Red Bull Advanced Technologies & Singer Team Up

Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the high-performance engineering arm of Red Bull Technology Group, has joined forces with Singer, known for its highly personalized restorations 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.

Singer’s work begins when the owner of a 964-generation Porsche 911 Cabriolet or Targa sends their car with a request to carry out a personalized restoration through Singer’s Classic Turbo services, company officials stated in a press release. Originally manufactured by Porsche more than 30 years ago, these sports cars have been on the road ever since.

Red Bull Advanced Technologies’ Process of Boosting Torsional Stiffness

On behalf of their clients, Singer asked Red Bull Advanced Technologies to deploy their world-class capabilities in simulation and structural analysis, noted the release. The Porsche 964 chassis was digitally modelled using scanned data and manual measurements. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software was then used to calculate the torsional stiffness of the different variants of the car (with and without a roof). The FEA model was then refined until the predicted stiffness values matched those recorded in physical tests.

Having correlated the model, Red Bull Advanced Technologies was able to use it to assess which parts of the open-roof structure were working the hardest to resist the applied torsion, primarily through looking at the strain energy, the company said. Using this insight, a formation of 13 carbon-fiber structures was then designed to reinforce these parts, whilst still respecting the need to preserve the original Type 964 chassis and accommodate packaging requirements.

The reinforcing structures were then built into the correlated FEA model and tuned to give the required torsional stiffness level. A prototype vehicle featuring the reinforcing structures was then tested as a final validation of the analysis work.

Torsional Rigidity Provides Better Handling, Braking & Overall Refinement

The 13 carbon-fiber reinforcing structures developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies are bonded to the 964 monocoque during the restoration process. Overall, torsional rigidity is increased by 175%. Singer says this increased chassis rigidity benefits handling, braking and overall refinement, with the driving experience of the open-roofed cars now matching that of the coupe.

“Our expertise is derived from relentless competition and success at the very highest levels of motorsport,” said Rob Gray, technical director of Red Bull Advanced Technologies. “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.”

“Our clients are some of the most discerning drivers in the world,” said Mazen Fawaz, chief strategy officer at Singer. “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.”