Essential Elements, Dangers and Fascination of the Most Exciting of Sports
You wouldn’t find a better candidate than Frank Weiss to learn about the dangers, fascination, and essential elements of one of the most exciting sports on earth. Frankwas born in Alberta, Canada and followed his dream of race car driving at an early age. Making his champ debut in 1975 at Milwaukee, Frank continued on to race in Michigan, Phoenix, Ontario, the Pocono Raceway, USAC, CART and Championship Car series, Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500.
In this very dangerous sport, natural aptitude and experience aren’t always enough and in 1981 a debilitating accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ended Frank’s driving career. Not to be deterred from his passion, Frank decided to turn his racing instinct, training and technical knowledge into a different channel. Thus emerged FWRC,
Frank Weiss Racing Components.
In 1982 Frank began making components for the cars he had loved driving. His racing instincts, knowledge and experience were ingredients for immediate success. From humble beginnings Frank’s business quickly grew, from the work space of his garage to a large business park on Gasoline Alley, in Indianapolis, just a few seconds by Indy car from the famed Indianapolis Motor
Speedway. They supply customers from a variety of racing series, including IRL, NASCAR, IMSA, NHRA, WOO, AMA, and APBA.
Anticipating the future of machining, Frank purchased his first CNC mill in 1986 and two years later his first CNC turning center. Frank's son, Wade, assumed responsibility for most of the day-to-day operations while Frank travels to races and visits customer facilities to provide consulting and technical support.
His business continued to grow and the racing components industry was getting more competitive. In 2004 they expanded again, more than doubling their previous work space to over 18,000 sq-ft. Frank was eager to stay on top with the latest technology and began searching for a faster, more advanced CNC machine. Frank and his son Wade researched four different manufacturers and considered both turret lathes and tool changer lathes. One of those being researched was Eurotech and their claim to fame:
“No One is Faster!”
Frank Weiss, Owner of FWRC, manufacturer of racing components, choose the Eurotech 710SLLY for its speed, accuracy, finish and thermal stability.
Speed was something Frank knew a lot about, so he and his son Wade looked into Eurotech’s Elite line of CNC turn/mill centers and narrowed it down to the model 710SLLY.
“We liked the versatility of the control and the flexibility it gave us to do a lot of programming. The 710’s rapid rates are among the fastest in the industry. The belt driven spindle motors
help us with thermal isolation. Other machines have a motor mounted to the spindle. As the motor heats up and cools down, it affects the spindle temperature which in turn affects part tolerance. The 710SLLY also has glass scales as a back-up for its motor encoders.
The sub-spindle pulls away from the main spindle in both the x and z axis directions, expanding the available tool envelope. This movement maximizes the programmer’s ability to use both spindles and turrets simultaneously.
Being a racing components manufacturer, you have some difficult challenges to overcome:
First of all it is difficult to inventory components since they are continually evolving due to application and technology changes. Because of this constant evolution, lead times are
short. There’s an old saying in racing, “If they don’t have the parts when the transporter leaves for the race track, they don’t need them.” Quick set-ups, quick part change-over and flexibility to adapt to changing designs are absolute musts.
The racing community also demands extremely high tolerances and superior surface finishes. We needed a machine that would deliver the accuracy and finishes that our customers demand.
Another challenge we often face with this type of equipment is thermal stability. Tolerances are often affected by the thermal cycles normally seen during part processing. We needed a machine that would be thermally stable, whether running intermittent or continuous cycles.
In the summer of 2006, Frank Weiss Racing Components invested in the Eurotech 710 SLLY. With this cutting edge machinery, the father and son experienced Winning with Technology! They got the speed they needed, accuracy, finish and thermal stability. They produced a variety of parts that require multi-axis machining and have a lot runs of 50 pieces, including shaft couplers, fittings, filter housings, monoball housings, speed sensors, lock probes, drive pegs, guides, pins and actuators.
“The 710SLLY has opened new markets for us by allowing us to produce high quality parts more efficiently through complete part processing.” With the help of an excellent engineering team, Frank Weiss Racing Components has been able to stay ahead in the race and profitable even in a tough time.
Many of our processes can be run unattended, freeing our skilled operators to set-up and run other machines. We’ve become more competitive since we’ve been able to reduce the handling and multiple operation set-ups previously required.”
-Wade Weiss, Frank Weiss Racing Components
PICTURE GALLERY:
Business statistics:
27 years in business
24 employees
Building size: approx. 18,000 sq. ft.
Distributor: Superior / Owner, Pete Heins
Interview: Tina Weiss, Wade Weiss, Frank Weiss
Eurotech 710SLLY, www.eurotechelite.com
Frank Weiss Racing Components, Inc. 140 North Gasoline Alley Indianapolis, IN 46222 Phone: (317) 243-9585 Fax: (317) 484-1736 www.fwrc.com
Being a racing components manufacturer, you have some difficult challenges to overcome:
First of all it is difficult to inventory components since they are continually evolving due to application and technology changes. Because of this constant evolution, lead times are 
