Old Cars Are Getting Ahead With New Tech

An anonymous reader points out an ExtremeTech article that begins: "Historic car races might seem like the last place you'd find modern auto technology. The cars are lovingly restored to their full, authentic racing glory, and care is taken not to allow modern tweaks to improve their performance. Surprisingly, though, both the pits and the cars are crammed with modern technology to help drivers improve their performance. Long-term benefits from tech at the race track isn't confined to racers, though. Researchers are hoping to use what they find by monitoring drivers' bodies and brains, along with the cars, to build better and safer cars for all of us."

Comments

Re:iPods in clunkers.

[Tough Love]

All over the place, I see piece of shit cars driving around with their owners/drivers listening to their iPods using the earphones. These reckless drivers are oblivious to other drivers on the road, which is fine by them because they don't care if their peice of shit gets in an accident.

Agreed, it's hard to get worked up about losing an iPod.

Re:there is nothing stock about a stock car

[frosty_tsm]

At least in SCCA stock mean stock.. NASCAR shouldn't be allowed to call it's self stock car racing, as they have forgotten what the word stock means.

Umm.. except the shocks, exhaust, air filter, wheels (stock size but lighter), tires (2 lines of tread), alignment, racing seat and harness. And 100 Octane if you can find it. But yeah, stock.

Re:there is nothing stock about a stock car

[JoeMerchant]

Stock Miata SCCA in Sebring a few years back, all the cars had the back of the left headlight cover bent down - makes a cold air intake scoop... Stock class allows any sway bar, I knew a guy that ran one so big (rigid) it was tearing off the mounting brackets when he ran on "stock" (R compound) tires. And the classic stock class trick (all piston engines) is to rebuild the engine with a max allowable overbore, blueprint, 3 angle valves, etc. etc.

Even in Stock SCCA, the serious guys bend the rules when they can.

Re:there is nothing stock about a stock car

[ZosX]

The only thing stock on a nascar car is the fact that it has 4 wheels. They share nothing in common with their production counterparts. Even the body is a big fake fiberglass costume.

Feelin' so fly like a Wright 1

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

They can give them modern names, too.

Anyone wanna try out my Cleveland Steamer?

Re:Is it that accurate?

[LynnwoodRooster]

They both "dither" the signal via different means. The US system of introducing errors does so by varying the timing of the pulses slightly, so it's like the satellite moves around a bit. GLONASS does it by having the satellite occasionally misreport it's ID - so satellites swap places. Use the timing of the GLONASS satellites with the stability of position of the US satellites and you can correct the two systems to get one solid, rock-stable positioning system even if both are dithering.