Originally posted by Digitalis I recall hearing from a colleague that Ferrari does mix their own paint - on earlier models they used fewer layers and thinner paint on their cars in order to keep the weight down and the performance profile up, the only drawback to this approach is that the finish was easily damaged.
Ferrari also had corporate partnerships going with tyre makers who they get to make tyres to their rather exacting specifications.
I used to work in Ferrari and what you are saying is partially true for F1 cars, but today a Ferrari California weights 1600 kg dry so a layer or two more or less won't change the things.
It's true than in a 300 km/h car paint gets easily damage(my Alfa is a disaster) especially from truck spilling sand on the highway, so we developed a very expensive plastic film to protect the front of the car from micro-impacts.
Originally posted by RGlasel Finally something I can speak to with a bit of knowledge. While car manufacturers like to claim expertise in all fields relating to the components used in their vehicles (Ford offered to license its insights into rubber chemistry to tire manufacturers, for instance), they are more likely to establish "partnerships" with tire manufacturers to add a degree of exclusivity to their vehicles than to push the tire manufacturers to improve their craft. More than one tire manufacturer is capable of making tires to Ferrari's spec's (or Porsche's for that matter.) In particular, Michelin and Goodyear have a history of having to convince auto manufacturers to take advantage of new tire technology, instead of the auto manufacturers providing impetus for the tire manufacturers to improve their products.
The point of this is that industrial specialization has produced real benefits and there is no intrinsic benefit to having a camera manufacturer (or kitchen appliance manufacturer, either) produce all of its own components. In fact, the opposite is true.
The game in automotive works like that:
1) Certain makers have prestige (Ferrari, AMG) or the numbers (Ford, FIAT-Chrysler) to impose their requirements to their suppliers. For instance, all these companies have engineering standards for everything, for instance the chemical composition of approved plastic for various parts of the cars. When a supplier is "Q" rated (Ford nomenclature) he receives all the standards from the customer as well as the CAD, he may asks for modification to fit his manufacturing process and he has to guarantee technical support for the components he supplies.
While Ford/FIAT makes gearboxes in house, Ferrari does not, so they go to Graziano/Getrac and says "allright, I need a transaxle dual clutch with this performance and bla bla" and the two companies start a co-design for this custom made component exclusive to Ferrari.
2) Small manufacturers (JLR, Aston Martin...) do not have the technical skills, money and or numbers to design something so sophisticated as a gearbox so they dependant from their suppliers (ZF, Getrac, whoever) so they buy a product "off the shelves" (like the 8HP70) for instance. Customisations are possible but usually the supplier has contorl in this negotiation so usually they leave the components off the shelf as it is.
Last edited by Cuthbert; 06-02-2016 at 12:09 AM.