This is the Drain Daddie. You wish you had invented it. I sure do. It’s one of the simplest things I’ve ever seen, but it’s brilliant. It’s just some injection molded plastic with a screw-stop that you can set on top of a 5-gallon bucket. So instead of fumbling around with a funnel, you just slap this silly thing on top of the bucket, align the drain hole, and then pour the fluid out.
This nearly completely hands-free system is probably one of the most complex things at the show. This is an 18″ racing tire getting mounted. You clamp the rim into the system and then pretty much drop the tire on top of the wheel, press the foot pedal, and lean back. The Hunter does everything else for you. This tire likely got mounted and dismounted hundreds of times over the three days of the show, and it never got mangled. Just about any idiot can use it, and it’s unlikely to scratch that customer’s expensive wheel.
I wonder how many tires I’d have to change at $20 a pop to earn back the $30,000 price tag on this mounter.
OK, back to real racing stuff.
SimCraft is also in my backyard, and I knew this thing was coming, but it’s still impressive to see the prototype in real life. This is a prototype formula-style cockpit mounted to SimCraft’s new, more compact 6DOF motion rig. By combining the surge motion directly into the main sled, SimCraft reduced the total number of cradles, which makes the footprint of the simulator a bit smaller. This simulator uses aluminum tube, which reduces the unit’s overall weight, but SimCraft is not currently planning to manufacture all of its simulators from aluminum.
While this prototype features a fiberglass tub, SimCraft is actively looking for a partner to construct the tub from carbon fiber. Given the price tag for a regular 6DOF simulator from SimCraft, I can’t believe that this thing will clock in under $100k, especially as it’s a 6DOF simulator with the addition of a carbon fiber cockpit!
AiM Sports fancy steering wheels are digital dashboard loggers mounted into steering wheel frames. With some special software running on your PC, the wheel can be attached via USB and can log directly from iRacing, Assetto Corsa, and rFactor. Subsequently, the logged data can be analyzed with Race Studio. You can use the same steering wheel in your real car and on your sim. And, if you drive the same car in sim versus in real life, you will have quite a realistic experience.
4 comments
Thanks for the summary! I have only been to PRI once sadly, and I think that was back in 2008 when it was still in Orlando. Interesting about the Precision, the end housings look very EFR-like. Well, only so many ways to do the same feature set. I know the owner of Dyme PSI, he’s very active out here in SoCal helping with builds. The rattle snake kit would be awesome for any shop that builds cars. It takes all the guess work out, reduces wasted material, and all the stuff they send is tested for quality to ensure there are no leaks (maybe the most important part). I was wonder how the Miata Cup cars were keeping from grenading the manual transmission… I see they just replaced it completely, ha! I bet Hunter will sell a ton of those tire change machines. The EV conversions are coming… the tricky part right now for the DIY’er is the battery pack and thermal management. AEM was smart and jumped on it early, getting their ECU and BMS stuff going. Now the OEMs are doing crate motor/inverter setups. The last piece really are battery modules/packs.
Khiem, to answer your “question” on the Miata Cup car transmissions: they obviously weren’t doing anything to keep them from grenading- but they were covering them under warranty and contingency. I had a friend go through 2 transmissions- completely covered under warranty. Mazda told him they would not cover the 3d one if it blew as well.
But, isn’t that one of the best benefits of selecting the Mazda as a track toy? Things are covered under warranty just like on the street car, and for things that aren’t- you get a discount on the parts- 2yrs ago replacement crash parts for cup car owners was cost plus 10%! What other auto manufacturer is supporting their grassroots motorsport customers like that?
Part of the reason for the change from the OEM transmission to the SADEV was that the OEM trans were not holding up to the rigors of racing. However, it was usually the front-pack racers who were flat-shifting and driving the cars to 99.99% of their capabilities that were destroying the trans. I don’t think it was 100% of the cars that were grenading transmissions all the time, but rather the most abusive drivers were guaranteed to kill one.
I don’t think your casual weekend warrior or track-day enthusiast is going to kill an OEM trans.
I definitely see the value in the Dyme system for volume. For one-sy two-sy kind of hose work, though, it may not be worth the entry price.
I was definitely at a few of those Orlando-era PRI events!
I believe this is basically the same transmission in the FR-S/86/BRS and if so its is pretty fragile.