- #Nascar manager simulator drivers
- #Nascar manager simulator driver
- #Nascar manager simulator professional
- #Nascar manager simulator simulator
With a three-point belt, functional gauge cluster - you even get the three-note warning chime of a real-life Ford when the simulator starts up - and tiny screens in the car's mirrors, the sensation of driving is immersive. I strap in and give it a go to see how realistic it feels.
Either way, the system can simulate the steering weight and feel, sound and body motions of a physical car. On my visit, the "buck" is set up to resemble the interior of a Mustang GT350, but in about 45 minutes technicians can swap the parts to look more like a Focus. As with the racing version, engineers feed in all the data they have on a car. The simulator is loaded up with about 55 real-life circuits that were carefully 3D-scanned locations include all of Ford's global proving grounds and countless well-known race tracks. "The one thing I don't have in my model is the feel-meter." That's where the sim comes in. "I can tell you how fast the car will be on any track we go to," says Eric Zinkosky, Ford's Technical Specialist for Vehicle Dynamics and Simulation Tools. The production-car simulator doesn't have 3D imagery but is otherwise identical to the racing version. That requires actually driving a prototype car - or doing so virtually on the simulator. While Ford engineers' clever models can establish how a car might perform objectively, getting subjective data is much tougher. The goal here is to get a sense of how pre-production cars might behave on tracks. Not just for racing carsĪ second simulator in the building is almost identical to the race rig, albeit with a two-dimensional display rather than the 3D one. Also missing: sustained cornering forces: "That's the one thing we can't simulate is the G-forces." To help cue drivers' minds about braking forces, though, special motors tug on the seatbelts to simulate that feeling of being pushed against the belts. "It's as physical as it would be in a real car, but we don't make it 130 degrees in there," Tiley jokes. Wearing 3D glasses and having the realistic recreation of the car's interior helps with making the simulator feel real, but there are still limits to how much feeling the simulator can produce. The simulator has six degrees of freedom to pitch, twist and jostle drivers.
#Nascar manager simulator driver
"We'll run three or four tracks in a few-hour session."Īnd, of course, all that is done without the expense of shipping cars and parts around the country - or of rebuilding a car if the driver taps the wall.
#Nascar manager simulator drivers
"It gives drivers the chance to get on tracks they've never been on before," Tiley says. With NASCAR limiting the amount of on-track testing teams can perform, this type of virtual experience is invaluable. Those setup tweaks will, eventually, be relayed to engineers for prepping Ragan's real-life car for the upcoming race weekend. He sets a couple of laps on the simulator, then stops and relays feedback to engineers, who in turn tweak some variables in their car-setup model for a few minutes, before sending him back onto the virtual track.
#Nascar manager simulator professional
I watch as NASCAR professional David Ragan turns virtual laps at the new Charlotte Track. This Ford GT simulator "buck" is designed to give drivers as realistic an experience as possible.
"To be as exact as possible is what makes this as good a tool as it is." "The model is exactly every measurement of a specific car," says Dan Tiley, Ford's performance vehicle dynamics simulation engineer.
Engineers feed in data from engine dynamometers, "kinematics and compliance" machines that measurement suspension motion and a variety of other sources. Various "bucks" are mounted to the motion platform, each designed to recreate the interior of various cars as faithfully as possible, whether it's a Ford GT endurance racer or a NASCAR Sprint Cup car. The team was tasked with evaluating car-simulator technology from around the world and setting one up for use by racing teams. The Ford Performance facility opened in 2014 and sits literally down the street from NASCAR's research and development office the entire area is littered with race teams and suppliers. The aim? Let both racing drivers and car engineers evaluate cars and technical changes without the expense of building and tweaking physical prototypes.įord has an impressive 3D racing simulator in Concord, North Carolina. Surrounded by a 26-foot wraparound screen and powered by 25 computers, the simulator consists of a lifelike racing car cockpit "buck" that sits on a platform with six degrees of freedom to rock, tilt and jolt drivers. You may think your Forza Horizon setup is pretty slick, but it's got nothing on the 3D simulator housed at the Ford Performance technical center in Concord, North Carolina.
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