Performance Racing Industry: What’s New and Cool 2023 Edition

Last year we showed some of Fuelab’s brushless innovations, and they have continued the trend. On the left is Fuelab’s new 1100LPH (yes, over one thousand!) brushless pump. On the right is their new CAN brushless controller. While Fuelab’s previous brushless controller was totally fine, the new CAN controller practically acts like a datalogger for your fuel system. With a number of data streams available, you can get fancy with adaptive ECU control to deal with exactly the fueling situation that’s available at any moment. But it’s not limited to only running Fuelab’s pumps – any 3-phase DC brushless pump can be run by the controller, and it also offers a variety of control mechanisms from PWM to pure voltage to fixed-speed. These are pretty neat! They also feature 24v compatibility, which means they can also be used in industrial or military applications.

Link continues to update and upgrade their engine management platform, and the new G5 VooDoo Pro brings DI control via either Link’s own DI driver or an external OEM driver box. With built-in WiFi and GPS, tons of outputs, and support for not only dual drive-by-wire but also dual wideband controllers, the G5 VooDoo Pro is jam-packed with everything you need for even the most advanced control projects. Also of note is a G5-based plug-and-play ECU for the GT86, bringing all of the interesting Link controls easily to your Toyota (or Subaru, I guess?).

I have been hearing more and more great things about the ZF 8HP transmission. I recently discovered Turbolamik while surfing the internet looking for controllers, and was pleased to encounter them at PRI. Their TCU features seven different driving modes, from a happy, dont-think-about-it fully automatic mode, all the way up to full race. The TCU offers lots of IO for various types of shifter integration. And there are also myriad bellhousing adapter options making it easier than ever to swap in this 200ms-shift-capable monster of a transmission.

Maybe we’ll put an 8HP in a future MotoIQ project? Who knows.

PDS is relatively new to the logger market, but they have a compelling feature set targeted squarely at the extreme ends of the drag racing market. Racepak has traditionally dominated the drag space, and PDS wisely offers VNET support to integrate with existing Racepak modules. The PDS X1 supports various dashboard and ECU CAN protocols and up to 72 sensors!