MOTION-BASED SIMULATION
Arden International C
hristian Horner’s GP2 team, Arden International, is one of a growing number
of lower formulae outfits with its own simulator. Unusually, though, the team has developed its own from scratch, using real GP2 and GP3 data, whilst most commercially available simulators use Formula 1 or Le Mans Prototype data. ‘We slowly built our simulator up with a steel spaceframe chassis, one screen and just your basic Playstation-type steering wheel,’ explains Campbell Hobson, who heads up the programme. ‘Those guys who used it thought it was useful, especially for running rookies, as with the GP2 race format drivers do not get a lot of time in the car – half an hour practice and then half an hour qualifying – and our guys were going to circuits they’d never been to before. We felt
that we could give those guys an opportunity to get used to the right gears and the circuit layout, which would be beneficial.’ As the simulator developed,
Arden moved from a simple tube frame to an old F3000 chassis, and then onto a second, more advanced simulator based on GP2/05 chassis 013, which was used by the team in the early days of the series. The new simulator features real GP2 pedals and a solenoid-controlled platform with a genuine GP2 hydraulic braking system. The steering wheel is a 2008 model with paddle gear and clutch shift. The system is based on the
popular racing title rFactor but with the physics modified to give the driver more realistic feedback, and it has been validated against real car data. ‘We run on a modified version of the standard software,’
Homemade GP2 simulator offers huge advantages to drivers and engineers alike The simulator uses three
reveals Hobson. ‘We don’t have quite the full capacity of rFactor Pro, but we feel that the only thing we possibly miss out on is being able to use laser-scanned circuits. Those go for around £20,000 a circuit so we’re not going to be able to afford them anyway so it doesn’t matter. For us, the standard circuits that come with rFactor are good enough. Now and again we can get them modified by people for a very reasonable price – for example, if we want a kerb put in or a barrier removed. Or we can adapt the kerbs ourselves if the drivers are saying, “no, those kerbs are way too big, it throws the car off.” We can change the grip of the kerbs, the height, all that kind of stuff. So we can do quite a lot ourselves, in house, which obviously saves us a huge amount of money and it saves us time as well.’
projectors to provide a screen width of 16ft (4.88m) that fully engulfs the driver in the simulation environment. Steering feedback is achieved with an electric motor and custom motor controller working at 400Hz. The motor is powerful enough that even the GP2 steering loads require only 80 per cent of the motor’s capacity. The Arden engineers
increasingly rely on the simulator to help drivers achieve a good car set up and to ensure they will be confident at a circuit, even without having ever visited it. ‘Going into testing, we’ve had GP3 guys who were doing a test with us in Abu Dhabi and just getting them used to how hard to hit the brakes. It’s quite a surprise for them, but simple things like that are a huge advantage,’ concludes Hobson.
Arden International’s in house-built GP2 simulator uses an actual GP2 chassis and controls, with modified rFactor circuit software
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www.racecar-engineering.com • September 2011
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