Motor sport MacGyver [Resources_Careers

Abstract

LAST AUGUST, A SLEEK BLUE-AND-GREEN PORSCHE SPED at more than 200 kilometers per hour along the Road America racetrack in Elkhart Lake, Wis. The US $650 000 car, a 911 GT3 RSR, was just minutes from its final pit stop when it went careening off the course because of a blown tire. The race was over for Team Falken Tire, but the fun was just beginning for its data-acquisition engineer, Rick Mahurin, who had been monitoring the race via telemetry. · Oddly, the car's extensive sensor network gave Mahurin no warning of the blowout. Although disappointed that the car's data stream couldn't prevent the crash, Mahurin looked forward to reengineering the wheel-sensor system to better detect incipient failures · At age 49, Mahurin, who has spent half his life in racing, thrives on high velocities. When everything starts to speed up, I get in my element, he says. It's when things are slow that I'm uncomfortable. · Modern race cars are stuffed with hundreds of sensors, measuring such parameters as tire pressure, engine speed, and steering-wheel angle. As cars fly by, Mahurin sits in the pit and concentrates on three computer screens. If he notices measurements creeping outside their normal ranges, he alerts the crew chief.