Innovations
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| Pikes Peak | Indy | Can Am | Sportscars | Military |
The patented "Weismann Locker" quickly proved it's dominance early in it's career. For example every championship winning Can Am car had a Locker. Every winning GT40 from 1966 on had a Locker in it. And to this day it is still the diff to beat.
It is a mechanically active, torque sensing
differential.
Jack Brabham - "It acts like a spool under
acceleration and opens on corner entry."
On
a track that is traction limited or in a car that is traction limited, the
"Weismann Locker" shines above all other diffs.
The main difference is that the "Weismann Locker seeks the path of most resistance" as opposed to an open diff which "seeks the path of least resistance". In other words, the locker seeks the wheel (or wheels) with the most traction to propel the car forward. So fundamentally the internals are completely different than any other diff in existence. But don't expect to find out how the "locker" looks inside or how it functions internally. We are not about to give up it's secrets even though it has been ripped off before!
To see some pictures of vehicles that have used and won with the locker,
please click on the mini photos above or the text underneath.
In the mid 70's Pete Weismann invented the Weismann "QUICKSHIFT". Based on the same ingenious principle that his father Albert invented for the Weismann Locker, Pete created the first transmission that was instantly engaged upon request of a gear change. Basically the unit shifts out of gear to put it into gear, and it requires no synchronization to engage - hence the name Quickshift. However because the Quickshift can shift instantaneously, there is a serious issue that arises in that the engine can not slow down quick enough - hence another name- that hand grenade shift!
So Pete invented a clever mechanical mechanism to inhibit a shift until the engine was at a suitable rpm. That solution worked beautifully and was incorporated into a hydroplane first, then into offshore boats, then finally into Chris' Daytona.
Then with the advent of computers, we developed the Quickshift to work with the engine management system and clutch control to make synchronized shifts within 30 ms a with servo controlled shift mechanism and clutch, and that was in the early 90's.
Here is Chris and Pete Weismann with the first Neon with a computer controlled Automatic 5 speed Quickshift nestled inside the stock 5 speed manual transmission housing. Pete designed the original Omni transmission, then Chris redesigned the internals for the Neon and wrote the software to control the engine, clutch and transmission.
Pat Weismann invented the "ID Quickshift", where the shifting is done right through the center of the shaft. So there is no longer the need for forks and shift rings, and thus the transmission package can be significantly reduced in length. Pete and Chris had been working on an ID shift for some time, but Pat's breakthrough simplified the shift system considerably and he was awarded a patent for his idea.
The unit above was designed for the 1993 Williams F1 Car.
Now the rage in F1 is Quickshifts and Quick-shifting gearboxes. It takes some time for radical ideas to become accepted and the Quick-shifting concept Pete invented was one of them. Now it is regarded as extremely important to cut the shift times down to as little as possible to be able to spend more time accelerating. The trouble is that, as stated above, the engine can't slow down as quick as we can select the next gear. And so a lot of time and money has been spent by all the top F1 teams to develop Quickshifts or Quickshift like technologies. There are several different ways to achieve this aside from the Weismann Quickshift and as such, each comes with their own "baggage" or engineering compomises to be dealt with.
However, there is none that is simpler or more elegant than the Weismann ID Quickshift.
Weismann Transaxles
It is hard to encompass all the ideas Pete came up with to modernize transaxle technology. So with that in mind, we will try to briefly explain his concepts with the resulting cars as proof to the successful ideas incorporated within Pete's transaxle designs.
The first transaxle that comes to mind is a two speed dog shifted longitudinal transaxle Pete designed in 1962 that used a torque converter instead of a clutch. Pete made his usual mistake of showing it to anybody that would even look at it, and later it emerged in Jim Hall's Can Am cars through GM. Now the same technology is being used by our competitors in offroad racing and they tout it like it is something they came up with!
The next transaxle Pete designed was the 4 speed top loader for the GT40 MKII. The car went on to win Le Mans is spectacular fashion, winning 4 years in a row. He then designed a 4 speed version of the torque converter transmission for the J-Car. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of that car at this time. Carrie Agapou has one of those original cars and he is restoring it now. When he is completed, we will post pictures of the car.
Pete's next major transaxle was for Jack Brabham's Indy car. This trans evolved quickly into the "FTA" transaxle which went on to win the Indy 500 3 times in 10 years in the hands of Bobby Unser, A.J. Foyt, and Johnny Rutherford.
The rugged transaxle was simple to work on, he could change gears within minutes right at the back of the car. The trans is still used today, and it has been slightly modified! WHT
The one concept that Pete Weismann came up that exists in every modern racecar that is designed today, is that the transmission is the most important aspect of the car. You can put your engine where you want it, put the wheels (or props) where you want them, then you can make the transmission fit from A to B. And with that simple realization, he created the next huge concept - with every new car, you can improve upon what you learned from the year before, and thus you can constantly improve your car's performance without relying on improving your aerodynamics and suspension alone. Of course you had to have the budget to do this - and that is exactly what he pioneered in Formula 1.
This is roughly the way it happened. As far as we know in 1958 Maserati invented the transverse transaxle, although we can argued that Miller's two speed front axle was in fact a transverse transaxle. Then Ferrari made their version and were using it with the flat V2 in the early '70s. Then around 1977 Pete came up with his version of the transverse transaxle. The big difference was that Pete did not split the transmission in two around the bevel set like the others before. He placed the entire shift stack within the bevel set. The result was a much more compact and simpler transaxle.
The "Laydown Offy" with Pete's first transverse box.
And more importantly, he greatly improved the CG and polar moment of the car for free. The term CG was known well enough, but seldom did you see a car designed around the concept. But the concept of low polar moment was virtually unknown in racing. In fact only a small handful of engineers that Pete worked with ever understood the benefits of his new transverse transaxles.
Pete developed several transverse boxes with several cars both Indy and F1 before all the correct pieces were in place and we won the 1982 Indy 500 with Gordon Johncock.
With Gordon Murray we had no trouble in convincing him of the possibilities and we developed several Brabham cars with Weismann Transverse Transaxles. Pictured below is a direct comparison of the "current" longitudinal transaxle technology at the time compared to the tidy Weismann Transverse Tunnel box. Note the smooth aero dynamic exterior and the high position of the axles to maximize air flow around the transmission!
The ultimate transverse concept was the "laydown" concept and Pete and Gordon resurrected it with BT55. This car was the lowest car ever made in F1 and it showed potential one can have with a transverse box. Unfortunately the car was never able to live up to it.
Fortunately we collaborated again at Mclaren in the late 1988, all this time all correct pieces were in place again. Well almost- we were not able to convince the powers at be to go with the transverse box right off, so Pete reinvented the longitudinal transaxle for the turbo charged MP4/4.
Again the transaxle was the major difference in the car design. For example ,the Lotus had the same engine, but the car was no where close to being as low as the MP4/4 was. The transaxle featured a setup gear set of the back of the clutch which also served double duty as the main oil pump for the gearbox, then the longitudinal transaxle was lifted to put the axles where we wanted them, and dry-sumped the trans . The result, we lapped the Lotus at the first race and the MP4/4 went on to be the all time best car ever in F1, winning a staggering 15 out of 16 races.
Then the next year with the turbos going away, we came out with a transverse transaxle for the normally aspirated MP4/5. The car was 1.5 seconds a lap quicker, turned in much quicker due to the still unknown low polar moment concept, and we had by the end of the season the second best car of all time in F1 with 14 out of 16 races.
The compact MP4/5 transverse behind the MP4/4 longitudinal.
And we revolutionized racing from then on, because it became clear that transverse transaxles were the way to go, and low CG and low polar moment were important aspects in racecar design - and this was the end of the 1989 season when everybody woke up! After that year every F1 team made the switch to transverse gearboxes.
Constant Velocity Joints in Race Cars
A little know fact, but Pete was the first to put CV joints into race cars. Up until that time, everybody used Univeral joints.
McLaren F1 Transaxle
Garbage Pump - DrySumps Systems
Weismann Marine
Drives
Weismann Muti-Speed Marine Transmissions
Weismann Inline Package
more to come!
