Driving assists in real life?

[kanjifreak]

Hello:

I'm an avid video game fan, let alone the GT series, but I do not know anything about motorsports real technique at all.

In video games, everybody says that driving aids are for rookies, or useless to achieve better times, etc., and I agree.

So my question is:

In real racing cars (a general panorama) do pilots have access to any driving assists at all?

I sure know some assists are available on road cars, and if the car is higher end, you get more assists. But how about racing cars?

Sorry, I'm really ignorant on that matter.

Thank you.

 

[Zach]

Some, but there are driving aids in real life for e.g. Traction Control. But Skid Recovery Force will forever be something fictional because it magically gives tyres more grip.

 

[kanjifreak]

Some, but there are driving aids in real life for e.g. Traction Control. But Skid Recovery Force will forever be something fictional because it magically gives tyres more grip.

So real life racing pilots also have to choose between going faster or having driving aids on? (Skid recovery is pure fantasy, got that.)

Are driving aids regulated on each racing category? An F1 car can have ABS?

EDIT.- Ok, some assists are allowed to different extent depending on the categories. Google is always a basic friend...

 

[Sandy106]

In real racing cars (a general panorama) do pilots have access to any driving assists at all?

Theres no traction control or ABS in Formula 1 or nascar, I'm 90% sure its banned in all FIA GT and Le Mans races.

 

[Blank_Redge]

In non-racing cars, there's at least a few supercars / exotics that have various electronic nannies. The Audi R8 comes to mind:

 

[kanjifreak]

Theres no traction control or ABS in Formula 1 or nascar, I'm 90% sure its banned in all FIA GT and Le Mans races.

How about the active steering system? Is that thing used/allowed in general racing?

 

[caladina]

In real racing cars (a general panorama) do pilots have access to any driving assists at all?

ouch indeed,

anywho, F1 official technical regs
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/technical_regulations/

 

[Sandy106]

How about the active steering system? Is that thing used/allowed in general racing?

I've never seen it, no

 

[DudleyPoyson]

I believe F1 at one point had traction control but was later removed. In general they do this to increase competitiveness in the series. Such as the moves from higher horsepower engines and decreasing the size of rear wings.

 

[Sandy106]

I believe F1 at one point had traction control but was later removed. In general they do this to increase competitiveness in the series. Such as the moves from higher horsepower engines and decreasing the size of rear wings.

Traction control was banned starting in the 2008 season. The only electronics the drivers have now are brake balance, differential control, lean/rich fuel control, and the pit lane speed limiter.

 

[kanjifreak]

ouch indeed,

anywho, F1 official technical regs
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/technical_regulations/

Sorry if I said something wrong...

This may come from a translation issue, in Spanish we say "piloto (pilot)" to refer to a race car driver or a plane pilot. Also, we may say "corredor de coches (race car driver)."

Is the word "pilot" incorrect in terms of race car driving?

 

[JJ72]

not techncially wrong, afterall they does pilot the cars!

Aids in real racing doesn't make driver faster though, I remember a few years back Marc gene was test driver of williams F1 and he commented on the traction control, on one lap a human can match or even better the time set with TC on, however over a race distance, TC eliminates the small mistakes and hence give you more consistency and better tire preservation.

I don't think any real world aids can improve laptime when you have a professional driver on board, maybe with the exception of active yaw systems in EVOs and GTRs (but I count them more towards intelligent drivetrain system more than driving aids anyway), but for normal people, driving aids keep you from making small mistakes and helps them go less slow.

 

[kanjifreak]

not techncially wrong, afterall they does pilot the cars!

Aids in real racing doesn't make driver faster though, I remember a few years back Marc gene was test driver of williams F1 and he commented on the traction control, on one lap a human can match or even better the time set with TC on, however over a race distance, TC eliminates the small mistakes and hence give you more consistency and better tire preservation.

I don't think any real world aids can improve laptime when you have a professional driver on board, maybe with the exception of active yaw systems in EVOs and GTRs (but I count them more towards intelligent drivetrain system more than driving aids anyway), but for normal people, driving aids keep you from making small mistakes and helps them go less slow.

Ok, I'm getting it now, thanks.

So maybe the assists in GT5 like the ASM are pretty unrealistically emulated. At the Indy Oval for example, if you have the ASM with the Corvette Z01 Rm all tuned you can take all the oval without ever braking or even releasing the accelerator (yes, with some wing and suspension tuning). But if you turn off the ASM is it almost impossible to do that, of course, the car will go faster on straights, but you will have to compulsory slow down on curves.

After a balance, times are better there with ASM on.

Is that unrealistic, am I wrong, or is that specific situation true for real life too?

 

[JJ72]

I have actually not ran ASM at all, so I can't tell you about that, I can be dead certain SRF isn't realistic.

if ASM is indeed a steering aid and keeps you steering angle close to the limit of slip with maximum grip, then yes it is unrealistic, because no real car has steering aids yet.

 

[Sandy106]

Ok, I'm getting it now, thanks.

So maybe the assists in GT5 like the ASM are pretty unrealistically emulated. At the Indy Oval for example, if you have the ASM with the Corvette Z01 Rm all tuned you can take all the oval without ever braking or even releasing the accelerator (yes, with some wing and suspension tuning). But if you turn off the ASM is it almost impossible to do that, of course, the car will go faster on straights, but you will have to compulsory slow down on curves.

After a balance, times are better there with ASM on.

Is that unrealistic, am I wrong, or is that specific situation true for real life too?

Its mostly unrealistic. ASM in real life is actually called electronic stability control, and its mostly to stop a car from skidding. It does help turning a little bit but not nearly as much as it does in the GT games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control

 

[kanjifreak]

Thank you all guys, you are awesome dudes!

 

[ahwaijai]

I didn't know about F1 not having ABS until now. This is unbelievable. I wonder if their brakes are less likely to skid... Thnik about in rainy races...

 

[Sandy106]

I didn't know about F1 not having ABS until now. This is unbelievable. I wonder if their brakes are less likely to skid... Thnik about in rainy races...

The amount of downforce they generate is enough to slow the car down by itself, so lockups arent as common as most people think

 

[Jesus]

I didn't know about F1 not having ABS until now. This is unbelievable. I wonder if their brakes are less likely to skid... Thnik about in rainy races...

You must of seen people lock there front wheels in F1? Especially at the start of races when everythings cold

 

[ahwaijai]

Hehe, those amazing machines and drivers 👍

 

[IceMan PJN]

The amount of downforce they generate is enough to slow the car down by itself, so lockups arent as common as most people think

Unfortunately, downforce isn't a flat rate but rather is entirely dependent on speed, and the ratio of downforce to velocity isn't one-to-one but rather downforce increases to the square of velocity. The slower that a car is going, the less downforce it has, and by "less" we're talking "a lot less", which sucks because it's typically when you're doing lower speeds that you're doing stuff where you want all that great downforce. Conversely, at high speeds like in a straight you want the least downforce but it's there that you get the most downforce.

If my understand of downforce is correct, at 50 MPH (80.47 KPH) a car would have only 6.25% of the downforce that it would at 200 MPH (321.86 KPH), even though 50 MPH is 25% of the velocity of 200 MPH. If you had a hypothetical race car with 16,000 pounds of downforce at 200 MPH, it would have only 1,000 pounds of downforce at 50 MPH. So, as a car slows down under braking, the more it slows down the dramatically less downforce it enjoys.

(That's all calculated with a layman's understanding of downforce. I'm sure there's more to it than that, though.)

You must of seen people lock there front wheels in F1? Especially at the start of races when everythings cold

Yes, it happens. For example, at the start of the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Lewis Hamilton locked up his brakes going into the first corner and ran way off the track, and ran Räikkönen off with him.

 

[Bobtehblob]

The Driving Aids used really comes down to the individual category. As others have said Google is your friend

 

[Bobtehblob]

Yes, it happens. For example, at the start of the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Lewis Hamilton locked up his brakes going into the first corner and ran way off the track, and ran Räikkönen off with him.

Hamilton doesn't need to lock his brakes to run other drivers of the track. Heck he even does it in the pit lane. Canada in 08...