A 200 mph lab: Testing GE technologies on Highcroft’s Le Mans racer

The speed racers barreling down the track as part of the American Le Mans Series don’t just look futuristic. In the case of Highcroft Racing, they are. As part of a unique partnership formed with GE for the 2010 season, American Le Mans Series champion Patrón Highcroft Racing have outfitted their Honda-based LMP1 racer with an array of experimental technology — from sensors to coatings to advanced controls software — from GE’s Global Research labs.

GE already has core expertise in motor technologies, power electronics, drive systems and battery technologies.The research underway now can end up supporting GE’s aviation, transportation and energy businesses — as well as advanced vehicle applications. As Eric Butterfield, Global Technology Leader for Electronics Systems and Controls at GE Global Research, said of the partnership earlier this year: “You would be surprised what you can learn under the hood of a race car.”

SpeedTV.com noted in its recent story: “With R&D programs sometimes taking months, if not years, in conventional environments, GE is able to collect data almost instantly from Highcroft’s Honda Performance Development ARX-01c. Sensor data from a one-hour stint could be as useful as similar data from a military tank for one month.”

Greased lighting: American Le Mans Series LMP1 champions Patrón Highcroft Racing have partnered with GE for the 2010 season. GE Capital is a Team Sponsor and GE Global Research, which is the technology development hub for all of GE’s businesses, is in a technical partner.

While GE is not typically in the race car business, this partnership provides a unique opportunity to road-test still-developing technologies. As Matt Nielsen, who works in GE’s Electronic Systems and Controls lab in upstate New York, writes this month on the Global Research blog: “While we work very closely with our businesses to ensure that what we create can make it into a real product, often we have to be clever in finding suitable venues or platforms to actually validate that the technology delivers the functionality in the chosen product environment. At times, we need to find test platforms that suitably mimic the true application in areas such as shock, vibration and temperature.”

Matt notes that “the types of technology that we are testing [in these race cars] have broad applications for a number of our businesses. The technologies, such as new materials, coatings, sensors, and control algorithms will help enhance the performance of everything from aviation systems to wind turbines and more.” And Highcroft can also see immediate benefits. For example, an advanced optical sensor technology that Global Research has been developing for several years can help the race team gather new information to help them fine tune their race cars’ dynamics for specific tracks, he says.

GE’s logo is on the team’s #1 chassis. Last week Highcroft won the American Le Mans Series championship.

Highcroft Racing President, Duncan Dayton told speedtv.com that the GE team sees the tough track testing environment as nothing “short of a military battlefield — it’s the next most demanding environment they can find to test their components and develop it.” Added Highcroft driver Marino Franchitti about the tech partnership: “The brains that they have that are now available to us and resources is quite unbelievable. Some of the stuff is beyond comprehension. It’s very exciting.”

* Read “Inside Highcroft’s ‘Skunkworks’ technical partnership with GE” on speedtv.com

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