New Ameo Cup race car from Volkswagen Motorsport

Volkswagen Motorsport India has announced that it has built a new race car for the Ameo Cup 2017 scheduled later this year. The Ameo Cup race car has been developed entirely at Volkswagen Pune plant for the first time. The all-new race machine boasts of major upgrades as compared to its predecessor, starting from the body shell itself all the way to the drivetrain, chassis and electronics.

The Ameo Cup race car shares its body with the road version of the Ameo while it borrows the engine from the GTI. It comes with a turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine that displaces 1798 cc and produces 202hp@ 6100 rpm and 320 Nm @ 3200-4600 rpm of peak torque. This engine is mated to a 6-speed sequential gearbox with steering-mounted paddle shifters. The ECU (Engine Control Unit) is completely new and has been independently calibrated and mapped to suit the new engine and the gearbox control system. The Ameo Cup race car is running a whole new suspension setup along with tyres that have been specifically developed for this car.

The Ameo Cup 2017 season is scheduled to start in the month of June at Kari Motor Speedway near Coimbatore followed by two of rounds at Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) in Chennai and one round at Buddh International Circuit (BIC) near Greater Noida.

Chassis and suspension of Ameo race car

The Ameo Cup race car shares its wheelbase with the Polo and is shorter than the Vento Cup race car. Various components of the Ameo Cup Car such as the fire extinguisher, battery, and the windshield washer tank have been reorganised to evenly distribute the weight of the chassis and achieve the progressive handling that its predecessor offered through a longer wheelbase. The new race car has different springs at the front and the rear along with torsional beam axle at the rear.

Engine of the Ameo race car

The EA888 1.8 TSI engine on the Ameo Cup race car is the same as the one that powers the Volkswagen GTI but has been tuned to deliver an improved torque curve suited to the race track. A 6-speed sequential gearbox from 3MO has also been developed to match the high torque output of the engine. This is a change from the 6 speed DSG used previously.

Brakes of the Ameo race car

The Ameo Cup race car gets new racing brake pads with a better and progressive bite. The car will be running 334 mm ventilated discs at front while 232 mm discs at the rear.

Electronics of the Ameo race car

For the first time, Volkswagen Motorsport India has set up all of the strategy to manage the mapping and calibration of the engine, gearbox and shift actuator with the MoTeC M142 engine control unit (ECU). The ECU is paired with MoTeC C125 colour dash display and data logger which is capable of logging 120 MB and is also equipped with programmable shift lights. The Ameo Cup race car, unlike its predecessor lacks a fuse box and instead is fitted with MoTeC PDM 30 which carries out the power distribution on the new race machine and acts as a combination of the fuse box and body control module (BCM).

Safety of the Ameo Cup race car

The Ameo Cup race car features a weld-in roll cage which is designed to optimise and enhance the safety of the driver along with chassis torsional rigidity. The roll cage extends from the front strut mounting tower to the rear damper mounts and is designed to the latest FIA specifications.