How we did it 27 years ago

[CDS]

Cleaning out some old file cabinets and came across reams of old data. Back then it was all printed out on paper. Here is a typical "screen shot" of our data analysis circa March 1987.
We were already doing segment times and "combined G" back then!

[Pi_guy]

I was just looking at The Anatomy & Development of the Formula Ford Race Car and several of the names brought back some memory. Chris Wallach for one at Bridgehampton in the early 80's <1984> he was using Hank Chapman's Super Vee car to test and develop his data system. I wish I could find the paper work from those sessions.

The rest of the book is amazing, too many faces are familiar, and there is proof that DaveW was once young and still remains a great driver.

[CDS]

Yea we started about the same time, what you see above represents the first 2 years of development,
I remember Chris's MRG unit, it was huge (and very advanced) even for that time.

[Phil Creighton]

I still have one of the first four or five Chris Wallach systems somewhere - from 86 I think. At least 5 mins to download one lap, taped magnetic strips on the track and all. At that time it was so expensive (over $20,000) only Penske, Goodyear and the Skip Barber School had them (Skips was the free test mule).

[Pi_guy]

If you ever want to sell it, keep me in mind. It would be nice display for some of the tech seminars I put together.

A funny story version one of the hardware used plug in IC holders, can you guess what happened in the first hi g force turn? He had tested it in his van on the way to Bridgehampton from Marblehead and it worked great.

[Rick Kirchner]

I remember the EDGE system as used on Indy cars around 86. I worked for the Navy in Indy at the time doing environmental qualification of missile systems. I also did the SCCA/USAC/CART circuit as an official from 82-89. I really wanted to make the jump to crewing and using that data acquisition, but the system was made by Emerson Electric and guess who was making the missile stuff I was testing? - Emerson Electric. I basically had to make a choice between a bird in the hand and one in the bush - the legal guys at work told me to stay away from Emerson's racing activities.

[TimW]

John Faivre and I wrote much of the EDGE software, back in the day. It was a crapload of Turbo Pascal code, believe it or not. John is at TRD now, after spending a lot of time at Penske North.

It was at best a hobby for Emerson, and marketing exercise fundamentally. Though there was some cool engineering that John did, considering where computing was back then. The sensor pinout that he defined has essentially become the industry standard till this day for Pi and other systems.

[ghickman]

Any of you guys know who it was the developed the Tach Tale system that Paul White was using back in the late 80's.

As I recall it gave a printout that was like a long strip chart of wheel speed. Somehow we put all that together and made sense out of it.

Is Paul still with us?