Nerds Eye View: BMW Team RLL Z4 GTE

,


Even though the cars have A/C, drivers still need to stay hydrated. It appears this black box may be used to hold a water container. Do you see that blue hose running next to it along the tunnel? It leads to a little black panel holding a quick disconnect port for a water hose. If you follow the blue water hose the other direction, it works its way behind the driver’s seat and up the side to where we can see the end of the CamelBak like mouth piece next to the harness. Hey, what’s a little spit shared among co-drivers? Another interesting feature is the little blue bulb pump thing with the clear tubing attached. The tubing appears to be going into the seat. Maybe it’s for an inflatable seat bolster or lumbar? Or maybe not.


The Racetech seat has serious head side protection which restricts view. Many of the race cars are now equipped with rear-facing cameras to help the drivers and we can see the small screen mounted in the center of the dash. Note how low the seat is mounted too which does not help with visibility. The steering wheel is pretty full of buttons, so the track map was taped to the door. The bags placed in the seat and driver’s foot well are probably to replicate the driver’s weight while the car was getting aligned.


Yup, there’s that A/C button on the control panel. You can also see all the ducting to the air vents. I still don’t know what that ‘FANCY’ button is for on the wheel. Here is another view of the water port in the lower right.


A super-wide rear view mirror helps the drivers see what’s around them. I’m guessing the front windshield is lexan or something similar as it appears to have some support from bowing inwards in the form of the two black pieces.


Yup, the driver sits pretty low in the car. The driver is a pretty dense piece of mass, so placing the driver as low as possible lowers the CG of the car improving handling. The driver is positioned so low, the side mirror is basically in the same horizontal plane as the driver’s eyes. No driving with the arm hanging on the door here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*