When the ADAC GT Masters 2020 season starts this weekend, there will be some brand new technology debuting in racing.
KÜS Team75 Bernhard will enter a third Porsche 911 GT3 R this weekend, but there is a very important thing, that makes is different than the regular 911 GT3. The car will run a steer-by-wire developed by Schaeffler.
There is no mechanical connection from the steering wheel and the steering rack itself, which is completely opposite of everything that is usually on the road, let alone the race tracks. It will only be electric signals from the steering wheel, if the driver wants to turn two degrees to the right or however much he turns the wheel.
The technology is Space Drive from Schaeffler Paravan, and will be utilized in future autonomic cars, where the “driver” will just get into the vehicle, select the destination, and the vehicle will go there all by itself, without further input from the driver.
Norbert Siedler and Martin Ragginger have been chosen to race the car this weekend, and will participate like any other of the cars in the field. There has been excessive testing prior to this weekend, but this is the first time that it will be run during an actual race weekend.
A lot of things is electronic on cars today, where the most commonly known/used is throttle-by-wire i.e. electronic throttle pedal, which is a standard on pretty much every road car. Brake-by-wire has started to come into Formula E, Formula 1 and sportscar racing during the latter years, where an electronic brake pedal will send signals to the brake system, regarding the amount of braking demanded. That is especially important regarding hybrid systems, where there is some re-gen during parts of the braking, but when this re-gen disappears, you need a different kind of brake pressure, to slow the car. Things like that can be programmed into brake-by-wire systems.
The ADAC GT Masters will run at the Lausitzring this weekend, with the first race being run Saturday afternoon, and Race 2 on Sunday afternoon.
