Champ Car Chassis Change-Up

Quickly Grown Roots
Swift began designing racecars in 1983 under the direction of founder David Bruns. Since then, the company has completed 16 different chassis for Formula Ford classes, Champ Car and Atlantic series. Throughout this 23-year period, the company's mantra has remained the same: To design, manufacture and sell successful racing cars, tied to building the operation into an internationally recognized engineering company with highly respected capabilities in aerodynamics, advanced composites and mechanical engineering. Today, under the ownership of former Champ Car Driver Hiro Matsushita, Swift prides itself on its acknowledged skills and abilities to deliver highly precise, limited volume output racecars, other special vehicles and contracted products based on rapid turnaround manufacturing.


It is this capability that helped the company reach its goal on time. Transporters from various Atlantic teams were at Swift's Southern California facility by 5:30 a.m. on that historic March 8th to take delivery of their racecars, which were then assembled by the teams set to compete in the 2006 Atlantic Championship beginning in early April at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Swift did greatly contribute to the longevity of the Atlantic Championship and now helps chart the series toward new waters and future successes.


With the delivery of the 40 racecars and several additional 016.a chassis since, Swift has now produced more than 500 racecars and won more than 40 national and international racing championships. That's quite a feat considering they are in the midst of strong expansion in other arenas—particularly within the realm of U.S. defense. Swift has partnered with Northrop Grumman in the development of unmanned aircraft, or UAVs, used by the U.S. Government for surveillance and other such assignments.

Diligent Dexterity
Complementing its capabilities in San Clemente, Swift is also achieving much success in manufacturing, having opened a production facility in Mexico, where assembly of automotive and other commercial operations are conducted. Several automotive companies have come to them to handle limited runs, and Swift continues to seek out others in its quest to provide extremely hands-on and detailed production techniques and processes.


Among their core policies, all technologies developed and used at Swift will have been tested in real world conditions, on-track, on-road, off-road and, through its U.S. defense contracts, in the air. The company also has its own on-site wind tunnel, designed to test at speeds up to 140 mph, with scale model capabilities for road vehicles varying from 35% to 50%, as well as full-size motorcycles.