DSR in house parts

[The Counterfeiter]

Well, it's a start . . .

DSR'S 2010 PLAN: MORE IN-HOUSE PARTS

When we were in the shop in May, there were 8 machining centers and CMM equipment in place. If I were competing against AJR and JFR, I'd want to have control over as many parts as possible. Of course, I'm not paying the bills and other priorities may have taken precedence!

 

[flapjack]

Sounds more like a cost saving measure than anything else, for each of AJR,
DSR, and JFR.

For instance, JFR makes their own clutch cannons, which are more or less a
copy of the AFT cannon (a JFR crew member told me this). So making their
own part, in this case, is not driven by innovation they wish to keep from
others. More likely it is cost driven. I wonder how many cannons they had
to make before they recouped their initial investment?

 

[The Counterfeiter]

Sounds more like a cost saving measure than anything else, for each of AJR, DSR, and JFR.
For instance, JFR makes their own clutch cannons, which are more or less a
copy of the AFT cannon (a JFR crew member told me this). So making their
own part, in this case, is not driven by innovation they wish to keep from
others. More likely it is cost driven. I wonder how many cannons they had
to make before they recouped their initial investment?

Tom - I have to disagree . . . saw a Fadal multi-axis machine at JFR (one of ten in the shop - ) producing a head with no operator in sight several years ago. Who knows what is going on at AJR! It's one thing to produce a relatively simple part like a cannon or even rods - no one can justify having eight or ten machining centers to save those costs.
The investment in CNC programming time (not to mention R & D and what the programmer is paid) to produce heads or blowers has to be huge, even if the first part off the machine works. These three teams are so far ahead of every other competitor - I have to think that all of this investment in proprietary parts has something to do with the results. To answer a question that will probably come up, DSR is not yet producing their own parts, but does anyone know if someone is machining customized parts for the team?

 

[Mooseman]

Don't most racing part companies do custom parts on request? so if thats the case any team could in theory order whatever custom parts they wanted if they had the money. I guess in this case though everything would be in house so only they would know about it and that can easily make any crazy idea they want and if it doesnt work try again.

 

[flapjack]

Tom - I have to disagree . . . saw a Fadal multi-axis machine at JFR (one of ten in the shop - ) producing a head with no operator in sight several years ago. Who knows what is going on at AJR! It's one thing to produce a relatively simple part like a cannon or even rods - no one can justify having eight or ten machining centers to save those costs.
The investment in CNC programming time (not to mention R & D and what the programmer is paid) to produce heads or blowers has to be huge, even if the first part off the machine works. These three teams are so far ahead of every other competitor - I have to think that all of this investment in proprietary parts has something to do with the results. To answer a question that will probably come up, DSR is not yet producing their own parts, but does anyone know if someone is machining customized parts for the team?

I suspect all of the machinery is for the BOSS 500 engine and its heads.

Maybe JFR is getting ready to spin off John Force Performance Engineering,
except they will specialize in the BOSS 500 instead of the TFX? I would not
be surprised to see Wilk have the BOSS 500 next year, not as part of the
Ford alliance, but as a customer of JFR.

 

[vegasnitro]

Alan Johnson has to make nice coin off of AJPE. Maybe DSR wants to get into the parts sellin' business too -or- if you amortize the cost of those fancy machines over many seasons of building your own parts it could offset the costs of buying your parts from your competitors.