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Subaru gearbox nominated for innovation award |
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Written by Latest News
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Thursday, 23 October 2008 |
 The Prodrive and Xtrac designed gearbox used by the Subaru World Rally
Team in the all-new Subaru Impreza WRC2008 has been shortlisted for the
prestigious Powertrain Innovation of the Year Award at Professional
MotorSport World Expo, an annual industry show for motorsport
professionals.
The Impreza World Rally Car’s gearbox is a
six-speed unit that utilises Prodrive’s electro-hydraulic paddle-shift
system. It is the only gearbox within the World Rally Championship to
retain an H pattern layout similar to that common amongst road cars.
This
layout makes gear changes faster than a sequential unit, at around 12
milliseconds per shift, and means that drivers are able to select any
gear at any time, allowing greater flexibility of use and recovery
through block-shifting.
It is the latest evolution of SWRT’s
long-established rally-proven technology: the first all-new gearbox in
ten years. It was borne from 18 months of intensive CAD design followed
by three months’ testing on SWRT’s in-house dyno before being
introduced to the Impreza WRC2008 for further in-car shakedown and
systems testing before its competitive debut on the Acropolis Rally in
May.
All of the once-external oil lines have been internalised
within the casting in this latest iteration, and simplicity rules as it
is now formed from a total of two main castings rather than five. This
contributes to it weighing in at a significant nine kilograms lighter
than the previous gearbox of the Impreza WRC2007.
Now in their
third year, the awards will be presented during the annual Professional
MotorSport World Expo in Cologne, Germany from November 11-13.
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