Tony Kanaan's No. 11 IndyCar gets towed out to pit row on qualification day. The cars cost a little more than $1 million, and the team budget for a year is roughly $7 million. By comparison, Formula One teams spend about $400 million a year racing.
Fast cars and lots of engine noise. That's fun for me. Of course, that used to be my commute to work.
The challenges of these cars are really interesting. One thing that people may not be aware of is that the car companies and engineering firms use racing to test ideas. If it wokrs under the stress of racing it will probably work on your car at home.
Racing is a lot of engineering fun. Car aerodynamics, strength to weight ratios as well as getting high speed at high MPG are items that keep racing pit crew engineers up at night.
I enjoyed the clip showing the sights and sounds of racing. I recently attended a NASCAR race at Richmond Raceway where they allow you to walk along a path behind the fence about 15 feet from the track. The wave of air and sound pushed by the cars is amazing as they fly by you on the racetrack.
Nice slide show and article. I'm a NASCAR lover guess that's a requirement growing up in NC. It's amazing just how much engineering goes into racing. NCA&T, my alma mater offers and works with NASCAR, of course now that I'm gone. lol.
While watching an IndyCar race on TV is exciting, you really need to see a race in person, especially a road race. I went to the event at Sonoma, and the sights and sounds were really impressive. The acceleration and braking of these cars is unbelievable. On TV, all the cars sound alike, but at the track, you can definitely tell the Chevys from the Hondas, and unfortunately, the lone Lotus. At Sonoma, you can buy a pass that allows access to the garages and pits, which is Disneyland for an engineer.
I fully agree, it's great to attend an IndyCar race! There's nothing like being at a professional top-level motorsports race in person...all the sights, sounds, smell, and the feeling (the car power, wind from the cars, etc). Seeing the garage and pit areas helps give an understanding of what's involved. Great entertainment!
I've been to see two IndyCar races at California Speedway in Fontana (now called AutoClub Speedway of Southern California), over a dozen NASCAR races, and one IROC race (IROC now defunct). Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this year's IndyCar finale in Fontana, had to watch it on TV. I've always loved fast and close speedway racing with nicely banked turns.
Congratulations Chevrolet for the 2012 IndyCar Championship! It's also nice that an American won the Driver's Championships...Ryan Hunter-Reay, driving a Chevrolet powered car. Hey Honda...it's not so easy to win an IndyCar Championship when it's not all Honda's!
At Sonoma, the garage and pit pass costs $75 for all 3 days. You're not allowed in the pit area during the race but otherwise unlimited access. Friday was the best day, no crowds, lots going on.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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