TARGA: Follow the (Carbon) Revolution

“We expect our product will do to alloy wheels what alloy did to steel in the 1970s.”

These are the words of Jack Dingle, chief executive officer of Geelong-based Carbon Revolution.

The product in question is a one-piece, carbon-fibre wheel, and it’s making its international motorsport debut at this year’s Targa Tasmania.

“We haven’t chosen an easy target,” laughs Dingle of Carbon Revolution’s partnership with Adam Spence, an established Targa racer at the wheel of a Modern-class Nissan GT-R.

Clearly, the challenge of proving durability and performance with such a powerful, heavy vehicle is one the engineering, enterprising minds behind the concept relish.

“Adam first contacted us a couple of years ago. His approach was data-driven, professional, and he was on-board with the concept immediately,” explains Ashley Denmead, engineering director of the Carbon Revolution.

And the result? The one-piece carbon-fibre CR-9 saves Spence 3kg… per corner.

Other figures include a 42 per cent saving over a Porsche 911 GT3 wheel, with a lap time difference of “1.5 seconds over a 70-second lap” in back-to-back testing against the factory alloys.

First established in 2007, this potentially game-changing product sprouted earlier, when the Carbon Revolution founders were involved in a Formula SAE project at Deakin University.

“Working on the SAE project along with a couple of mentors, our group developed an interest in lightweight wheels as a way to improve performance,” said Denmead.

“No-one can argue with physics,” he added, pointing to the myriad benefits lower unsprung weight has on a car, along with reduced gyroscopic effect, leading to improved steering response, acceleration and braking performance.

From there the project spiralled and today Carbon Revolution is a 60-strong company with a vision to produce up to 50,000 wheels per year out of its new $25 million dollar facility, defying anybody who thought Australian manufacturing was dead.

The business growth has been typically engineered, with “seven PhDs” employed, strong technical partnerships (including with Deakin, where it all started) and a focus from the outset aimed at developing OEM interest, rather than a pure motorsport application.

“We never approached this as a niche,” says Dingle. “It’s disruptive technology and we wanted to build it to suit OEM standards.”

To achieve that acceptance, Carbon Revolution has exhaustively tested its CR-9 in Europe, where it passed Germany’s TuV wheel standards.

“Our biggest hurdle has been in proving carbon-fibre’s durability to the OEMs, and we have now achieved that,” says Dingle.

Proof of this can be demonstrated the recent Detroit motor show, where the CR-9 graced the arches of Ford’s Shelby Mustang GT350R. Expect the announcement of an on-going partnership shortly.