After my last article about the rule changes, I had a couple of questions. I emailed Ryan Sage at Formula Drift to see how accurate I was on my suppositions. Ryan passed on the information and got back to me with some clarifications. So here’s portions of their responses and, of course, more of my opinions.
Pretty accurately stated:
He is close on a few items and way over thinking others items.
Bell housings and Transaxles
Trans axle, nothing to do with corvette all about advantages of Transaxle conversion… Bellhousing is pretty close
I’m still unsure of the advantages of transaxles outside of weight. But this makes sense.
Driver Viewable Camera
Driver viewable camera is a live view, not stopping them from reviewing their cameras later.
I don’t recall the rules stating a live view camera. So I’m still not sure about this one. But the clarification makes things a little more clear. You can use gopros and what not in/on your car, you just can’t be watching them during your run. Who would do/does that?
Data Monitoring
This part got lengthy so I’m going to paraphrase and quote where possible.
Data will be recorded live and not handed over by the team after events. They’ll attach a module to the CAN plug on the A pillar to record data “…similar to SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge recorded via CAN”. My research on this series hasn’t turned up much for their CAN recording modules but they do have a requirement for timing equipment that makes sense. Although they mention that each module will need to be configured per car. It looks like each car will be getting their own module instead of ad-hoc attaching them at grid.
The data will be used for later analysis and not live judging. From the FD standpoint, only 1 car in Pro2 couldn’t meet the CAN requirement easily so this change shouldn’t cause much monetary/time commitment from any driver.
I want to give the data to the teams that don’t have data. Even in a penalty situation, there would not be a reason to release more than what was absolutely required.
The requirement for data monitoring is meant to help drivers but also to give FD data logs to check for cheating later on. They do specifically mention my concern for cheating as difficult to fib the outputs and “we have to start somewhere”.
I still have a ton of questions but I’m sure I could fill an hour or six with just technical talk like this. The answers given have enough clarity that I’m looking forward to how this pans out next season. It’s a good start into better safety and the modern age of automotive electronics.