Quote:
Originally Posted by knighty
the technology is unique to Mahle and heavily patented, so you would need to first sign a mass production contract with Mahle before they let you use it in a race application.......this is how they work on the piston business, no mass production pistons = no race pistons
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That's an interesting assertion. If Mahle holds all of the key patents, then I am sure they will be compensated somehow. Forcing agreement to become an OEM supplier is a big ask. What I find interesting is that when I look for things like press releases for partnerships between the F1 engine manufactures and Mahle, I can find some for Mercedes and Renault that point to road cars (extending back to a time prior to the current engine regulations and TJI). I can find a press release for Ferrari but that is focused purely on the F1 project with no mention of the road car division (no clue if Ferrari is using Mahle in their production cars or not). I did find one article that talks about Mahle working with Ferrari on TJI, and supplying pistons for the F1 project, but it also says that Mahle "used" to provide pistons for Mercedes, but no longer (implication is that Mercedes likely still uses TJI but without all of the bits from Mahle).
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/05...iciency-gains/
And so far, I can find absolutely nothing regarding Honda and Mahle (other than aftermarket Mahle components). And it is pretty well accepted that the new 2017 Honda F1 engine uses TJI. So I am "somewhat" skeptical that the "only" option to work with Mahle is a deal to use their components in road car manufacturing. If Mahle truly only does deals that way, then another option is if someone like Honda has found a solution that does not require licensing Mahle IP.
Regarding Toyota and Porsche, it's hard to search out news about Porsche and Mahle because results are so flooded with aftermarket usage. I so far can't find anything about Toyota either.
Richard