Based in the rural setting of Frant, Kent, the Jota Group has developed from its early days as a racing team in 2000, to being a multi-faceted organisation servicing the needs of its own motor-sport teams, as well as groups and individuals that participate in racing historic sports cars; and in addition to supplying its design and development services to the motor-sport sector, the group runs an aviation business. That said, at its heart is a passion to be the best, with an almost fanatical attention to detail.
In this respect, the Jota Sport division is typical of the rest of the group, applying this passion to deliver winning performances on the track. It has competed in the Le Mans series (in the GT, LMP2 and LMP1 classes), and in 2010 it was chosen as the Official Partner Team to Aston Martin Racing. In the same year, it was also commissioned by Mazda UK to “put the brand back on the race track”, as part of the 21st anniversary celebrations of Mazda’s legendary MX-5 sports car.
That said, Jota Sport’s longest and most successful partnership is with the motor-sport company Zytek; it runs the Zytek Z11SN Nissan team in the Le Mans series, as well as selected World Endurance Championship rounds, and it will return to Le Mans for the eighth year running in June, to compete in the world-famous 24hr race. While Jota Sport’s racing credentials are beyond doubt, when it came to machining parts for the modern and historic racing cars, it needed to ‘move up the grid’.
Jota Group director Sam Hignett said: “With an increasing number of cars to support, we had to review our machining strategy. We had manual machines that were being used by race technicians to manufacture bits and pieces, but the bulk of the parts we needed had to be sub-contracted out. This way of working caused lead-time issues, as we needed a quick turn-round on parts to get cars on track and to help with our ‘race development’ programme. Therefore, the decision was taken to expand our in-house machining capability. This saw us buy machines from XYZ Machine Tools, and we supported this purchase by bringing in additional expertise in the form of machine shop manager Ryan Goodger to develop the machining side of the business.”
Milling and turning
The two machines bought were an XYZ Mini Mill 560 machining centre and an XYZ ProTurn SLX 1630 lathe (
www.xyzmachinetools.com). These two meet Jota Sport’s needs perfectly, as they are suitable for producing one-offs or low-volume batches — such is the intuitive nature of the ProtoTrak control on the lathe and the Siemens ShopMill control on the Mini Mill 560. For a machine of its size, with a table measuring 610 x 370mm and a work envelope of 560 x 400 x 500mm, the Mini Mill 560 is regarded by Jota Sport as being both powerful and robust, featuring a 15hp 8,000rev/min spindle and an all-up weight of 3,100kg. Meanwhile, versatility is a key feature of the ProTurn SLX 1630; with its 400mm swing over the bed, 760mm between centres and 54mm spindle bore, it is capable of handling a wide variety of work — plus there is the ease-of-use provided by the ProtoTrak control.
Mr Goodger says: “The ProTurn machine is excellent for one-offs, and the ProtoTrak control allows us to machine some complex parts without the need for a full CNC machine. We also find the repeatability and accuracy perfect for what we need, easily achieving the tight tolerances demanded by motor-sport applications.”
Focus on sub-contract workJota Sport also says that having this machining capacity has attracted the interest of others in the motor-sport business with a need for low-volume production — a situation that has seen the company’s machine shop develop as a separate business unit providing a sub-contract service for other racing teams.
Mr Goodger says: “As word of our machining capabilities spread, we have seen the split of work move more towards supplying parts for other people, with almost 70% of our capacity taken up with this sort of work; and because both machines have been very reliable, this gave us the confidence to run the Mini Mill unmanned. An example of this was when we had to machine some intricate wheel-gun sockets. The cycle time was 10hr, which would have posed some difficulties if the machine had to be watched all the time. However, we were happy to leave the machine running to finish the cycle after everyone had gone home for the evening.”
The XYZ Mini Mill 560 is also being used in conjunction with a co-ordinate measuring machine to reverse-engineer parts for the cars that are under the care of the Jota Historic division. For many of these old and exotic cars, spare parts are impossible to find and drawings do not exist.
In conclusion, Mr Goodger says: “The ability to use the Siemens ShopMill 828D control to reverse-engineer parts is a major plus that keeps these cars racing. Another feature of the Mini Mill 560’s control system that appeals is the ability to place jobs anywhere on the table and allow the machine to align itself to the part by using a probing routine. This is a major time-saver.”