ZOLFE ORANGE GTC4

All New British Sports car makes production debut

Zolfe Orange, the latest all new British sports car, is making its production debut

at Autosports 2009 on the Evo Magazine stand. Combining stunning good looks

with lightweight design, the Zolfe is set to challenge more established

competitors in this market sector. The front engined rear wheel drive car will

provide vice free handling and astonishing performance. The fruits of a new

collaboration between Midlands business entrepreneur and car enthusiast Nic

Strong and former Caterham Technical Director, Jez Coates, the Zolfe will be

available to purchase at the show.

Assembling the Dream Team

Zolfe’s key partners include Sparlonz, Stadco, MTCe, Simpact, AP Racing, Avon

Tyres, Powertorque Engineering and KN Engineering.

Sparlonz Plasticz

Sparlonz Plasticz is a tier one supplier to the Automotive Industry whose

primary speciality is the niche vehicle sector.

It was Sparlonz personnel who originally created the Zolfe Orange. This was to

showcase the company's capabilities following the successful completion of the

first three electric vans for LTI, which later evolved to become the Modec Electric

Vehicles.

Stadco

Stadco are a tier one supplier to the high volume car industry with customers

that include Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Ford. Stadco have engineered

and set-up North American production of the Ford GT, the recent re-incarnation

of the multiple Le Man winning icon, the Ford GT40. The GT’s aluminium space

frame is testimony to Stadco’s wide ranging capability in vehicle structure

design.

Ergonomics

Zolfe has taken full advantage of Stadco’s extensive whole vehicle development

experience to engineer several critical aspects of the Orange. The original design

has been benchmarked against competitor vehicles including the Audi TT and

Porsche Boxster, to ensure the production version can accommodate a 95

percentile male complete with racing helmet. The seating position ergonomics

and relationships with steering wheel, gearstick etc. conforms to strict EEC

standards and all legal requirements in terms of vision angles.

Vehicle Package

Before any surfacing work could be carried out, Stadco had to create a ‘Hard

Point’ model of all the vehicle aggregates such as spaceframe, engine and

transmission, ergonomic package, wheel envelopes and approach angles, and

legal requirements including front and rear lamps. This was created in the digital

environment using Catia V5. This DMU (digital mock-up) helped Stadco define

the vehicle architecture and layout and provided Zolfe with a robust vehicle

package. The result of these studies also proved the need to increase the length

by 125mm and the width by 100mm over the original vehicle.

Styling

The need to build a bigger car presented Stadco’s aesthetic design team with

the challenge of increasing the dimensions of the car without losing the style of

the original

The results are stunning: Not only have all the technical and legal requirements

been met but the look of the re-engineered body has been significantly

enhanced. New features have been introduced to improve packaging,

aerodynamics and cooling performance. First of these is a bonnet bulge to

increase clearance to the engine and add an additional aggressive element to

the styling. Radiator outlet nostrils have also been added to the bonnet to

ensure bullet proof cooling performance under the most arduous race track

conditions. The front grilles are now stronger, tighter and more purposeful.

Management of the air flow through the radiator grille increases aerodynamic

downforce on the front axle and reduces engine bay temperatures to improve

engine power output. Wheel arches have been tailored to ensure the wheels fill

them, giving the revised Zolfe Orange a very purposeful stance.

All the body surfaces are completely new and have been painstakingly

developed to the automotive industry’s ‘A’ class surfacing standard using the

latest computer aided surface development using tools, Alias and IceM Surf. This

ensures that the Orange looks great from all angles and under a variety of

lighting conditions while meeting the rigorous engineering, ergonomic, legal

restrictions.

Styling review and sign-off has been completed digitally using Opticore, Stadco’s

virtual visualisation software which allowed us to proceed with a very high level

of confidence in the surfaces.

Opticore Visualisation Models

A fully machined quarter scale model was then produced to enable the team to

inspect a physical three dimensional representation and confirm final sign-off.

Body Engineering

By continuing the development in CAD, Stadco’s body engineers have been able

to develop a body solution with a high degree of manufacturing feasibility.

Particular attention has been paid to the door engineering and glasshouse

layout, these are highly complex systems and have been engineered by Stadco

to a level not usually associated with cars of this type.

For instance, the door system incorporating the drop glass mechanism, latch,

hinge mounting, internal/external handles and sealing have all been developed

together to mass production car standards. The whole body system including all

the closures and seals have been developed for manufacture and a high level of

quality fit and finish. This includes a sophisticated, highly detailed cowl and a

precision body mounting system. Finally, when the engineering surface model

was complete, Stadco’s modellers worked alongside the engineers to develop a

steel armature for the milled model, a mould split plan and mould designs in the

CAD environment allowing for a more efficient workflow downstream.

Body Manufacture

The final engineering surface model was then used to produce a hard stackable

model on Stadco’s high speed milling machine. This was the master model from

which all the moulds would be taken.

After milling, a degree of very fine hand finishing was undertaken in preparation

for hi-gloss painting in Stadco’s model shop. Stadco then painted the models in

a highly durable paint ready for mould preparation.

When the final stacked model had been reviewed and approved by Zolfe,

Stadco’s modellers created the mould split ‘shuttering’ on the model and from

there produced the composite mould tools.

These mould tools were then prepared for the manufacture of production body

parts. Finally, the body was assembled to the frame in Stadco’s dedicated builds

shop.

Stadco’s composite body facility will also provide Zolfe with body systems for all

its production cars.

MTCe

Multimatic Technology Centre Europe is a world class company specialising in

the area of suspension system development for road & race car. MTCe will

supply 4 Formula 1 teams will dampers in 2008 and worked with Jez Coates to

develop the fully independent all wishbone suspension version of the Caterham

Seven the CSR.

The History of Zolfe to date

The Orange GTC4 is the first product from Zolfe. Company founder Nic Strong

decided none of the low volume track cars available appealed to him so he

calmly decided to make his own. And so Zolfe Orange was born, with the

original concept shown at Autosports 2007. Interest was intense but the

packaging and drivetrain were immediately identified as issues which would limit

the cars sales potential.

By chance, long time Caterham Cars Technical Director, Jez Coates was looking

for a new challenge. The look, layout and size of the Orange mirrored the

specification of a car Jez had long harboured a desire to build. Jez immediately

joined Zolfe as Technical Director and started to call on the talents of World

Class Companies to help develop the Zolfe into a new class leading British sports

car.

A basic Sprintz entry level model will be available for just under £30,000.00!

Visit www.zolfe.com for more information.