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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
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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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