An application of advanced hard coatings to the gear components of a car used by the Red Victor 1 racing team has helped them clock up their best speeds ever.
Returning from the winter series drag racing championships in Bahrain, the team said Wallwork’s Nitron MC gear coating and titanium nitride gear retainer coating helped to extend the operating life of the Red Victor 3’s gear components
Red Victor managing director, Andy Frost, explained: “The drag racer accelerates from zero to 191mph in 4.09 seconds producing up to 4000bhp. The gear box on this car is relatively compact due to limited space and so the stress forces on the transmission are immense. Prior to involving Wallwork we were achieving just two quarter mile runs from a gearbox, after which we would see galling and welding of the planet gears. With the hard-coated gears from Wallwork, we ran a staggering 21 runs in total – without a failure, throughout the Bahrain event.”
Europe’s fastest street-legal drag racer, Red Victor 3 is a live test-bed for engineering innovations and will remain in Bahrain for the 2017 drag racing season starting in November. The engine and transmission will be stripped and re-built by Penn Autos, owner of the Red Victor team.
Surface engineering company Wallwork will be working with Red Victor staff to evaluate the performance of the coated parts and advise on refinements to further boost performance.