KW Automotive Group Supplies Aston Martin Racing with Solid Piston Dampers

KW Automotive Group announces its five-way adjustable and two-way adjustable KW Solid Piston dampers are homologated in the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo and Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo, which will be delivered to motorsport customers in 2024.

In addition to Aston Martin, company equips customer sport racing cars from BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, and Toyota with motorsports components.

“We are pleased with KW automotive that we have been able to win Aston Martin Racing as a customer,” says Thomas Rechenberg, head of KW Motorsport. “The British brand is a motorsport institution with a great global reach.”

In its rich motorsports history, Aston Martin celebrated numerous successes in sports car championships and Formula 1.

“Now we will also be a part of this history with our engineering,” Rechenberg continued.

“The new Evo variants of our existing GT3 and GT4 cars have taken a step forward in precision and drivability, which will allow drivers to maximize performance during a race weekend. Benefiting from experience of the KW engineers, and through the use of their vehicle rigs, we were able to hit the track with a well-optimized damper package”, says Huw Tasker, head of partner racing AMR.

“Due to the axle geometry and layout, space is extremely limited on the front axle of the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo,” explains Florian Heer, KW Motorsport engineer,  “We have devised a bespoke solution for the double wishbone axles.”

The KW V6 Racing dampers can be extended at the housings using a configuration of shims that the race engineer can choose from.

For the five-way adjustable V6 Racing dampers utilized on the GT3 Evo, KW automotive employs its Solid-Piston technology. This approach does not allow oil to flow through the working piston; instead, the entire volume of oil is displaced by the solid piston and through the valves. The damper valves are connected in series and are not located in the working piston but in a separate valve housing. 

The modular valve technology allows the valve cross-sectional openings to be tailored to customer requirements in the low-speed range and the valve spring preload to be individually adjusted in the high-speed range. This flexible design enables the response behavior of the dampers to be specifically configured.

In addition, the V6 Racing has an adjustable blow-off function to dampen the sudden vertical force increase when aggressively driven over curbs. The KW Solid Piston dampers are convincing with their high-frequency, precise function at low valve travel.

“During the development, measurement, and test drives, the drivers reported that the V6 Racing damper in the GT3 Evo gives them a great deal of confidence and that they have consistently high performance,” Thomas Rechenberg continued.

While the dampers are five-way adjustable for performance reasons in the AMR GT3 Evo, the KW V5 Racing dampers for the AMR GT4 Evo have two-way adjustable valves in the low-speed range of compression and rebound.

In addition to Aston Martin, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, and Toyota rely on KW Racing dampers in their customer sports program. 

KW is looking for R&D engineers for motorsport applications. Please visit www.kwsuspensions.net