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40-417: The C9 was a development of Sauber's previous C8 design, retaining a monocoque that largely consisted of aluminium, although considerably stiffer and with numerous other improvements. The rear suspension changed from vertically positioned spring/damper units arranged over the top of the gearbox to a horizontal layout aligned with the longitudinal axis of the car. Aerodynamic changes included the repositioning of

80-525: A change of senior management at Mercedes and the announcement in January by new deputy chairman Prof. Dr Werner Niefer that the company would support Group C sportscars. As a result, Mercedes was sponsored by AEG-Olympia – AEG being owned by Daimler-Benz at the time, effectively giving the team full factory support. The team's management was bolstered by former BMW M team manager Jochen Neerpasch and Swiss former driver Max Welti . They managed to finish second in

120-514: A combination of castings and sheet-metal stampings". Single-piece carbon fiber bicycle frames are sometimes described as monocoques; however as most use components to form a frame structure (even if molded in a single piece), these are frames not monocoques, and the pedal-cycle industry continues to refer to them as framesets. The P40DC, P42DC and P32ACDM all utilize a monocoque shell. Various rockets have used pressure-stabilized monocoque designs, such as Atlas and Falcon 1 . The Atlas

160-486: A frame. This reduces weight for a given amount of armour. Examples include the German TPz Fuchs and RG-33 . French industrialist and engineer Georges Roy attempted in the 1920s to improve on the bicycle-inspired motorcycle frames of the day, which lacked rigidity. This limited their handling and therefore performance. He applied for a patent in 1926, and at the 1929 Paris Automotive Show unveiled his new motorcycle,

200-406: A fuel tank incorporated into the frame. A monocoque-framed motorcycle was developed by Spanish manufacturer Ossa for the 1967 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season . Although the single-cylinder Ossa had 20 horsepower (15 kW) less than its rivals, it was 45 pounds (20 kg) lighter and its monocoque frame was much stiffer than conventional motorcycle frames , giving it superior agility on

240-434: A low drag version for the 5.8 kilometre Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. In its sprint configuration, it produced 2,222.1 kg (4,899 lb) of downforce at 320 km/h (200 mph) while generating 555.7 kg (1,225 lb) of drag. The sprint circuit configuration had a L/D ratio of 4:1 while the low drag version was around 3:1. The early engines were again prepared by Swiss engine specialist, Heini Mader, though this

280-413: A minor structural contribution in tension but none in compression and was there for aerodynamic reasons only. By considering the structure as a whole and not just the sum of its parts, monocoque construction integrated the skin and frame into a single load-bearing shell with significant improvements to strength and weight. To make the shell, thin strips of wood were laminated into a three dimensional shape;

320-399: A solid frame. This becomes obvious when internal pressure is lost and the structure collapses. Monocoque tanks can also be cheaper to manufacture than more traditional orthogrids . Blue Origin's upcoming New Glenn launch vehicle will use monocoque construction on its second stage despite the mass penalty in order to reduce the cost of production. This is especially important when the stage

360-506: A speed of 405 km/h (251.1 mph) in the 1988 race, however both of these cars were purpose built to achieve a top speed record, with one vehicle retiring after only 13 laps, in stark contrast to the C9's bulletproof reliability over the whole of the 24 hours. These speeds led to the introduction of two chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight from 1990 onwards. ^1 Points also scored by

400-506: A technique adopted from boat hull construction. One of the earliest examples was the Deperdussin Monocoque racer in 1912, which used a laminated fuselage made up of three layers of glued poplar veneer, which provided both the external skin and the main load-bearing structure. This also produced a smoother surface and reduced drag so effectively that it was able to win most of the races it was entered into. This style of construction

440-497: A tensile stressed skin and a compressive structure made up of longerons and ribs or frames . Other semi-monocoques, not to be confused with true monocoques, include vehicle unibodies , which tend to be composites, and inflatable shells or balloon tanks , both of which are pressure stabilised. Early aircraft were constructed using frames, typically of wood or steel tubing, which could then be covered (or skinned ) with fabric such as Irish linen or cotton . The fabric made

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480-555: A uniform material. After failed attempts with several large flying boats in which a few components were monocoques, he built the Zeppelin-Lindau V1 to test out a monocoque fuselage. Although it crashed, he learned a lot from its construction. The Dornier-Zeppelin D.I was built in 1918 and although too late for operational service during the war was the first all metal monocoque aircraft to enter production. In parallel to Dornier, Zeppelin also employed Adolf Rohrbach , who built

520-456: Is expendable , as with the New Glenn second stage. 1989 World Sportscar Championship season The 1989 World Sportscar Championship season was the 37th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured the 1989 FIA World Sports Prototype Championship, which was open to Group C1 Sports Prototypes , Group C2 Sports Prototypes and IMSA GTP cars . The championship

560-452: Is now known to have been a cover for Mercedes back door involvement with the project later on. It had been progressively lightened with the use of a new crankshaft, higher efficiency KKK turbochargers and a liner-less block. It was a semi-stressed part of the chassis and ran a dry sump . There were no special qualifying engines and on 2.2 bar of boost it was said to be rated at "almost 800 hp (811 PS; 597 kW)". Maximum race boost

600-552: The 1989 World Sportscar Championship , the Sauber C9 won all except the second race at Dijon Prenois , where they were defeated by the Joest Porsche 962 of Bob Wollek and Frank Jelinski . Sauber drivers also filled the top four spots in the drivers standings with Schlesser winning the championship outright. High performance was only one notable aspect of the C9s ability; its reliability

640-459: The Junkers J 1 had appeared as early as 1915, these were not monocoques but added a metal skin to an underlying framework. The first metal monocoques were built by Claudius Dornier , while working for Zeppelin-Lindau. He had to overcome a number of problems, not least was the quality of aluminium alloys strong enough to use as structural materials, which frequently formed layers instead of presenting

680-554: The Mulsanne Straight . In spite of this, it was the car of Schlesser/Jabouille/Cudini which occupied pole position on race day. The Sauber C9s would go on to finish first, second and fifth in the race. Mercedes driver Jean-Louis Schlesser would end up taking the driver's championship that season. The C9 would be replaced by the Mercedes-Benz C11 from the second race onwards of the 1990 season , when it took one final win in

720-496: The Sauber C11 Monocoque Monocoque ( / ˈ m ɒ n ə k ɒ k , - k oʊ k / MON -ə-ko(h)k ), also called structural skin , is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word monocoque is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, a true monocoque carries both tensile and compressive forces within

760-693: The Zeppelin-Staaken E-4/20 , which when it flew in 1920 became the first multi-engined monocoque airliner, before being destroyed under orders of the Inter-Allied Commission. At the end of WWI, the Inter-Allied Technical Commission published details of the last Zeppelin-Lindau flying boat showing its monocoque construction. In the UK, Oswald Short built a number of experimental aircraft with metal monocoque fuselages starting with

800-427: The 1920 Short Silver Streak in an attempt to convince the air ministry of its superiority over wood. Despite advantages, aluminium alloy monocoques would not become common until the mid 1930s as a result of a number of factors, including design conservatism and production setup costs. Short would eventually prove the merits of the construction method with a series of flying boats, whose metal hulls didn't absorb water as

840-488: The Aero-D One, featuring a composite monocoque chassis that weighed only 12 kg (26 lb). An aluminium monocoque frame was used for the first time on a mass-produced motorcycle from 2000 on Kawasaki's ZX-12R , their flagship production sportbike aimed at being the fastest production motorcycle . It was described by Cycle World in 2000 as a "monocoque backbone ... a single large diameter beam" and "Fabricated from

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880-509: The Art-Deco styled 1930 Majestic. Its new type of monocoque body solved the problems he had addressed, and along with better rigidity it did double-duty, as frame and bodywork provided some protection from the elements. Strictly considered, it was more of a semi-monocoque, as it used a box-section, pressed-steel frame with twin side rails riveted together via crossmembers, along with floor pans and rear and front bulkheads. A Piatti light scooter

920-427: The cars were run by Kouros Racing, named after the fragrance brand of its parent company, Yves Saint Laurent , although backed by Mercedes-Benz in a semi-official capacity. The deal was to last five races. The team managed a mere twelfth in the teams standings, scoring points in only a single round. For 1988 , the sponsorship deal with Kouros was not renewed and the team was renamed Sauber Mercedes. This coincided with

960-523: The championship behind the Jaguar XJR-9 with five wins for the season. Unfortunately at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , the team suffered an embarrassing setback when they were forced to withdraw due to concern over their Michelin tyres after Klaus Niedzwiedz suffered a blow out at high speed. Finally, in 1989, the car was able to achieve great success. Besides replacing the black colour scheme with Mercedes' traditional plain silver scheme and reducing AEG to

1000-422: The combination of oil/water radiator to the nose of the car, which allowed the use of a modified splitter plate. Commensurate with the repositioning of the radiators, the large NACA ducts were removed from the top of the door sills. The rear deck had been considerably re-profiled and the rear wing was now mounted solely on a central support. Aerodynamically, the car had two configurations: one for sprint circuits and

1040-399: The first race. The Sauber C9 did not enjoy a lot of success in 1987, its first season, finishing on only three occasions. The car's speed potential was made clear when Johnny Dumfries set a lap record at Le Mans before retiring with gearbox failure. Mike Thackwell also took pole position at Spa. Schlesser won the final race of the year, the non-championship Nurburgring Supercup, which was

1080-508: The only win in an otherwise bleak season for the Swiss-German team. The C9 won five races in the 1988 World Sportscar Championship , showing much-improved reliability and placing second in the overall standings behind the winning Silk Cut Jaguar team. Drivers Schlesser, Baldi and Mass finished second, third and fifth respectively behind Jaguar's Martin Brundle in the driver's championship. In

1120-463: The racetrack. Ossa won four Grands Prix races with the monocoque bike before their rider died after a crash during the 250 cc event at the 1970 Isle of Man TT , causing the Ossa factory to withdraw from Grand Prix competition. Notable designers such as Eric Offenstadt and Dan Hanebrink created unique monocoque designs for racing in the early 1970s. The F750 event at the 1973 Isle of Man TT races

1160-556: The role of minor sponsor, the older M117 5.0 L turbocharged V8 engine was upgraded to the M119 , which replaced steel heads with new four-valve aluminium heads. The engine had a Group C capacity equivalence of 8.454 litres. The C9 was able to win all but one race in the 1989 season , including the 24 Hours of Le Mans . During qualifying, the Baldi/Acheson/Brancatelli C9 recorded a speed of 400 km/h (248 mph) on

1200-413: The skin and can be recognised by the absence of a load-carrying internal frame. Few metal aircraft other than those with milled skins can strictly be regarded as pure monocoques, as they use a metal shell or sheeting reinforced with frames riveted to the skin, but most wooden aircraft are described as monocoques, even though they also incorporate frames. By contrast, a semi-monocoque is a hybrid combining

1240-410: The unibody system (also referred to as unitary construction, unitary body–chassis or body–frame integral construction), in which the body of the vehicle, its floor pan, and chassis form a single structure, while the skin adds relatively little strength or stiffness. Some armoured fighting vehicles use a monocoque structure with a body shell built up from armour plates, rather than attaching them to

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1280-514: The wooden hulls did, greatly improving performance. In the United States, Northrop was a major pioneer, introducing techniques used by his own company and Douglas with the Northrop Alpha . In motor racing, the safety of the driver depends on the car body, which must meet stringent regulations, and only a few cars have been built with monocoque structures. An aluminum alloy monocoque chassis

1320-830: Was 1.9 bar. Maximum RPM was 7,000 but drivers generally kept to 6,500 during races. The torque curve was almost uniform between 3,000 and 6,000 rpm, giving the engine plenty of flexibility. The engine retained a cross plane crankshaft and the firing order was 1-5-4-8-6-3-7-2. Later M119HL engines were sourced from the Mercedes engine facility at Untertürkheim , supervised by Hermann Hiereth. The addition of 16 valve heads in 1989 took power up by about 20 hp (20 PS; 15 kW) to around 720 hp (730 PS; 537 kW) at 1.6 bar and 7,000 RPM. The increase in fuel efficiency meant absolute power could also be taken from just under 800 hp with 2.2 bar of boost to about 820 hp (831 PS; 611 kW). For its debut season in 1987 ,

1360-470: Was another. The car failed to finish only twice in the 1989 season but on both occasions, the race was won by the other team car. Reaching 400 km/h (248.0 mph) during the qualifying sessions of the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans , the Sauber C9 proved to have one of the highest top speeds in the history of the competition at Le Mans. The C9's mark was only exceeded by the WM Peugeot P88, which achieved

1400-446: Was contested over an eight round series which ran from 9 April to 29 October 1989. In order to be classified for points, a team had to complete 90% of the winner's distance. Further, drivers were required to complete at least 30% of their car's total race distance to qualify for championship points. Drivers forfeited points if they drove in more than one car during the race. Group C2 entries earned two extra points for any finish within

1440-465: Was first used in the 1962 Lotus 25 Formula 1 race car and McLaren was the first to use carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers to construct the monocoque of the 1981 McLaren MP4/1 . In 1990 the Jaguar XJR-15 became the first production car with a carbon-fiber monocoque. The term monocoque is frequently misapplied to unibody cars. Commercial car bodies are almost never true monocoques but instead use

1480-481: Was further developed in Germany by LFG Roland using the patented Wickelrumpf (wrapped hull) form later licensed by them to Pfalz Flugzeugwerke who used it on several fighter aircraft. Each half of the fuselage shell was formed over a male mold using two layers of plywood strips with fabric wrapping between them. The early plywood used was prone to damage from moisture and delamination. While all-metal aircraft such as

1520-426: Was produced in the 1950s using a monocoque hollow shell of sheet-steel pressings welded together, into which the engine and transmission were installed from underneath. The machine could be tipped onto its side, resting on the bolt-on footboards for mechanical access. A monocoque framed scooter was produced by Yamaha from 1960–1962. Model MF-1 was powered by a 50 cc engine with a three-speed transmission and

1560-436: Was very light since a major portion of its structural support was provided by its single-wall steel balloon fuel tanks , which hold their shape while under acceleration by internal pressure. Balloon tanks are not true monocoques but act in the same way as inflatable shells . A balloon tank skin only handles tensile forces while compression is resisted by internal liquid pressure in a way similar to semi-monocoques braced by

1600-505: Was won by Peter Williams on the monocoque-framed John Player Special that he helped to design based on Norton Commando . Honda also experimented with the NR500 , a monocoque Grand Prix racing motorcycle in 1979 . The bike had other innovative features, including an engine with oval shaped cylinders, and eventually succumbed to the problems associated with attempting to develop too many new technologies at once. In 1987 John Britten developed

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