At club and national level, motor-sport teams are populated by enthusiasts; and many of the companies that supply them have that same level of enthusiasm for going faster. West Sussex-based Nova Racing Transmissions is a prime example.

The company was formed in 1989 by Graham Dyson, who had been responsible for engine and transmission components at Barton Motors, a renowned builder of two-stroke racing engines. Mr Barton was joined in 1996 by Martin Ford-Dunn, who brought with him years of experience gained at automotive consultancy group Ricardo.

This was the start of a new era for Nova Racing, one that saw investment in machine tools and technology and the introduction of the company motto — ‘Racing is life, anything before or after is just engineering’.

When Mr Barton died in 2012, Mr Ford-Dunn moved the business nearer to his home in West Sussex. Two more directors — again motor-sport enthusiasts — joined the business, and investment in machine tools continued so that Nova Racing could better serve its customers, which range from classic-bike enthusiasts and club racers to world championship teams. Indeed, the company works with some of the biggest names in motorcycle manufacturing.

Company manager Mick Dearlove says: “Our business revolves around motorcycle racing and classic-bike enthusiasts; it also extends to four-wheel motor-sport where motorcycle engines are used, giving us a large share of the transmission market for hill climb and sprint cars, as well as the Radical and Legends race series. For the latter, Mr Ford-Dunn developed a gearbox with a reverse gear that could be used in cars with motorcycle engines.

“For general enthusiasts who want to upgrade their modern bikes, we provide anything from replacement gears to full transmissions. For the classic rider, our brief is to make gearboxes and gear assemblies that are more user-friendly and reliable through the use of modern manufacturing and materials.”

Nova Racing’s BSA Goldstar gearboxes have been a best seller for many years, with the option of a close-ratio five-speed unit for racing, or a road-specific touring option with a lower first gear and a wider spread of ratios.

Another popular product is the Triumph 500 Six Speeder, which ‘squeezes’ six gears into a gearbox that offered just four as standard (more gears means more time spent in the right part of the power band). Also available for the classic enthusiast is a six-speed assembly for the Velocette Venom.

Nova Racing supplies most teams in the British Superbike championship, having re-engineered the gearbox internals and replaced the OEM parts to ensure that the transmission can withstand the rigours of high-performance racing. Having supplied equipment for the works BMW team in World Superbikes, Nova Racing is also working alongside many other teams, developing new and improved transmissions.

Machining technologies

To manufacture to the highest standards, Nova Racing has invested in a range of machining technologies, including hard turning, gear hobbing and splining. Central to its production, though, is a group of five machining centres from Burlescombe-based XYZ Machine Tools (www.xyzmachinetools.com), which provide three- and four-axis machining capabilities. All of the steel shafts and gears manufactured at Nova Racing are machined from sawn billets of Motorsport 121 steel, which is a derivative of EN 36 with no measurable impurities.

Aluminium parts such as slave cylinders, dry sumps, differential pumps and engine scavenge pumps are machined from solid. Most of these are machined in total or in part on the four XYZ Mini Mill 560s or an XYZ 710 VMC — the most recent addition to Nova Racing’s shopfloor.

Mr Dearlove says: “Almost every part we make goes through the XYZ VMCs — including gears, where we reduce the weight by milling pockets. On gear shafts, we drill cross-holes. However, the bulk of the work they are used for is billet-machined items such as dry sumps, clutch baskets and slave cylinders. All these tend to be produced in batch sizes of 10-15, so the versatility and ease of set-up of the XYZ machines play a major role in our productivity.”

The use of 3-D probing on the XYZ 710 VMC helps Nova Racing to minimise the time required for datuming parts; probing is also used for in-situ measurement, to eliminate the need to transfer parts to a co-ordinate measuring machine when setting up. Furthermore, the Siemens 828D Shopmill control on the XYZ machines features a tool database system that also helps to significantly reduce setting times.

The addition of a fourth axis to two of the four Mini Mill 560s is also proving invaluable, allowing work such as cross-hole drilling in the gear shafts to be completed under CNC control, rather than on manual drills.

Furthermore, complex repeating forms can be machined on clutch baskets, again under full control of the machine, reducing cycle times considerably. This fourth-axis capability is also relieving pressure on other machines at Nova Racing; it is also helping to create a much smoother flow of work through the factory. For larger programs on more complex components, Nova Racing makes use of the ability to draw down programs from its server ‘line by line’, which has eliminated the file transfer issues it had encountered on other machines.

“We bought our first XYZ Mini Mill 560 more than 10 years ago, and it is still working hard to this day, which is a testament to the build quality and support that we get from XYZ. I can’t recall any serious down-time on any of the machines in the time that I have been at Nova Racing, and if any issue does arise, it is more often than not solved by a phone call to the XYZ service team,” says Mr Dearlove.

The XYZ 710 VMC is the mainstay of the XYZ vertical machining portfolio. It features a solid cast base and column weighing 4,000kg (creating a stable machining platform), a 20hp 8,000rev/min BT40 spindle, a work envelope of 710 x 450 x 500mm and a 24-position tool-change system. Meanwhile, the XYZ Mini Mill 560 optimises the available space in the machine shop, with a footprint of just 2,000 x 2,060mm. In spite of its small size, the Mini Mill 560 is a serious production machine with base and column castings that weigh 3,100kg, a 15hp 8,000rev/min BT40, spindle and a 560 x 400 x 500mm work envelope.