Groundbreaking Supercar partnership with Walkinshaw Andretti United
Motum Simulation has partnered with iconic Australian Supercar team Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU) to provide state-of-the-art simulators to one of the series’ most well-known teams.
The deal came at a perfect time, with WAU drivers set to train in the Motum simulator ahead of tackling the Mount Panorama circuit at the iconic Bathurst 1000.
Beyond Bathurst, Motum’s simulators will help fulfil WAU’s goal of ‘bringing the racetrack to the workshop’, with the units providing the closest experience possible to competitive racing.
The Motum MP6-VR Simulator will remain in the WAU workshop for use by drivers and engineers, and co-team principal Matthew Nilsson says the simulators will give the team an important edge over the competition.
“It’s an engineering tool that will help us develop our race cars away from the circuit, which is an extremely important option to have with the testing restrictions we face,” Mr Nilsson said.
“The next best thing to reality is a high-fidelity simulator, and it’s fantastic to have one at our disposal, the cohesion between the two is unbelievable, and it’s something we can’t wait to explore further.”
Bathurst wildcard drivers Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe tried the simulator for the first time recently after coming across from the IndyCar series.
The pair used the Motum unit to log as many laps as possible around the Mount Panorama circuit before Bathurst.
“Having never been to the mountain, familiarising ourselves with the layout is incredibly important,” Hinchcliffe said.
“We can’t test there, but we’ve got the next best thing with our Motum simulator, which we’ll be cutting a lot of laps in before we get there.”
“This Motum simulator is as close to the real thing as it gets, so it’s a critical piece of our preparation,” Rossi added.
Motum Managing Director Steve Hoinville said the premium level simulator will help WAU with their ultimate goal of winning championships.
“Having a simulator means you can dramatically expand your testing regime, as these guys don’t have access to a lot of test days throughout the year.”
Motum’s patented 6DOF (6 degrees of freedom) motion base will be a key factor in providing the hyper-realistic experiences for the drivers, and the team is also expecting to use the simulator as an engineering tool to develop and modify their race cars.
“The first few days of operation have already seen incredible correlation between data recorded in the Motum Simulator and the team’s qualifying pace from Bathurst 2018,” Hoinville said.
“The opportunity to work with WAU’s incredible engineering team is a game-changer for Motum, both to further develop and refine the engineering set up on their cars and to develop our technology, too.”
For more information about how Motum’s technology can take your performance to the next level, contact us.
