A true British sports car from the very start
Combining stunning good looks with lightweight design, the Zolfe is set to challenge more established competitors in this market sector. This front engine, rear-wheel drive car will provide vice free handling and astonishing performance.
Assembling the Dream Team
Zolfe's key partners include Sparlonz, Stadco, MTCe, Simpact, AP Racing, Avon Tyres, Powertorque Engineering and KN Engineering.
Sparlonz Plasticz is a tier one supplier to the
Automotive Industry who specialise in the niche vehicle sector. It was Sparlonz personnel who originally created the
Zolfe Orange in order to showcase the company's capabilities following their successful completion of the first three electric vans for LTI.
These vehicles later evolved to become the Modec Electric Vehicles. www.sparlonz.com
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 Mans winning icon, the Ford GT40. The GT's aluminium
space frame is testimony to Stadco's wide ranging capability in vehicle
structure design. www.stadco.co.uk
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.
Simpact provides specialized computer aided engineering and 3D digitization and has provided specialty design for companies such as Lotus, Chevron, Caterham and Lola. Simpact’s computer model allows optimization of chassis structure, permitting proper gauge and diameter of every tube in the structure. This eliminates redundant tubes that offer no benefit to the chassis and ensures maximum torsional stiffness, crash prediction, and improvement of crashworthiness of the chassis structure. www.simpact.co.uk
The Zolfe makes use of the latest advance in spaceframe chassis design. By making use of a ‘virtual prototype’ CAE model, Simpact were able to rapidly assess several chassis design concepts within the overall design package available. This ‘right first time’ philosophy meant that a highly optimised (weight and stiffness) design was found in record time without the need for conducting expensive experimental testing.
Multimatic has four operating groups that provide products for the automotive industry and has provided expertise for four different Formula 1 teams. With Zolfe, Multimatic was engaged in the suspension design and geometry for optimal handling performance. www.multimatic.com
Multimatic's state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities provide a wide range of capabilities that can be tailored to meet any product configuration and process requirement. In-process verification techniques are employed at all production stages to ensure "built-in" quality, from the first to the millionth part. A host of purpose built functional and durability test equipment and walk-in environmental chambers are used to validate ongoing compliance with all customer performance requirements. Multimatic boasts an outstanding quality record having received the highest level awards from its customers including General Motors' Supplier of the Year, Ford's Gold World Excellence Award and DaimlerChrysler's Platinum Pentastar.
