AMG’s ingenious transmission mount
Want a sti but light transmission mount and hang the expense? AMG has the answer.
There’s so much going on with AMG’s latest GT, the Black Series – both the high-water mark and swansong for this generation of GT; an all-new one arrives in 2021 – that you’d be forgiven for failing to spot its very special transmission mount straight away. You were probably distracted by the DTM-spec aero package. Or the manic, rev-hungry and unique-to-the-Black-Series flatplane-crank V8.
But the Black Series’ transmission mount is quite something. Made of coiled carbonfibre and looking for all the world like some relic of alien technology lifted from Area 51, the component represents both a production first for AMG and an exciting new direction for the use of hugely expensive, very sexy composites in performance-car engineering.
LIKE ALUMINIUM… BUT HALF THE WEIGHT ‘Our target was to keep the same stiffness and strength as an aluminium mount while reducing weight by 55 per cent,’ explains
AMG vehicle development engineer Johannes Hettinger.
‘Coiling the material brings several advantages, not least the fact that you can use the laminating process to build up three-dimensional structures, whereas you can only build up a two-dimensional structure with the standard method. [Ordinarily, making carbon parts involves layering sheets of carbonfibre cloth into a mould, like fibreglass.] Coiling is also a very ecient process, with almost no waste.’
A NO COMPROMISE APPROACH
‘We wanted to save weight through topological optimisation [engineering the vehicle’s structures for best possible performance],’ continues Hettinger. ‘We considered the load path for the mount and realised we couldn’t succeed with conventional processes. So we started thinking creatively, with new calculations and new design and production processes. We arrived at a solution that uses special filament-winding process developed by our Mercedes colleagues in Sindelfingen. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to make each part.
‘We see big potential in coiled carbonfibre, and we’re already working on other components using this technology. What’s more, all of this work was done in-house, so we get a result we are happy with and the process is also of huge benefit to the wider company.’