge Cars.

 

I have tried 3 different battery types so far. Standard Ferrari rubbish (21kg), Optima Red top (15kg), and Braille lithium at 4.2kg.

I'm intrigued with your project and will be interested to see what the final kerb weight will be. I got my Scuderia down to 1306kg on the race scales- Empty fuel tank and windscreen washer bottle but all other fluids full.
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I have down-selected to three different batteries from Braille:

B128L Micro-Lite
340L
ML30C (similar to your Braille battery)

It really comes down to the battery capacity needed (in Amp-Hours). As capacity goes up, so does weight and price. You can't pay more to get more performance and less weight (given that you have narrowed the design space to just Lithium batteries).

 

Just an idea, $ for $ these latest Lithium LiFEPO4 batteries look like great vfm... No fancy CF packaging or logo's but they have 40Ah's which is extra ordinary for Lithium power....

Here's an ebay link...
2013 NEW 12v 40ah LiFePO4 Battery BMS Electric Scooter Ebike Free Express!! | eBay

A123 (20Ah batteries x 2)
Weight approximately: 5 kg
Protection board: instantly 80A continuous
output current: 60A
Battery pack size: 28x18x6.5cm
Full voltage: 14.5v
Operating voltage: 12v
Under-voltage protection: 10v
--

Not bad for (US) $349 including delivery...
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Okay... but what IS the project?

 

Why not just buy a challenge car instead of hacking up a street car?

 

He's not 'hacking up' a street car. You've got the wrong end of the stick...

These improvements are highly sophisticated and impressively well engineered, not just bolt on go faster bits which compromise on road manners. They are akin to the kind of work the Ferrari factory tuner does!

They will actually improve a road car too, not make it worse!

 

+1...

This tech is really exciting...

 

Great idea. Lets hack in a chinese no name battery maker for scooters on a Ferrari to save 5lbs. Wouldn't it be better to simply lose weight by hitting the toilet before a racing session? These cars have many computers and already sensitive electrical components, I mean why risk it?

Im confused to the point of this project. Who cares what a nut and a bolt weighs? Or having your "engineer" take dimensions of stuff that is readily available everywhere(brembo specs). Like a radio will really make a performance difference. This isn't a 100% track focused race car with a team.

 

I have used Braille products in the past twice with no good results (few months duration, no longer keeping charge). I have yet to try their Lithium line, but I won't even try it.

The electronic components in the Scuderia are very sensitive, so a good quality battery is necessary.

I ordered a Lithium-Pros Li-Ion battery two years ago, but it lost the charge twice so I did not trust it anymore. Later on I bought the Porsche OEM Li-Ion battery, and that's what I use.

The Porsche OEM Li-Ion battery is just is under 12 lbs (compared to the Optima Brick), and being a battery offered on brand new Porsche cars (Cayman R, Boxster Spyder, 997.2 GT3 RS 3.8, 4.0, GT2RS), Porsche has done enough R&D.

I have left the Porsche Lithium battery away from the trickle charger for weeks, and it comes discharged on the 4th week. It has an internal beep to indicate low charge, and it is compatible with both my Deltran Battery Tender (used with the Cayman) and the Scuderia OEM battery tender.

 

I'm sorry but totally don't understand your reply.. Scuderia is a car usually both by car enthusiasts, they care about even one pound savings, and this thread as someone else said is concerned about beautiful engineering of every small detail. In Europe I know many cars specced with no radio, including mine, for weight reason, who cares about the music when you are using a much louder, lighter muffler?

Inviato dal mio GT-N7100 con Tapatalk 2

 

SlowV8,

Ofcourse you wouldn't just put any old old battery tech on a car without validating its ability to provide sufficient current, voltage, charging from the alternator and so forth.

Your right that it would not suit everyone but equally you care to ignore the collective experience of all the people on F-Chat who actually do this for a living. The Doctors, Scientists, Chief Engineers and so on. Many whom actually do these kinds of enhancements (CNC machining, electronics, weight reduction, software, project optimization) and have a lot more expertise than you'd ever imagine. Many of us are even leading the industry in the field with patents and latest research at our finger tips than you realize or give credit for.

Take for instance my fun 'fast road-car' project. I've made contact with the original designer of the CS (he's now on my linked in for christ sake!), I've had extensive discussions with teams who run Challenge racing and I've incorporated many improvements over the period of the past decade into my project. A car is just a moving goalpost of compromises. Depending on technology changes (as in the case of LiFEPO4 A123 lithuim batteries which btw already have been tested on Lambo's, Ferrari's and F430 GT race cars...) there can indeed be the case to upgrade for major gains.

The results from my 'keeper' project (over several years I hasten to add, so chipping away on all these little improvements can make a Huge end improvement) has been systematic and massives over the standard car. I've lost a quarter of a tonne of weight and gained a huge amount of extra knowledge and enjoyment along the way. The car has been transformed and yes it really does all work on both the road and track because that's exactly the way I designed it....

If you don't get it after reading this you never will...

-T

 

+1