Lap Time Simulation: Crucial for Racecar Concept Evaluation

Comparing the performance of different concepts before actually building them in a racecar is extremely important. For the AMZ Racing at ETH Zürich, the approach to lap time simulation is based on a two-track model implemented in Simulink^®, which relies on measured tire data. By using simple mechanical principles and calculations, they simulate their car driving on different tracks with various setups. The simplified model is not able to evaluate all kinds of concepts, but it can show trends for important decisions, such as optimal energy capacity of the accumulator. They use different methods to display the generated data in useful ways and to determine the performance of the simulated concepts.