Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT), the high-performance engineering arm of Red Bull Technology Group, has joined forces with Singer, well-known for the personalised restoration of air-cooled Porsche 911s, to design a strategy for increasing the torsional stiffness of Type 964 Cabriolets and Targas reimagined through Singer’s Classic Turbo services.
California based Singer was founded back in 2009. Their philosophy is a simple one that is captured in just five words: “A Relentless Pursuit of Excellence”, which is an ethos that is mirrored at Red Bull Advanced Technologies with its expert engineering capabilities.
So, how do Singer work? Typically, an owner of a 964-generation Porsche 911 Cabriolet or Targa will send their car to the company asking them to carry out a personalised restoration through Singer’s Classic Turbo services. All of these sports cars were originally manufactured by Porsche over thirty years ago and most of them have been on the road ever since.
The restoration process starts with the owner’s car being carefully disassembled. The interior is removed, followed by the exterior bodywork and all the car’s mechanical components until you are left with just the steel monocoque. The chassis is then painstakingly assessed, cleaned and prepared so that it is in optimal condition before the next stages of restoration can get underway.
To improve the structure of the cars, Singer asked Red Bull Advanced Technologies on behalf of their clients, to deploy their world-class capabilities in simulation and structural analysis. This means that the Porsche 964 chassis has been digitally modelled using scanned data and manual measurements. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software was used to calculate the torsional stiffness of the different variants of the car both with and without a roof. The FEA model was then refined until the predicted stiffness values matched those recorded in physical tests.
Red Bull Advanced Technologies was able to assess which parts of the open-roof structure were working the hardest to resist the applied torsion having correlated the model looking at the strain energy. They were then able to design a formation of 13 carbon fibre structures to reinforce these parts, whilst at the same time still respecting the need to preserve the original Type 964 chassis and accommodate packaging requirements.
The 13 carbon fibre reinforcing structures developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies are bonded to the 964 monocoque during the restoration process which increases torsional rigidity by 175 per cent. As a result, the increased chassis rigidity has benefitted the handling, braking and overall refinement, with the driving experience of the open-roofed cars now matching that of the coupe.
Rob Gray, Technical Director of Red Bull Advanced Technologies said:
“Our expertise is derived from relentless competition and success at the very highest levels of motorsport. We apply that expertise to engineering challenges across a wide variety of projects and industries. The challenge from Singer was to increase the stiffness of the open-roof Type 964, giving it the same dynamic performance as the coupe whilst minimizing additional weight. The careful balancing of performance against weight is extremely familiar to us and we’re delighted to have been able to support Singer and their clients with this solution.”
Mazen Fawaz, Chief Strategy Officer at Singer added:
“Our clients are some of the most discerning drivers in the world. To achieve the standards, they have come to expect, we work only with the best, and our search for expertise in this area led us to Red Bull Advanced Technologies. Since 2009 our approach has brought heritage together with cutting edge engineering, and Red Bull’s mastery of advanced materials, simulation and structural analysis perfectly exemplifies this approach. The results underline the extraordinary lengths we go to in our relentless pursuit of excellence.”
Owners are able to restore their old Porsche cars through Singer’s Classic Turbo services, taking inspiration from the original 911 Turbo which was launched back in 1974, and can choose either coupe, cabriolet or Targa body styles. For more information on Singer, please visit: www.singervehicledesign.com.
Author Bio:
Simon Burrell is a UK-based motoring and travel journalist and editor, a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and former saloon car racing driver.
Photographs courtesy of Singer
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