The Slide Throttle

Early Days

Slide throttles have been around for a long time, but gained popularity in open wheel racing in the 60s and 70s. As perhaps the most successful engine in Formula 1 history, the Cosworth DFV leveraged a slide throttle design to ensure maximum output.

Perkins Engineering

Larry Perkins is a legend in Australian motorsport. After a career in european open-wheel racing, he brought the slide throttle to Australia and cleverly re-engineered it for touring car racing. Perkins Engineering has uploaded a fascinating video on this process to their YouTube channel - click below.

A Modern Take...

Search the internet, and you will find a love-hate tale when it comes to the slide throttle. The biggest knocks on them are leakage, sticking, and throttle control.

Our designs utilise new ideas and modern, precision CNC technology and materials to overcome all of these problems. Our thrust clearance is fully adjustable (!), and we use ZERO loose balls and needle rollers to achieve smooth operation under vacuum. Machining tolerances meet or exceed ISO2768F standards.

A working Perkins slide throttle from the early 1990s could sell for over $15,000AUD. We can make you a beautiful new slide throttle for much, much less.