The current Race Cars being used around the world are very, very sophisticated machines. They have extensive electronics controlling every aspect of the cars performance, which are quite often similar to those used throughout Formula 1. Everything in a real Race Car is special. A top specification Touring Car or V-8 Supercar can be worth over AUS $1,000,000 when purchased new, and that is just for the car. A spares package, Service Crew, Race tyres and a truck to operate the car from are all extra.

Circuit Race Car Components

Race Cars feature many sophisticated systems that make the car strong, reliable, and easy to drive fast, which is all that is important in today’s competition. The cars vary in terms of the final specification, although the following will generally apply:

Body Shell

The body itself has to remain as the steel unit that the manufacturer builds, although it is totally stripped, lightened by removing unnecessary brackets, seam welded along all every structural joints, and sometimes acid-dipped to thin the metal in non-structural areas. A very light and extremely strong internal roll cage is welded into the body shell. In the case of V-8 Supercars, the body is actually assembled over a semi-spaceframe chassis that is built first.

Seats, Harnesses, Dash and Fittings

All internal components are manufactured from the lightest materials, generally carbon fibre, or another composite material. Every part is required to be as small as possible to keep the weight down, and the concept is to place all the weight as low as possible in the body shell.

Engine

Every engine is individually hand built from specialist lightweight components. The engine is "blueprinted" and features the most advanced materials available today. It is designed to generate maximum power and torque just for the length of one race event, including some testing kilometers. After this, the engine is totally rebuilt ready for the next event. A top Race Car engine could well be worth up to AUD $ 180,000 in the case of an Aston Martin or Ferrari.

Transmission

Many Race Car transmissions are now Sequential, which means that they have a Dog-Box featuring straight- cut gears which are very strong. The selection is done "sequentially" via an electronic or hydraulic mechanism that shifts the gears up or down one gear at a time as a button or lever is activated. The button or lever can be on the steering wheel, or close to it. This allows the Driver to keep his of her foot flat on the throttle pedal during this process, which creates smooth and unbroken power delivery that is similar to a Formula 1 gearshift style. A transmission system could well cost you AUD $220,000.

Differentials

In the case of a 4WD Race Car, there will be 3 differentials within the Four Wheel Drive System. The cars have a Front, Centre and Rear differential, and depending upon the build year of the Race Car, may have active electronic / hydraulic differentials, or plate-type limited slip differentials. The 2 types are described in the following :

Active Differentials

Active Differentials are the most sophisticated form of differential control, as they allow the driver to control the drive to each wheel on the car, both under acceleration, and also braking. This is done by electronically adjusting the plate tension inside each differential, which is eventually controlled by hydraulic oil pressure. This allows a driver to adjust the drive percentage from front to back, and also to tighten or loosen the front and rear differential settings.

Limited Slip Differentials

These units are simpler than the active systems and provide similar characteristics to the active units albeit without the adjustability whilst moving. Therefore, each unit must be built, adjusted, installed and tested in the car to see how it performs, before being removed, reset, refitted and re-tested. The cost factor is however somewhat reduced.

Brakes

Race cars have very large brake rotors and calipers, which are designed to allow the driver to move weight around in the car as quickly and efficiently as possible, whilst also being able to slow the car very efficiently when needed. The systems used generally feature aluminum brake calipers, that typically have 4, 6, or more pistons at the front, and 2 or 4 pistons at the rear. A pedal box allows incremental adjustment of bias between the front and rear brakes, and is adjustable whilst moving, thus allowing the driver to achieve perfect brake balance for any surface. The braking system on a Race Car needs to be operating perfectly, as a large part of the driver’s confidence revolves around having a great feel in the brake pedal along with highly efficient action.

Suspension

This is the area that has been responsible for the one of the major changes in Race Car speed in recent years. Suspension systems may originate from Reiger, Ohlins, Proflex and Bilstein, and each of these are very sophisticated. Each unit acts totally independently, and most operate "upside down", where the actual damper unit is inside a very large ( 50-60 mm in diameter) cylindrical case, that slides up and down inside another cylinder outer casing, which could well be constructed from titanium. This contains needle roller bearings for the top and bottom bushes, to eliminate friction. Each unit is incrementally adjustable, sometimes with 30 adjustments for compression (pressing down) and as many as 20 adjustments for rebound (lifting up). Coupled with this, 2 or 3 different speeds of adjustment are also catered for. This means that a unit can have High Speed Bump, Medium, and Slow settings for each of the aforementioned adjustments. Hours of fun! Each unit can be AUS $10,000 or more to purchase, and the selection of suspension system is critical when building a Race Car. Therefore, a suspension set could be worth upwards of $ 50,000.