The Nardò Technical Center integrates virtual and physical testing thanks to VI-grade solutions
Darmstadt, January 20, 2021 – VI-grade today announced that Nardò Technical Center, which has been operated by Porsche Engineering Group GmbH since 2012, created a virtual proving ground for its testing and engineering facility located in the city of Nardò, Apulia, Italy. Thanks to VI-GraphSim and VI-Road, it will be possible to use these road data files and graphic scenarios both for offline and online simulations. Additionally, the Nardò Technical Center virtual proving ground data files will be made available for purchase and rental on the VI-grade website from the beginning of 2021.
“We are glad of this collaboration with VI-grade; the virtualization of our tracks aligns perfectly with our strategy to become more and more an engineering center of excellence offering to our customers also a wide services portfolio”, said Antonio Gratis, Managing Director, Nardò Technical Center. “With the adoption of the VI-GraphSim and VI-Road software provided by VI-grade, we plan to further enhance our virtual testing capabilities, strengthening our virtual development and validation activities by offering virtual scenarios for different applications.”
“We are very pleased that the Nardò Technical Center chose to cooperate with VI-grade in order to provide digital tracks and virtual graphic scenario”, said Alessio Lombardi, South Europe & UK Sales Director, VI-grade. “This will help our customers take vehicle design decisions in a faster and more accurate manner, helping reduce dependence on physical prototypes through the opportunity of safely accessing a virtual version of their proving ground at a lower cost.”
With over 700 hectares of extension and a wide variety of testing tracks and facilities, the Nardò Technical Center ranks among the most important and renowned proving grounds (the unique 12,6 km Circular Track and the Car Dynamic Platform were recently fully renovated) as well as among the most safety ones for automotive OEMS and tire manufacturers worldwide. Particularly in the area of handling performance, the Nardò Technical Center, together with the Nürburgring, is one of the frequently used proving grounds in Europe, enabling a variety of durability, reliability, vehicle dynamics and tire tests. By taking full advantage of the synergies between physical and virtual testing, the Nardò Technical Center now has the possibility to further expand its testing capabilities, providing its customers with the digital clone of their tracks, which is also available on the VI-grade website from beginning of 2021.
VI-Road enables to prepare road data files for vehicle simulations and supports a series of advanced capabilities, such as the possibility of modeling kerbs and of specifying variable friction coefficients and track disturbances. The user interface grant access to specific tools for creating, manipulating and smoothing driver lines; thanks to an embedded solver, VI-Road enables to estimate the static limit speed profile for a given vehicle on a specified trajectory.
VI-GraphSim provides high-resolution and low-latency graphic environments for both static and dynamic Driving Simulators. VI-GraphSim, in conjunction with the usage of wide-screens, provides drivers with an immersive environment for a unique driving simulation experience: through the usage of different cameras it is possible to satisfy the needs of drivers and track engineers at the same time. VI-GraphSim includes a large variety of vehicle models from many different race series and from automotive OEMs and a large number of racing tracks.
“We are glad of this collaboration with VI-grade; the virtualization of our tracks aligns perfectly with our strategy to become more and more an engineering center of excellence offering to our customers also a wide services portfolio”, said Antonio Gratis, Managing Director, Nardò Technical Center. “With the adoption of the VI-GraphSim and VI-Road software provided by VI-grade, we plan to further enhance our virtual testing capabilities, strengthening our virtual development and validation activities by offering virtual scenarios for different applications.”
“We are very pleased that the Nardò Technical Center chose to cooperate with VI-grade in order to provide digital tracks and virtual graphic scenario”, said Alessio Lombardi, South Europe & UK Sales Director, VI-grade. “This will help our customers take vehicle design decisions in a faster and more accurate manner, helping reduce dependence on physical prototypes through the opportunity of safely accessing a virtual version of their proving ground at a lower cost.”
With over 700 hectares of extension and a wide variety of testing tracks and facilities, the Nardò Technical Center ranks among the most important and renowned proving grounds (the unique 12,6 km Circular Track and the Car Dynamic Platform were recently fully renovated) as well as among the most safety ones for automotive OEMS and tire manufacturers worldwide. Particularly in the area of handling performance, the Nardò Technical Center, together with the Nürburgring, is one of the frequently used proving grounds in Europe, enabling a variety of durability, reliability, vehicle dynamics and tire tests. By taking full advantage of the synergies between physical and virtual testing, the Nardò Technical Center now has the possibility to further expand its testing capabilities, providing its customers with the digital clone of their tracks, which is also available on the VI-grade website from beginning of 2021.
VI-Road enables to prepare road data files for vehicle simulations and supports a series of advanced capabilities, such as the possibility of modeling kerbs and of specifying variable friction coefficients and track disturbances. The user interface grant access to specific tools for creating, manipulating and smoothing driver lines; thanks to an embedded solver, VI-Road enables to estimate the static limit speed profile for a given vehicle on a specified trajectory.
VI-GraphSim provides high-resolution and low-latency graphic environments for both static and dynamic Driving Simulators. VI-GraphSim, in conjunction with the usage of wide-screens, provides drivers with an immersive environment for a unique driving simulation experience: through the usage of different cameras it is possible to satisfy the needs of drivers and track engineers at the same time. VI-GraphSim includes a large variety of vehicle models from many different race series and from automotive OEMs and a large number of racing tracks.
VI-grade Announces the 2021 Edition of the Virtual Formula Competition
Darmstadt (Germany), January 14, 2021 – VI-grade today announced the 2021 edition of the Virtual Formula competition.
Virtual Formula is a contest built upon the rules and regulations of the Formula SAE and Formula Student competitions. Participating teams can register free-of-charge and get access to VI-Motorsport, VI-grade’s state-of-the-art simulation software, to find the best set-up for their car. Teams will have to optimize a given vehicle model virtually racing against all other teams on a selection of typical Formula Student dynamic events. The car with the best overall score will take the trophy.
In order to fully support all different vehicle configurations, and to line up with the rules and regulations of the Formula Student events, this year’s competition will once again feature two different categories, one reserved for combustion engines and one dedicated to electric drivetrain.
Additionally, this year’s competition will be divided in two subsequent phases: the OFFLINE phase and the ONLINE phase.
Additional information, registration form and detailed schedule of the competition are available here: https://www.vi-grade.com/virtualformula
Virtual Formula is a contest built upon the rules and regulations of the Formula SAE and Formula Student competitions. Participating teams can register free-of-charge and get access to VI-Motorsport, VI-grade’s state-of-the-art simulation software, to find the best set-up for their car. Teams will have to optimize a given vehicle model virtually racing against all other teams on a selection of typical Formula Student dynamic events. The car with the best overall score will take the trophy.
In order to fully support all different vehicle configurations, and to line up with the rules and regulations of the Formula Student events, this year’s competition will once again feature two different categories, one reserved for combustion engines and one dedicated to electric drivetrain.
Additionally, this year’s competition will be divided in two subsequent phases: the OFFLINE phase and the ONLINE phase.
- The OFFLINE phase will consist of optimizing the performance of a virtual racecar by minimizing the lap-time on given tracks.
- The 3 best teams will be qualified for the ONLINE phase of the competition, in which they will race against each other on a DESKTOP Driving Simulator, using the cars they have designed and submitted at the end of the OFFLINE phase.
Additional information, registration form and detailed schedule of the competition are available here: https://www.vi-grade.com/virtualformula
WAU Continues Simulation Growth thanks to VI-grade Technologies
Darmstadt, January 13, 2021 – VI-grade today announced that Australian racing team Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU) adopted a combination of software and hardware technologies from VI-grade on their proprietary driving simulator. This solution will be used by the Team’s engineers, as well as drivers Chaz Mostert and Bryce Fullwood in the lead up, and during the 2021 season, to advance the Teams simulation program for 2021.
The partnership sees the VI-DriveSim simulation software from VI-grade, used in conjunction with Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Motum Simulator, for all simulation activities away from the racetrack. Additionally, thanks to the VI-Motorsport software based on a faster-than-real-time simulation solver which can predict the virtual car behavior, the Team managed to reduce the time needed to find the best set-up and explore more design variants in less time, extensively validating the simulation against test data in various race car series.
“It’s fantastic to be able to enter into a partnership with VI-grade, as we continue to advance our simulation program away from the racetrack” said Carl Faux, Technical Director, WAU. “Testing miles in our category are extremely limited, so whatever we can do while back at base to arrive at a racetrack with as much data and direction for car setup is going to be extremely advantageous to us. Their software provides us with instant analysis and feedback, from both the data in front of us, as well as the feedback from the driver on the simulator.”
“We have been using VI-grade software offline for a number of years, but now combining this with our Motum Simulator to do real Driver-in-Loop testing is a really exciting prospect, and one that the driver can provide information back to the engineers on feel of the car that sometimes gets lost in the purely virtual world” continued Faux. “Certainly, this is a giant step forward in the capabilities at WAU and something we are going to rely on heavily throughout the 2021 season.”
“We are excited to keep working with WAU and to move our collaboration to the next level, bringing our VI-DriveSim software suite on the simulator” says Guido Bairati, VP Sales & Marketing at VI-grade. “Off-line simulations are essential to design a good race car but getting the feedback from the real driver is essential to gain that little additional advantage that brings you on top of the grid. The realism of our real-time vehicle model in VI-Motorsport in conjunction with digitized tracks in VI-GraphSim will allow WAU drivers to prepare at best for their race weekends, finding the best set up for their car and the best driving strategy to stay ahead of competition.”
The three organisations cover the globe, with Walkinshaw Racing based in Australia, Andretti Autosport in America, and United Autosports in Europe.
The Team, originally Walkinshaw Racing, debuted as the Holden Racing Team in 1990, and is one of the most successful Supercars teams of all time, having amassed seven Bathurst wins (1990, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011) and six driver championship wins (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002). Walkinshaw also produced two other driver championship wins with their HSV Dealer team (2006, 2007) bringing their total to eight.
For additional information on WAU, please visit https://www.walkinshawandrettiunited.com.au/
The partnership sees the VI-DriveSim simulation software from VI-grade, used in conjunction with Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Motum Simulator, for all simulation activities away from the racetrack. Additionally, thanks to the VI-Motorsport software based on a faster-than-real-time simulation solver which can predict the virtual car behavior, the Team managed to reduce the time needed to find the best set-up and explore more design variants in less time, extensively validating the simulation against test data in various race car series.
“It’s fantastic to be able to enter into a partnership with VI-grade, as we continue to advance our simulation program away from the racetrack” said Carl Faux, Technical Director, WAU. “Testing miles in our category are extremely limited, so whatever we can do while back at base to arrive at a racetrack with as much data and direction for car setup is going to be extremely advantageous to us. Their software provides us with instant analysis and feedback, from both the data in front of us, as well as the feedback from the driver on the simulator.”
“We have been using VI-grade software offline for a number of years, but now combining this with our Motum Simulator to do real Driver-in-Loop testing is a really exciting prospect, and one that the driver can provide information back to the engineers on feel of the car that sometimes gets lost in the purely virtual world” continued Faux. “Certainly, this is a giant step forward in the capabilities at WAU and something we are going to rely on heavily throughout the 2021 season.”
“We are excited to keep working with WAU and to move our collaboration to the next level, bringing our VI-DriveSim software suite on the simulator” says Guido Bairati, VP Sales & Marketing at VI-grade. “Off-line simulations are essential to design a good race car but getting the feedback from the real driver is essential to gain that little additional advantage that brings you on top of the grid. The realism of our real-time vehicle model in VI-Motorsport in conjunction with digitized tracks in VI-GraphSim will allow WAU drivers to prepare at best for their race weekends, finding the best set up for their car and the best driving strategy to stay ahead of competition.”
About Walkinshaw Andretti United
Walkinshaw Andretti United was born from three iconic organisations in world motorsport, Walkinshaw Racing, Andretti Autosport, and United Autosports. It fields two Holden ZB Commodores in the Repco Supercars Championship.The three organisations cover the globe, with Walkinshaw Racing based in Australia, Andretti Autosport in America, and United Autosports in Europe.
The Team, originally Walkinshaw Racing, debuted as the Holden Racing Team in 1990, and is one of the most successful Supercars teams of all time, having amassed seven Bathurst wins (1990, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011) and six driver championship wins (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002). Walkinshaw also produced two other driver championship wins with their HSV Dealer team (2006, 2007) bringing their total to eight.
For additional information on WAU, please visit https://www.walkinshawandrettiunited.com.au/