Something To Think About.(Indy 500.)(Column)

Byline: Kevin A. Wilson

In the Indy 500 you saw 49 of 200 laps run under yellow and seven retirements attributed to accidents, but you didn't see some trick technology that could find its way onto your street car.

After ascertaining that none of the drivers was seriously hurt, we all could be grateful for a lot of fresh crash data to analyze from Indy. The IRL, like CART and Formula One, uses Delphi's second-generation Accident Data Recorder. Akin to an aircraft "black box,'' or, indeed, to less comprehensive black boxes built into GM cars for years now, ADR2 records 1000 times per second its measurements of wheel speed, throttle position, steering angle, race lap, acceleration forces on X-, Y- and Z-axes and yaw rate. It also incorporates an internal real-time clock and auxiliary data from 10 external inputs.

Those are all chassis measurements, but this year it also records detailed information about the accelerations experienced by the drivers' heads. At the start of the season, each IRL driver was issued two pairs of custom-made earpieces for use with the in-car radio system for pit communication-you may have seen A.J. Foyt IV's first set being discarded in typical Foytian anger when the audio part failed at Indy. Custom-molded to fit deep into the drivers' ear canals, each contains three accelerometers. That's six tiny IC (integrated circuit) boards, positioned to measure X- Y- and Z-axis forces on each driver's head.

Delphi-sponsored Scott Sharp often helps with testing and development, but he'd have rather finished the race than crash out of the 500 while less than four seconds behind the leader. Fortunately for Sharp, the database grows no matter who crashes. Even 500 winner Gil de Ferran contributed when he suffered a concussion and mild neck fracture at Phoenix earlier this year. Data are downloaded after every crash and can be used to replicate the event on Delphi's high-tech ...