Nerd’s Eye View: SEMA Edition 2012, Part II

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A Grand-Am Ferrari 458.  There’s a lot of attention paid to the airflow around the front corners and fenders.

Checking out the interior, there’s some serious cage work going on.  There are big gussets added to the X part of the cage.  There is also gusseting on the A-pillar to add even more strength.

 

Not as complicated as the LMP car, but still a fair number of buttons and switches.  It looks like a TFT display with LED shift lights is mounted in the dash.  I’m unsure as to what the small screen mounted on the passenger side is for.  There appears to be a little cooling fan for the driver and a water bottle holder.

 

The duct on the upper bodywork feeds air to a heat exchanger which can be seen through the mesh in the rear bodywork.

 

Randy Pobst did some serious ass kicking in this turbocharged Volvo.

 

The car rolls on BBS magnesium wheels with a single center locking nut.  Something I found interesting is the rotor hat which appears to be ribbed for increased cooling (I think).

 

Some interesting knobs… boost, brakes, map, and ABS.  I’m a bit curious as to why there are both a boost knob and a map knob.  Maybe the map knob also controls throttle sensitivity while the boost just controls peak power level.  I initially thought the little lever to the right of the shifter was for brake bias, but as there’s a brake knob, maybe the lever is for adjusting the front sway bar.

 

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