Paul Morris Motorsports expands V8 Supercar operations
11/1/2005 16:57 (Press Release) -
V8 Supercar team Paul Morris Motorsports is expanding it's race car building operations with new equipment and facilities backed up a partnership with technology solutions company Camplex.
The Gold Coast-based team is utilising its upgraded resources in the building of two new VZ Holden Commodores for the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship.
PMM owner and driver Paul Morris will race one of the new cars in 2005 in Sirromet Wines-livery. The other will be driven by New Zealand's Paul Radisich for Team Kiwi, who are relocating from Melbourne to be based in PMM's facilities at the Holden Performance Driving Centre.
The PMM team's new equipment includes a $220,000 Haas Computer Numerical Control (CNC) five-axis machine, expanded manufacturing and fabrication premises, and Camplex is supplying Delcam software and other services to improve efficiency in the design and car building process.
"We've now built six V8 Supercars 'in-house' and we're keen to develop that side of the business, as well as being a race team," said Morris.
"There is plenty of interest in the cars coming out of our workshop, so we are putting everything in place to be able to increase production and supply as demand grows."
Morris' team built their first 'in-house' Commodore V8 Supercar in 2001, and all of their race cars have been designed with Computer Aided Design-Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD-CAM) by Technical Manager Paul Ceprnich, a former BMW Motorsport technician.
Team Kiwi purchased a PMM car for the 2004 championship, and claimed a pole position in the round at Winton in Victoria.
"Paul (Ceprnich) is regarded as one of the best in his field in the V8 paddock, and the cars he designs are second-to-none," said Morris.
Morris said the partnership with Camplex, and the use of Delcam programs, would be crucial to the team's future race car production plans.
Camplex was established in 1988 and is Australia and New Zealand's leading supplier of technology solutions for the design, manufacture, inspection, reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping of complex shapes and tooling.
"The CNC programming software converts drawings into machine code to make components out of a solid billet of steel, aluminium, or whatever," said Morris.
"With the two new cars we're building we've already seen the benefits of speed and efficiency with the manufacturing process for engine components, panels, driveline, front and rear suspension, and the chassis."
"This new software brings all our programs into the same 'family' and unifies things, and improves production quality and consistency with car building."
Morris said overall building time of the new 2005-specification V8 Supercar Commodore amounted to approximately 780 man hours.
"The new cars are an evolution of what we've built before, with several design and manufacturing improvements through our ongoing development programs," he said.
Morris said PMM's technical partnership with Team Kiwi would benefit the championship prospects of both himself and Radisich in 2005.
"Sharing data and resources means we will be able to fast-track development with both cars, although we will operate completely separately at the race track," he said.
The 2005 V8 Supercar Championship begins with the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide on March 17-20. Before then the teams will contest the non-championship races at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne from March 4-6.
Release Date: `21/12/2004
Sirromet Wines - Paul Morris Motorsports
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