# JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold - Development



## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Hi all,

Some of you may have seen the developments of the JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold while following our Facebook / Instagram blogs. I have waited until now to share on the forum, now we are in the final stages of testing. I hope you enjoy the post.

*Concept*

The aim was clear, to create a functional and beautiful performance part for the VR38 R35 GTR platform. Much like many of the other JCR products, we were keen to explore the options available to us utilising some of the most technologically advanced composites techniques currently in use.

We wanted to create something that would be instantly recognisable as JCR, much like our Air Intake System and Carbon Fibre Coolant Tank, a total re-think on the existing theme. A single piece full Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold would do just that.

* Note that a full development thread and general release of the JCR Carbon Fibre Intake System & JCR Carbon Fibre Coolant Tank will be coming very soon.









*CAD Design*

We started off the design process by utilising the existing scan data that was used to develop the JCR Carbon Fibre Intake System.



Creating a detailed CAD model of the engine bay, and then going ahead and scanning the existing stock Nissan VR38 cast aluminium inlet manifold. This would allow us to make initial measurements, and explore the options.





Once fully mapped out, the work started on the design of our new Inlet manifold, creating a CAD model which would be placed into the virtual engine bay.





Below shows the overlay of the stock Nissan Inlet Manifold and the new JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold:







*First Prototype CAD Design*

Now we had arrived at our first prototype design, the renderings were shared:









*CFD Testing*

The beauty of CAD design is the availability of advanced flow analysis programmes which can accurately simulate flow through a known design. Although CFD has its limitations, applying years of expert Motorsport engine design know how during the design phase would allow the engineers to accurately simulate the conditions of various air speeds, boost pressures, throttle openings and map a sweep of the flow.

Below is the stock Nissan Inlet Manifold CFD analysis data:



Notice the unequal pressure distribution between each of the runners, caused by a whole number of factors. Throttle body placement, internal bell mouth design, plenum shape etc etc.

Now the JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold CFD data:





Instantly the improvements are noticeable, pressure and velocity distribution between each of the runners is almost exactly equal, with an overall improvement in efficiency and huge reduction in pressure loss between the throttle body and each runner when compared to the stock inlet manifold resulting in lower turbo speeds and reduced duty cycle to achieve an equivalent boost level.

The improvements in pressure distribution and flow allows for increased ignition advance during the tuning phase. As any GTR tuner will know, just a few degrees of ignition advance can result in huge gains in horsepower and torque.

*Stress Testing*

The next stage of the development is to consider the stresses exerted on the Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold. With GTR tuning development gathering pace it was important to ensure that the JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold would be able to withstand some of the highest horsepower GTR’s in the world, and more.

The Inlet Manifold has been stressed to 10 bar, with 100% contingency in the material yield strength. This level of contingency in the product is far more than what would be typically found in a Motorsports application, where keeping weight down to a minimum is a huge driving force. We took the decision to over engineer the part for total customer confidence.

Below is the scaled extreme stress test model:



Each production manifold is pressure tested over a 72hr period to ensure absolutely perfect results.

*3D Printed Rapid Prototype*

For fitment confirmation, we opted to print a 3D model of the newly developed inlet manifold to test fit on the car:



*Development*

During the design and first phase of CFD testing it was clear that although we had achieved a far more ideal plenum design, the limitations of the stock lower inlet manifold were holding us back in achieving the optimised runner design. At this point, we took the decision to take the Inlet Manifold to the next level and create a full one piece design that would fully replace the stock cast aluminium upper and lower inlet manifold pieces.

This development would allow us to not only make the transition from the head port design through to the round over a much longer distance, significantly improving flow characteristics and reducing disruption between the bell mouth and the head but also further reduce weight and remove one of the two mounting faces again reducing flow disruption.



We also opted to incorporate a CNC Billet Aluminium base plate for the main mounting face to reduce post cure CNC work and also create an overall more robust part which could more easily withstand multiple installs / removals.



At this point, we also package protected the Inlet Manifold for the optional 3rd Fuel Rail / 12 Injector Option which will be available shortly after the general release of the regular 6 injector Inlet Manifold.



Now we were happy with the results, the final CAD renderings of the revised design were shared:



*Mould Design / Production Process*

To create such a complex part in one single piece is a huge design challenge requiring the very latest composite technologies. We opted for a hybrid Carbon Fibre / 3D Printed mould, 5 pieces in total. Again, the mould is designed in CAD (note that this is the previous design mould CAD drawing)



The lay up process is extremely time consuming, taking two laminators over 3 days to complete.









Which gives us this result, each individual runner bagged and ready for the oven:



*Production Protoype*

So, now we find ourselves with the finished piece, I think you’ll all agree its a truly beautiful looking piece of engineering. Never has the term ‘Form follows function’ been so appropriate!













The JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold has been assigned speculative pricing around £4500 ($6785) plus shipping. This includes all hardware, a true direct one piece replacement part for the stock cast aluminium inlet manifold. 

The parts are in the very final stages of testing, collating all data ready for general release which is set for early March. Pricing will be confirmed and set very soon.

I hope that the post gives some insight into the development of this new innovative JCR product. If you have any questions at all, please do feel free to ask away.

Regards

Jonny


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## [email protected] (Jun 8, 2014)

B e a u t i f u l  
Any discount for repeat customers?


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## Adamantium (Jun 24, 2002)

I have a question.

Is it £4500 plus vat?

Jonny, You've done an amazing job there. The quality and attention to detail as well as the use of CFD and 3D modelling are right up my street.

Well done. It looks fantastic and pending results, I'd like to buy one.


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## Simonh (May 24, 2002)

Amazing work, I can't wait to see how that transcribes into results.


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

[email protected] said:


> B e a u t i f u l
> Any discount for repeat customers?


Never say never Mark 



Adamantium said:


> I have a question.
> 
> Is it £4500 plus vat?
> 
> ...


Thanks for the compliments Adam, and yes that quoted price would be plus vat.



Simonh said:


> Amazing work, I can't wait to see how that transcribes into results.


All testing results will be shared at the time of release


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## Blade (Feb 12, 2003)

Very interested


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## Firestarter (Mar 8, 2014)

Fantastic R&D and a truly beautiful piece of work. The cost may limit sales but nevertheless its incredible what you have created JC


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Blade said:


> Very interested


Test results will be accompanying general release, in the mean time if you would like to know any more just get in touch 



Firestarter said:


> Fantastic R&D and a truly beautiful piece of work. The cost may limit sales but nevertheless its incredible what you have created JC


Thanks very much for the compliments 

I accept that its not cheap, but this is Motorsport level composites work and much like all of the JCR products I was keen to create something new, special and without compromise. Its been a lot of fun developing this one 

Cheers

JC


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## Xtreme Motorsport (Sep 14, 2010)

Wow, that's what you call a proper job***128516;

Beautiful piece of engineering you have done there Jonny

I was very pleased with the condition of your clutch after checking it over at Race Developments the other day, after 10,000 miles it looks like brand new.

Your Albins gear kit looks amazing with the superfinishing Tim did, you'll be impressed on how quiet and good they are***128516;

Adam


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## Rain (Apr 8, 2006)

...If i still had my car, this would go on there! So well designed! Would be nice to see a flow animation from multiple pressure values would it change the distribution at all?


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## bobbie (Jan 3, 2013)

You have done a amazing work with that it must of cost a fortune to make it, I am interested in some of your products for the GTR but can not find any web site that you have? have you got one? if so can you post it up for me and other peeps?

Thanks JC

Bobby


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## Fryman (Sep 4, 2014)

this is outrageous.... and an amazing opportunity to purchase for somebody who wants to find the bleeding edge performance gains! the stock oem one really looks like nissan could of done a better job with the flow, but oem restrictions and pricepoints must of been their priority


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

bobbie said:


> You have done a amazing work with that it must of cost a fortune to make it, I am interested in some of your products for the GTR but can not find any web site that you have? have you got one? if so can you post it up for me and other peeps?
> 
> Thanks JC
> 
> Bobby


Hi Bobbie,

Thanks very much for the compliments, the Inlet Manifold development has been a lot of fun and I can't wait to share the results of our testing come release time.

The JCR Website is not yet live unfortunately, you can check out the JCR Products and developments on the JCR Facebook page until that time over at www.Facebook.Com/JonnyCockerRacing

We are launching 3 new products over the next 6 weeks, so lots more to come. If you have any enquiries or questions feel free to contact me at [email protected] also.



Fryman said:


> this is outrageous.... and an amazing opportunity to purchase for somebody who wants to find the bleeding edge performance gains! the stock oem one really looks like nissan could of done a better job with the flow, but oem restrictions and pricepoints must of been their priority


The OEM Inlet Manifold is very compromised from a performance point of view, there are a lot of areas that are just wrong but this has all being steered by the limitations of the Aluminium casting process and cost.

We have been able to explore and push the capabilities of composite construction with this piece and use that to our advance to achieve the ideal and optimum flow in and out of the Inlet Manifold.

Thanks again for your comments


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Rain said:


> ...If i still had my car, this would go on there! So well designed! Would be nice to see a flow animation from multiple pressure values would it change the distribution at all?


The throttle has more of an effect as it sweeps from idle position through to 100% but this has all been taken into consideration along with pressure too. Its quite a black art but modern CFD does speed up the development process some what.

Im glad you like the look of it

Cheers

Jonny


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## ANDYR35 (Sep 1, 2008)

How much for the coolant tank?


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## David (Apr 25, 2003)

The design and final product is stunning but your Cfd results are questionable at best. 

The original manifold shows flow in 2 ports of close to 0 and about 200m/s in the 3rd.
The result can't possibly be right it is magnitudes wrong.

I therefore can't trust your new equal flow results if it retains the same incorrect assumption that must exist in the original model.

Sorry I am an engineer and spend many hours a day critising my engineers work and it just jumps out to me as being incorrect


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## stehub (Nov 16, 2005)

looks lovely.


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## lightspeed (Jul 11, 2002)

The stress model doesn't look too great either. The FE mesh should at least use quad elements rather than tri's and the mesh density is low.

Also did you account for the thermal mismatch between the aluminium base plate and the carbon? Under post shutdown heat soak conditions it's going to be pretty hot. Thermal loads with aluminium and carbon composites are a big issue in my line of work.
The strength of carbon composites is severely compromised at temperatures above 130deg.C. Has this been taken into account for a restart after a shutdown and heat soak.


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## Adamantium (Jun 24, 2002)

Any follow up on this?


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Guys,

In answer to the points raised in regards to CFD and FE data shared please bare in mind that only a fraction has been shared publicly as I'm keen to keep any critical data to ourselves for obvious reasons. The definitive proof will be in the dyno and testing results which will be shared at the time of release.

In regards to the composite strength concerns, the material and resin system selected for the manifold is more than up to the job and we have had zero problems as expected. Composite parts being used in harsh hot environments is nothing new in the Motorsport world and the combination of bonded aluminium / composites is quite normal. We could opt for a Carbon base plate but retail price would take a jump, I'm keen to keep costs down to an acceptable level.

As ever I welcome any questions / concerns / feedback on our parts.

Regards

Jonny


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

ANDYR35 said:


> How much for the coolant tank?



The JCR Carbon Fibre Coolant tank will be officially released in the coming weeks with a retail price of £1195+vat

I'll be posting a full development / release thread soon.

Cheers

Jonny


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Hey all,

Apologies for not posting more. We have been extremely busy with the development but we're now comfortably in the final stages with general release still looking good for within the month of March.

I genuinely cannot wait to share the data that we have collected over the testing phase! We're still picking up our jaws off the floor 

In the mean time, here is a hi-res version of the engine bay shot. (Please note that we are currently back to back testing our carbon intakes vs various others on the market) hence no JCR Carbon intakes installed in this pic 










Oh and a little teaser for another product which will be along soon too to finish off the engine bay 



















Thanks again and any questions at all please let me know!

Regards

Jonny


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## Simonh (May 24, 2002)

Pure engine bay porn


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## Xtreme Motorsport (Sep 14, 2010)

Stunning piece of work


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## Firestarter (Mar 8, 2014)

Top work JC:bowdown1::bowdown1:


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## Adamantium (Jun 24, 2002)

Can't wait for the results.


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Installed together with the JCR Carbon Fibre Air Intake System and JCR Carbon Fibre Coolant Tank

Release scheduled for next week. Can't rush these things 

Cheers

Jonny


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## Adamantium (Jun 24, 2002)

Will release come with numbers?


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Adamantium said:


> Will release come with numbers?



Hi Adam,

All numbers and data will be shared at the time of release, yep 

Cheers

Jonny


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## JCR_GTR (Jul 18, 2013)

Hi all,

Very excited to announce that the JCR Carbon Fibre Inlet Manifold is now officially open to pre-order with the official release coming 8th May!

Pricing is now officially set at £4495 ($6898) including all hardware.

Full details to follow at the official release including all test data.

To place your order now message or contact via email - [email protected]


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## dragerboy (May 15, 2003)

Gorgeous product guys. I will never be in a position to purchase such an item or an R35 for it to go on but its nice to see a company create and manufacture a high quality product and to answer peoples concerns in a sensible 'take on board' approach.

Im sure when its released your data will back up what you already know.


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