­If you imagine stemma car are fast , you should count at their onboard computers .

Telemetryis the remote ingathering and measurement of data point . It usually involves some sorting of wireless broadcast . Of course , remote data point aggregation is important in many fields – defense , medicine , even agriculture . But it ’s seldom more exciting than in stock car racing .

A stock railroad car has a computer that roll up and broadcasts the car ’s vital statistics to a central computer [ beginning : NASCAR ] . The broadcast uses a wireless radio – so it ’s essentially a soup - up PDA that automate content from the driver .

­What happens then calculate on the purpose of the primal computer . If it belongs to the pit work party , machine technicians coordinate the data point with what the driver is telling them verbally about the feel and manipulation of the elevator car . They can anticipate problems and hold change track weather condition . distinctly , information is power , which is why this use of telemetry is set to fomite test . It ’s banned from NASCAR backwash .

Telemetry data also enhance the live broadcasts of car racing events . For NASCAR broadcasts , up to eight wireless receivers are install at fundamental points around the track to collect data from the speeding cars . Each receiver make the machine ’s wireless broadcast . Then , a central computer ( usually , in the on - site TV yield van ) gather up racing statistic five times a 2d – from every railcar on the lead [ informant : Afar ] .

That ’s how television set producers get what one producer call " the most complicated graphic to produce in television " – the virtual dashboard you see on the screen [ reservoir : Meserve ] . It ’s also how NASCAR gets the information for its PitCommand service [ source : NASCAR ] .

What Stock Car Telemetry Does

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The first step in any sort of telemetry is gather information . of course , that come from the car .

The car ’s onboard computing machine , a proprietary prick called a Pi System , collect information , such as speed , RPMs , brake position , temperature and location . A Pi System works more or less like an airplane ’s black box seat – except in a race motorcar , the arrangement consists of two black box [ source : Kushner ] .

­The boxes sit on the vehicle ’s floor board . They ’re connected , via transducers , to decisive sites throughout the cable car – the direction wheel , shocks , pedals and so on . Sensors measure every conceivable variable star – temperature , movement , electric potential . All the information is stored in the boxes .

For actual - time broadcasts , car have an antenna that sends information to data processor as the driver circles the track . Telemetry also uses differential GPS , the same scheme used by the U.S. Coast Guard , to get over the relative locations of cars .

A company called Sportvision – the same people who show you the digital first - down line of work in football programme – is responsible for grow this entropy into the artwork you see in live broadcast . They use a complicated combining of topographical track mathematical function , JavaScript , wireless modem , artwork software and fiber eye [ beginning : Meserve ] .

Even though computers have bring about unbelievable improvements to the vehicle , and teams now make for with unprecedented expertise , NASCAR has a long tradition of trusting human instinct over technology . Before a race , as many as eight inspectors might go over a car from tip to unforgiving , looking for hidden sensors [ source : Kushner ] .

What that mean is that the human driver is still supreme in lineage car racing . Says Jeff Gordon , " When I see that gullible flag , I ’m the on - board figurer . I ’m the telemetry " [ informant : Kushner ] .

So what pass off before the green flag ? understand on to check how racing teams test and educate their vehicles .

Testing Stock Cars with Telemetry

Before a raceway , a NASCAR squad has a limited amount of examination time on the track – five two - day tryout , and five one - twenty-four hours tests . So the team desire to utilize that time to gain as much information as possible . It might install as many as 60 sensor on the machine [ source : Wise ] . The team will check several thing , such as :

An antenna on top of the car broadcasts the information back to the colliery crew ’s calculator . Or , the car ’s own organisation collects the information so that engineers can download it afterwards using a relatively intimate piece of technology , a laptop computer pass Windows [ source : Kushner ] .

­The squad , which consist of engineers and automotive technician , coordinates test entropy with steer burrow information about the car ’s air resistance , both alone and in combination with other cars ( see How Stock Car Drafting Works ) . The squad extremity also gather data about the track control surface and conditions so that they can tune the car to that raceway .

Of course , all this happens before the actual airstream . In the race , although the pit crew might have a backwash engineer , communications between the number one wood and the stone crew are confine to analog technology .

And that might be a good matter . Telemetry is allow in Formula One race , and it is part of why those railroad car and teams are so astronomically expensive . In 2005 , a Formula One team might spend around $ 200 million , a discriminating contrast to the $ 15 million spent for a NASCAR team [ source : Wise ] .

More importantly , NASCAR feels – and many sports fan fit in – that too much telemetry can take the fun out of racing . " Keep our athlete athletes , " is how Nextel Cup series conductor John Darby puts it [ informant : Wise ] . As athletes in every sport swear on increasingly sophisticated technology , it ’s likely that eventually Darby is going to have to be more specific .

To learn more about line car racing and bear on topics , shoot the breeze the link on the next pageboy .

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