HP Invites us to the Indy Car Race in Homestead Miami

High Octane Computing:

Fast computers and fast cars. . . it seems like a match made in heaven. HP sponsors the de Ferran Luczo Dragon Indy car racing team. The team is using technology to get an edge on the competition by gathering real time data and feedback from the car while its on the track. A team of engineers and the pit crew stand by watching the data on laptops and monitors and decide how to dial in the car just right. How is this done? Simple. . . the car is wired with over 100 sensors attached to everything from the wheels and linkages, to the shocks, and engine. The team is using HP technology to find the right “zone” for the car.

Here’s what we mean:

Award-winning HP workstations, mobile PCs and HP OfficeJet printers are used to
design the cars and manage everything from the telemetry to the engine of the
team’s car during the race. Raphael Matos, 2009 Apex Brazil IndyCar Rookie of
the Year, will be behind the wheel of the HP-powered Luczo Dragon race car.
Davey Hamilton, one of the most experienced drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series,
will pilot a second HP Luczo Dragon car for three races.

Using HP technology, the Luczo Dragon Racing team is able to maximize
performance on and off the track. HP technology is used in every aspect of
performance, engineering, reliability, management, mobility, robustness, raw
computing power and design.

“During a race, we need to run a lot of data through the systems at one time,” said
Gil de Ferran, president and managing partner, Luczo Dragon Racing. “The
compute power that HP provides is critical to our performance and our drivers. We
can rely on the HP workstations and notebooks to provide fast performance every
time without crashing.”

Off the track, engineers use powerful HP workstations to enhance parts design,
data collection, storage, analysis, simulation and optimization. To prepare for each
race, engineers on the Luczo Dragon Racing team run simulations to understand
how the car’s setup will affect performance for a given track. The team needs to
understand the behavior of the car and the effect of changes in performance.

Effectively, the team tries to develop and optimize the car through simulations and
optimization routines. These simulations and test runs generate massive amounts of
data. The multicore processing power of HP servers and workstations allows the
team to run multiple simulations and optimizations at once – increasing the team’s
efficiency.

Take a look at our gallery and video on the next page:

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