Speed Needs Precision: Feature Article

IndyCar regulations list several parts race teams can make themselves to help reduce the cost of putting cars on the track. Most of those parts are suspension components, such as dampers and various chassis elements like front and rear rocker components. Teams can also produce other items, such as throttles and brake pedals. When an IndyCar team like Indianapolis-based Ed Carpenter Racing produces parts in-house, the team not only saves money, it also can change and tweak those components to improve the overall racecar performance.

Ultimately, the expectations for the team’s racecars and machine shop are the same: go fast. There is always a need for the parts produced in-house because cars get damaged on the track or parts simply wear out.

The Ed Carpenter Racing team machines most of their parts from 7075 and 7075 T6 aluminum. Many of these parts are for modifications to a car’s dampers, which provide stability and help increase fuel mileage.

Currently, the team fields two cars for the full season in the NTT IndyCar Series and three cars for the Indianapolis 500. Ed Carpenter Racing employs roughly 75 people, three of whom run the team’s machine shop, and there are typically four mechanics and one crew chief per car. In addition to building cars, the team also disassembles them throughout the season to conduct part crack tests and check suspension components between races.

The shop typically produces parts for one race season at a time and will make extras beyond that amount for stock. These aren’t high-volume jobs, but they require many smaller associated parts that the team needs on a regular basis, such as various types of fasteners and brackets.

To accomplish both part cost reduction and increased production speed, Ed Carpenter Racing acquired a 5-axis CNC milling machine with a maximum spindle speed of 24,000 rpm. Unfortunately, the team quickly realized that cutters spinning that fast required the right toolholders.