Swift Engineering

Not to be confused with Swift Cooper.
Raphael Matos celebrating a victory in his Swift 016.a Atlantic Championship car in 2007

Swift Engineering is an American engineering firm, most notable for producing racing cars for a variety of open-wheel racing series, including Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series and Formula Nippon.

History

Swift Cars was founded in 1983 by David Bruns, Alex Cross, R.K. Smith, and Paul White.[1] The first car, the DB-1, was a Formula Ford 1600 which won the SCCA National Championship in its debut race.[2] The company later built cars for Sports 2000, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Atlantic and CART. Swift chassis won the Atlantic Championship from 1989 to 1992 and British Formula Renault in 1990.

In 1991, Swift was purchased by Panasonic executive and Indycar racing driver Hiro Matsushita who renamed the firm Swift Engineering. Under his direction Swift moved up to the CART World Series from 1997 to 2000, with two cars entered by Newman/Haas Racing and driven by Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi. In CART, Swifts won four races from 182 race entries. Tarso Marques was the last driver to race a Swift chassis in CART competition.

In 1998, Swift became the sole supplier for the new spec regulation Toyota Atlantic Championship. In 2006, the Atlantic race series became a part of the Champ Car (formerly CART) organization and was renamed the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda. Swift built an entirely new car for the series, using 016.a as a chassis code.

Swift Formula Nippon car in 2010

Swift is the sole supplier of chassis for the Japanese Formula Nippon championship, beginning in 2009 with the 017.n (also known as the FN09 or SF13) chassis.[3] A derivative of the 017.n, the 020.I, has been proposed by the company in response to Indy Lights' requirement for a new chassis for the 2014 season.[4]

Racing cars

Swift DB2 car in 2012
Year Car Racing series
1983 Swift DB1 Formula Ford 1600
1984 Swift DB2 Sports 2000
1988 Swift DB4 Formula Atlantic
1989 Swift DB3 Formula Ford 2000
1990 Swift DB5 Sports 2000
1991 Swift DB6 Formula Ford 1600/2000
1997 Swift 007.i CART
1998 Swift 008.a Formula Atlantic
1998 Swift 009.c CART
1999 Swift 010.c CART
2000 Swift 011.c CART
2002 Swift 014.a Formula Atlantic
2006 Swift 016.a Formula Atlantic
2009 Swift 017.n Formula Nippon

Aviation

In 2007 Swift Engineering produced the prototype Eclipse 400 single engine jet aircraft under contract to Eclipse Aviation. The aircraft was built in secrecy at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and first flown on 2 July 2007.[5] Swift supplies high-strength, low-weight composite parts and assemblies to a number of aerospace industry customers. Engineering consultancy and the design and production of tooling for composite parts are further aspects of the business.

References

  1. ↑ "Rekindling The Flame". Archived from the original on August 25, 2006.
  2. ↑ "First Win PR" (PDF).
  3. ↑ "2009 Formula Nippon cars to be made in USA".
  4. ↑ Pruett, Marshall (August 28, 2012). "INDYCAR: Swift Files 2014 Indy Lights Proposal". SPEED Channel. Fox Sports. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
  5. ↑ Trautvetter, Chad (July 2007). "Eclipse Goes Solo with Concept Jet". Retrieved 2008-11-15.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Swift racing cars.
  1. ↑ Egan, Peter (March 1984). "Swift DB-1: Testing the new Formula Ford national champion" (PDF). Road and Track.
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