C&D Article - GPS Traction Control in CART

[Snrub]

Except from: "Might the future hold driverless race cars?" John Phillips. Pg 30. Car and Driver. October 2004, Volume 50, number 4. Hachette Filipacchi Media US. New York.

..."Back when CART (now Champ Car, as of '04) permitted traction control, at least two major teams - I promised not to reveal their names, but both were owned by men you'd recognize - went testing at a speedway whose name you'd also know. Their cars had been fitted with the lastest GPS, which interfacced with the traction control computer.

The drivers practiced until they were running laps that would place the cars at the front of the grid. Then the engineers programmed the traction-control computer to "memorize" engine speeds at every location the GPS could supply - 13,500 50 feet before turn-in at Turn One, and 12,500 rpm 120 feet into the middle of turn two, and so forth, all around the track. Then they programmed the traction control to react to the GPS. At that point, the traction control wasn't watching for wheelspin. It was merely acting as an infititely adjustable rev limiter, pulling spark and fuel out of the V8 at given locations.

The driver went back out, flipped a switch that activated the system, and there after kept his floot flat. Never lifted. When the GPS "saw" the car going into turn one, it told the traction control to reduce revs to 13,500, and when it saw the car entering the middle of turn two, it limited revs to 12,600, perfectly mimicing the driver's previous I-can't-go-any-faster lap. Except now he could turn such laps all day.

The idea, of course, was to log exhaustive data from every oval, and when the team later returned for real qualifying, well, it would be something akin to pimply fraternity brothers locked in Playstatoin 2 combat.

At the time, there remained a zillion variables, of course. The driver had to be carefull to steer pretty much the same line lap after lap - a line that might become unusable during the race, due to deteriorating tires and debris. And when the driver ran up on a clump of slower cars, he'd have to return to manual throttle control via a button on the steering wheel. But you can see where the world of unlimited technology was headed. Maybe it was lucky that CART was forced into a spec Ford engine, which made it easy to police the electronics.

"None of this is new," Bear reminded. "In F1, the engineers have already done all that, with far more precise plotting of the car's location - on the inside edge of a turn, ouside edge, in the middle. And then they put a theoretical trace over that, showing what might be a quicker line of faster exit and they tell the driver, 'Hey, man, do this.' Because the shortest route through a turn isn't necessarily the fastest.

Unlimited-technolgoy traction control systems operate not only the throttle but also the brakes. All you'd have to do is take one blistering "sample" lap around the Nurburgring with the computer memorizing locations, throttle positions, engine revs, and braking points. And on the next lap, well, Juan Pablo's assignment is to steer and occasionally wave at picnickers."...

What do you guys think about this? I thought this article was quiet interesting for both CART and top level racing in general. Personally I think it's pretty scary. Secondly if you object to this, do you object to a car setup to run a race on an oval where the driver never lifts his foot from the throttle?

Ps for mods: I know I'm not suppose to type out an article, but I used only part of it and cited it with all details. I could publish a paper the same way.

[Kicking-back]

Wheelspin isn't much of an issue on ovals, I'd have thought.

[Snrub]

? :confused: They didn't use traction control for traction purposes, they use it to limit revs so that all throttle modulation (ie. slowing for a corner) is automated and the driver simply steers.

[Kicking-back]

Okay on an oval, but on a road course he'd still have to brake.

[Brian W Keske]

Did you read the above article in regards to F1???

[Kicking-back]

Yes, but it is of course illegal and will remain so!

[Testure]

Before they brought back the semi-auto gearboxes in F1 this year, they were fully automatic and functioned as that article describes. The software controlled up/down-shifting at particular points around the track. I remember Frentzen griping that his Arrows car was shifting at non-perfect moments. I think he spun off during qualifying at some point because of it...

Scary stuff indeed, but not all that technologically advanced when you think about it.

[Kicking-back]

Yes, but even with an auto gearbox they still had to accelerate and brake!

[luke]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
Yes, but even with an auto gearbox they still had to accelerate and brake!

Semi Automatic or Auto. But then they would have to press a button.