Photo: undetground racing/instagram
Turbo Lag - here's a term that can give even the mightiest racer a bad day. The industry, whether we're talking about automakers, motorsport teams or aftermarket developers, have been working to minimize this for decades. Well, a new trick is now becoming available for street cars, with this involving a rolling anti-lag setup.
Imagine that, for some reason or another, you wish to engage in a rolling drag race (hopefully, the said reasons revolve around the drag strip, not the street) while behind the wheel of a turbocharged machine.
Normally, you'd have to turn to brake boosting to ensure an optimal take-off. However, this creates a lot of stress, for both the driver and the vehicle. For one thing, double-clutch trannies, as found on most supercars, are particularly displeased when treated this way.
Well, with this RALS (Rolling Anti-Lag System) will keep the turbos spooled while maintaining the speed constant until the driver decides it's time to fly.
Of course, it all happens in a matter of seconds and the Audi R8 V10 Plus in the piece of footage at the bottom of the page shows a brilliant example of this.
Underground Racing, the US developer who installed a twin-turbo kit on the V10 heart of the supercar, also fitted this with the said hardware. And you should be prepared to see it at work, both on a visual and aural level, flames and all.
Interestingly, a smaller tuner called Sheepy Race, has also come up with a similar system, fitting this to an Audi R8, albeit the RWS (RWD in Ingolstadt talk) kind.
How does the system work? Well, at least in the case of the said R8 RWS, the driver can push the cruise control lever forward, floor the gas and pull the lever back when wishing to launch.
Normally, you'd have to turn to brake boosting to ensure an optimal take-off. However, this creates a lot of stress, for both the driver and the vehicle. For one thing, double-clutch trannies, as found on most supercars, are particularly displeased when treated this way.
Well, with this RALS (Rolling Anti-Lag System) will keep the turbos spooled while maintaining the speed constant until the driver decides it's time to fly.
Of course, it all happens in a matter of seconds and the Audi R8 V10 Plus in the piece of footage at the bottom of the page shows a brilliant example of this.
Underground Racing, the US developer who installed a twin-turbo kit on the V10 heart of the supercar, also fitted this with the said hardware. And you should be prepared to see it at work, both on a visual and aural level, flames and all.
Interestingly, a smaller tuner called Sheepy Race, has also come up with a similar system, fitting this to an Audi R8, albeit the RWS (RWD in Ingolstadt talk) kind.
How does the system work? Well, at least in the case of the said R8 RWS, the driver can push the cruise control lever forward, floor the gas and pull the lever back when wishing to launch.
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