HP Technology Fuels IndyCars to Checkered Flag

By DE Editors

The Luczo Dragon Racing team uses HP workstations, mobile PCs, and HP OfficeJet printers to design the cars and manage everything from the telemetry to the engine of the team’s car during the race.

“During a race, we need to run a lot of data through the systems at one time,” says Gil de Ferran, president and managing partner, Luczo Dragon Racing. “The compute power that HP provides is critical to our performance and our drivers. We can rely on the HP workstations and notebooks to provide fast performance every time without crashing.”

Off the track, engineers use HP workstations to enhance parts design, data collection, storage, analysis, simulation, and optimization. To prepare for each race, engineers on the Luczo Dragon Racing team run simulations to understand how the car’s setup will affect performance for a given track. The team needs to understand the behavior of the car and the effect of changes in performance.

Effectively, the team tries to develop and optimize the car through simulations and optimization routines. These simulations and test runs generate massive amounts of data. After miles of practice runs, the team identifies areas on the car that need to be fine-tuned. Using HP workstations, the team is able to redesign each aspect of the car.

On the track, the team uses HP notebooks to monitor the car and remotely adjust suspension, telemetry, and engine systems. While the car speeds around the track at 220 miles per hour, the team analyzes the information they’re receiving from sensors on the car to understand where performance deficits may lie.

“In the past, running simulations to prepare for a race would often take 10 times the real-time speed,” says de Ferran. “With today’s technology from HP, extremely complex lap simulations can happen faster than real time. This has allowed us to change the way we do business — keeping us ahead of the game instead of one lap behind.”

For more information, visit HP.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.