3D Printing At The Cutting Edge Of Racing

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Need a new manifold for your race car? Do what the pros are doing now...print one!

The project was aimed at producing a fully functional intake manifold in a short time. This part had to guarantee proper flow dispersion in the intake runners in to improve the torque and the engine power at a reduced fuel consumption.
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This is was 3d printing was built for.

Now to just get it to a reasonable price.

Forget buying parts and waiting for them to come in, I'll just print a new one, how many weekend projects would this have saved my frustration.
 
Jay Leno has been "printing" replacement parts for his cars since 2011..

Jay Leno has a lot of old cars with a lot of obsolete parts. When he needs to replace these parts, he skips the error-prone machinist and goes to his rapid prototyping 3D printer. Simply scan, print and repeat.
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APR, AUdi Peerformance Racing, based in Opelika, Alabama, has been 3-d printing prototypes since back in the early 2000's. I recall reading an article on a plane heading somewhere while in college about them using a light sensitive fluid to print parts layer by layer, and the fluid was something along the lines of $800 per gallon at the time.
 
one swell foop said:
APR, AUdi Peerformance Racing, based in Opelika, Alabama, has been 3-d printing prototypes since back in the early 2000's. I recall reading an article on a plane heading somewhere while in college about them using a light sensitive fluid to print parts layer by layer, and the fluid was something along the lines of $800 per gallon at the time.
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Heh, just loaded the comments and was going to reference APR as well. :cool:
I cant wait for their 3d printed manifold so I can use that for my direct port injection w/m setup!
 
Its funny i was just watching Counting Cars a few days ago when the owner refused to look into 3D printing his new staff members were advising him to try instead of paying thousands of dollars for a replacement headlight cover that is very rare. I can see both sides the old school who will buy the real part vs the new school who can easily just replicate the part for less. I really like where this tech is going in the next 5 years.
 
I can't wait til I can print one of those million dollar sports cars for cheap!....hell even if they could limit how long you could use the printed car for would be kinda cool. Disposable vehicles - "This car/truck will self recycle in 10 days" - LoL Would be nice for those times when you need a truck/jeep but don't want to buy one just for occasional use.
 
Let the discontinued part printing begin!!!!!. Either that or print improvements over stock. Center-feed fuel rails anyone? I know my old GT-Four RC can benefit from it.
 
This is what I'm most excited about with 3D printing. I've been restoring muscle cars for 20 years, and the idea of being able to just print out the part I need is incredibly exciting. Some of those small trim pieces and badges, interior pieces like knobs and levers, are incredibly expensive, or they just don't make them anymore. Can't wait until the printers get a bit cheaper so average guys like me can afford them.
 
B2BigAl said:
Can't wait until the printers get a bit cheaper so average guys like me can afford them.
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disclaimer: I've not looked into 3D printing in years. My information could be completely out of date!

Personally, I can't wait until the quality of the parts printed reaches the standard required to be used for things like door handles. With the exception of the metal laser sintering systems which are over half a mil a printer, most 3D printed parts are not what I would call "durable". There's been some exciting advancements in the technology over the last few years, but we aren't quite there yet. Need a replacement part for your Gundam model? No problem. Need a replacement part for your '11 Subaru? That's a different story. Even if you created a printer large enough to support a dash or door panel, it would likely crack before you even got it installed. Injection molding's still the way to go for plastics.

But hey, it's new technology and an exciting prospect for the future!
 
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