In addition to various new Micro-Start offerings, Antigravity also now sells combination tire inflators and starting assist units. According to Antigravity, the XP-10HD is even capable of starting a 7.0L diesel!
Meru Safety debuted their damper-equipped head and neck restraint system at the 2022 PRI show. Meru’s Intertia Dampening System promises to significantly reduce the concussive forces experienced during impacts. The unit is made of carbon fiber, but the addition of the damper makes the overall package a little hefty. However, that little bit of extra weight is probably worth the added protection if you do find yourself rapidly decelerating.
While these may be in the “new to me” category along with several other things, they are intriguing nonetheless. The BlackBox is a dedicated electronic wastegate controller that is packed with features including various control/target options, protections, and calibrations. It can be easily paired with all of Turbosmart’s electronic wastegates. If you don’t have the required high current H-bridge outputs for driving the electronic wastegates, the BlackBox makes it easy to integrate with your existing engine management and upgrade to electronic wastegate control.
The StraightGate seems like a product that should have existed by now, but it took the smart folks at TurboSmart to figure out how to put a butterfly-style external wastegate together. Because it’s straight and because of the butterfly design, the 50mm StraightGate is capable of some massive flow numbers. Remember, kids, that oftentimes less boost means you need more waste control, and this is potentially where something like the StraightGate will shine.
FuelTech has been producing these combination display and powertrain management units for some time now, and the FT700/Plus are the latest evolution in that product line. Technically that’s not correct, because the FT700 is based on an entirely new platform that FuelTech calls VisionFT. The FT700 features a massive 36 inputs and 50 outputs of various flavors, and four CAN ports. If that wasn’t enough, you’ve got 64 gigabytes of data storage for logging. Within that logging are eight high-speed logging channels capable of recording at 400,000Hz for measuring combustion chamber sensors while going down the track. That’s pretty nuts.
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Thank you.
What are the benefits of titanium exhaust bolts/studs?
Mostly thermal characteristics. Exhausts, especially turbo exhausts, can get very hot. This can result in metal fatigue and failure of fasteners. Titanium has a high melting point and low thermal expansion. Since it doesn’t expand, it tends to hold its torque. I can’t remember who told me the story, but the summary was that they kept having exhaust manifold issues and it turned out that the fasteners were lengthening and losing torque from the heat. Titanium wouldn’t do that.
I never knew what the benefit of Nitrogen in tires was, just that it was ‘the hot new thing for fuel mileage’ for awhile before being called as snake oil.
Reading now, I understand it’s benefit in very specific cases like top tier race teams searching for fractions on fractions of fractions of a second. Neat.
I am always learning something here.