Thought I'd share a few pics from the Autosport Engineering show which I attended on Friday. My main interest was in the electronics and particularly the dash displays and cockpit switchgear as that is the last bit of work we have to do on the track toy project.

Honda K20 - Titan Dry Sump Conversion







Interesting exhaust manifold heat shielding from http://www.SStubetechnology.com





Ford Escort Mk1 dashboard switchgear layout. Mainly for comparison with the modern cars dash and switches.





Dallara built SRT-01E Formula E uses a McLaren supplied all-electric powertrain




JMW run Ferrari 458 Italia.




Engine access looks like a nightmare!





Cockpit instrument and switchgear detail. Visible on the original pic is the yellow Panic button on the bottom left of the steering wheel! I wonder what that does if you push it?









Cartek solid state master (kill) switch

I have fitted the uprated GT version of this system to my track toy project. Thanks to JP for the idea!





Millington Diamond 2.0litre rally engine pretty much a standard in the rally world these days although they're not cheap.

Not sure I'd want to mount the ECU on the back of the engine like that. Exposed to heat, vibration, moisture





Membrane Switch Panels configurable for CAN bus systems seem to be all the rage. I'm not entirely convinced. I prefer the push button momentary switch types like the red and green you see at the top left. They are sometimes referred to as 'door bell' switches!




Drift spec Nissan Skyline R32. Mental rear wing!



Not sure the screamer pipe through the top of the bonnet would meet with the approval of plod!







The ex-Mike Newton/RML run Lola MG/AER 2lite turbo which won the LMP2 class twice at Le Mans







Lotus Renault F1 2013 E20-05



Interesting to note the Lotus uses push-button momentary and rotary switches so if they're good enough for F1 they're good enough for me!




Force India F1 2013 VJM06




March 701 F1 1970

Nikki Lauda started his F1 career in this type of car.





Lola T88/00 Indycar 1988

A real racing car with big gumball slicks and a methanol fuelled turbo engine!




Renault Twizy F1 aero spec!






Audi R18 LMP1

This was the first time I'd seen it alongside a normal road car and I didn't realise how small it was by comparison




Austin A35

Goodwood Revival spec. Cute!




Porsche Kremer K8 was based on the Porsche 962

The car finished 6th in the 1994 Le Mans 24 Hours




John Surtees cars were on display. Nice and simple by comparison with todays F1 cars! Virtually a 3 litre Formula Ford with Cossie DFV power that you could build in your garden shed.







Strange Akrapovic exhaust layout on the McLaren MP4/12c

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Hi Don,

Thanks for the pictures, lots of interesting shiny things

For reference, the F1 steering wheel is all CAN based with just three wires running down the column. The switches are large and positive so that they can be used in high G and high speed environments, the film type buttons would not cut it. For reference, there are never enough buttons on the steering wheel, so though the use of CAN and the SECU we could program different switch combinations. Usually position '14' and up would be position 13 + a series of presses on an aux button. The radio comms failure button was usually memorised

J

Membrane switches tend to be devoid of feel, or have that horrible 'click' effect which also tends to be very difficult and slow to push. Have you every tried typing at a decent speed on a touch screen or, for the old people here, a sinclair zx80 ? From my experience, membranes don't last a fraction of the time of a well engineered push button, especially in harsh, high adrenaline type applications.

I'm intrigued by the 'solid state' panic button. Are they really fully solid state, including the switching element ? If so, are they approved ?
Solid state devices tend to fail short circuit in overload conditions, and can do so in microseconds. Not suitable for emergency disconnection IMO unless used as a fast acting disconnect, backed up by an additional relay as a failsafe.

_________________
If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Thanks for the feedback guys, really confirms what I suspected about the membrane panels. I'd far rather have something positive like a push button to press if I'm in the heat of battle on track and wearing nomex gloves. The 458 manages to squeeze 13 buttons onto the wheel more than any other race or rally car I've seen so far. The centre console is something else! All this doesn't leave much mental bandwidth to drive the car but I guess the computer games kids that graduate to the Nissan GT Academy might find it pretty easy

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Very nice set of pics!!! I passed my test in an Austin A35..... memories ............

_________________
Previously a UK WRC & a CS
Now...a 13/60 cv herald ,a Honda CR-Z and an Amica

Interesting comment Chris and one I hadn't previously thought of.

The device does not need to be approved, the regulations merely state the vehicle must be fitted with a means of disconnection of electrical power to engine from outside of the vehicle (with some extra bits) but essentially it is the function that is the regulation.

Having witnessed a number of switches melt/weld themselves together through over current (due to external failure of circuit) is the situation any better or worse for the solid state switches?

I had assumed that the failsafe would be a fuse but I believe that the fuses typically are "slow blow" and hence the solid state switch would fail first in the event of over current and thereby remove the external safety switch? Far from ideal but the extra cable required to run a regular bowden setup seemed to pose as much risk in the event of a shunt? my fear was the cable being cut by the body as the route just wasn;t designed for the cable.

You can't remove all risk. I do wonder if a relay based system could be a better option?

These are questions BTW, Alternatives to regular "bowden cable" activated switch are welcome

_________________
JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

Regular switch contacts can & do weld, as do relay contacts. If there is fuse protection and the rating of fuse & contact are appropriate then the fuse should blow long before the contact welds in an overload. Failure of a transistor takes microsends to milliseconds, welding of a contact takes milliseconds to seconds.

Where contacts fall down - and where solid state switching is better - is regular switching of high currents, especially inductive loads which draw a big arc on disconnection - this doesn't apply to this application though. On our electric vehicles (and I believe by regulation on mobility vehicles) is a high current relay in series with motor power so that in the event of transistor failure the vehicle can be stopped without waiting for the battery to go flat !!!!

An ideal solution IMO is to use a high current relay local to the battery (e.g. 'caravan relay' rated 400A) with coil driven via low current activation switches and wiring (with low current fuse feeding from live). These can be rocker or toggle switches and wired in series so that any switch opening will kill power, as will broken wire or short circuit to ground (chassis deforming and trapping wire), latter blowing the low current fuse.

No massive problem with electronics driving the coil if you REALLY want push buttons. If the designer is good there will be protection resistors & capacitors to stop any spikes or overloads on these low power devices. Dual circuit would also be a good idea in this instance so that if a device does fail the other circuit will also cut power. Such setups are common for critical emergency stops in machine control.

_________________
If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

The BMW uses an explosive charge to disconnect battery power in the event of a biggie. Seems a sensible approach

Maybe the idea is to propel the potential source of fire away from the wreckage !!!!!

_________________
If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.