At the fifth round of the Super Taikyu Series, Toyota Chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda, also known by his racing pseudonym Morizo, tested a GR Yaris equipped with the new gearbox.Īfter completing the five-hour race, he came away impressed and, speaking with the in-house Toyota Times magazine, said, "DAT will be a game-changer," adding, "There's no time lost when shifting, so the gap between myself and the pros was smaller than usual. The only drawback to the transmission had been that changing the wheel components would be more like a doctor's thesis than a quick change on the track.Toyota has been testing its new Direct Automatic Transmission in the crucible of motorsport, and it has passed with flying colors. Accordingly, in the event of clutch problems, the gears could simply be shifted through without using the clutch, although this was not advantageous for the synchronizer rings. Colin Chapman raved about the new, fabulous synchronization with the fast, smooth shifting. Both Jim Clark and Innes Ireland had already won a total of seven races in 1961, including three Grand Prix titles. Within a very short time, ZF engineers adjusted the shifting diagram onsite to a more familiar layout. Ireland, on the other hand, apparently shifted gears when accelerating due to the unfamiliar shifting environment, confusing second and fourth gear during the race and causing a serious accident in practice. Clark, who was known to have a talent for adjusting to vehicles very quickly, had fewer problems. ZF engineers had to practically reverse their design so that the shaft could enter at the bottom of the transmission, and the extended gear also necessitated a new housing.ĭoing the whole thing with an unfamiliar five gears didn't make it any easier - especially when things had to go rapidly in a race environment. The production transmission was originally designed with the driveshaft above the differential, which would have moved the engine too far up. He provided some design changes which were subsequently made.Ĭhapman negotiated an exclusive right with ZF for a new racing five-speed transmission, which was then developed jointly on the DS principle. Since it had, among other things, an aluminum housing, Chapman felt it was suitable for racing. It was intended for front-wheel-drive, light commercial vehicles and was to go into series production in 1961. Chapman, who was described as very alert and attentive, discovered a small, fully synchronized four-speed transmission in ZF's testing department - just such a DS transmission with an integrated differential in the housing. Most likely, he already had his later sensational monocoque design in mind when something caught his eye in Friedrichshafen during one of his visits. He had already implemented some revolutionary innovations with the extremely slim, first Formula 1 monoposto, such as the lightweight construction of the trellis frame and double triangular wishbones at the front. This shifted the weight of the engine to the rear axle and brought more traction directly to the drive of the rear wheels via the differential integrated in the transmission.Ĭhapman had a special interest in transmission development, and since he had just entered Formula 1 with the converted Type 12, he needed a highly effective driveline solution. The concept of the DS gearbox was quite interesting for the resurgent motorsport and especially for Formula 1, where the engine was directly behind the driver. Only the steering behavior in the curves was more challenging. On the one hand, this applied principle made the handling more stable and safer on the other hand, the concept was also more economical and efficient in terms of production technology, as it made production of the rear axle simpler and less expensive. In this application, a cardan shaft was no longer required and the differential, which was normally installed in the rear axle, could be omitted. Here, the classic front-engine-rear-drive principle - flange-mounted transmission, cardan shaft, differential, rear axle, drive to the rear wheels - was reimagined and a new principle, in which the differential was integrated in the transmission housing, was implemented very successfully for the first time.
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