Spanish supercar company working on infinitely adjustable vehicle settings?
IFR Automotive Aspid - Click above for high-res gallery
Luddites, time to break out the coffee – this will be keeping you up nights. Now, we just reviewed the 2010 Nissan GT-R, which has lots and lots of driver selectable modes. You can control how quickly the transmission shifts, the smoothness of the ride and the level of computerized interference. That's just from the driver's seat. The car itself is constantly monitoring the wheels' traction and adjusting the suspension thousands of times per second. The torque is actively split by the all-wheel drive system, too.
Well, according to Autocar, there's a Spanish company called IFR Automotive that's claiming it's not good enough! You might remember IFR's featherweight closed-coupe Aspid. Well, imagine this alien-looking Se7en not only being able to hit 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, but being able to adjust every single one of its performance parameters whenever and whereever. Neat picture, huh? And we're not just talking shocks, but the throttle response, steering heft and even the ECU. How? With a touchscreen that looks works like an iPod.
But that's not all. IFR's system will have memory presets. Meaning that if one track requires more torque and a light steering while another needs instant high peak horsepower and rock hard shocks, you just toggle back and forth. Going home from track day? Just dial up low power and a cushy ride. Feel like polluting? No problem. It keeps getting better, too. Using GPS, the system can reportedly read the curves ahead and work out how to best set up the car for the next maneuver. And as a driver, you can let the car how fast you want to take a particular corner and it will adjust its stuff accordingly. IFR's claiming that a number of OEMs are interested in their upcoming system for high-end performance cars. All this super-duper hi tech stuff will either completely rule, or it'll be time to bust out the tin foil hat. Probably both.
Gallery: IFR Automotive Aspid
[Source: Autocar.co.uk]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ack154 10:36AM (7/28/2009)
Uh oh... did the new guy forget to close a bold tag somewhere?
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ack154 10:41AM (7/28/2009)
All better!
TBlueMax 11:29AM (7/28/2009)
It appears that J. Loverman has been bitten by the Autoblog anti-editing bug that seems rather prevalent on this site. In this post alone, we see...
Last line of the 2nd paragraph:
"With a touchscreen that looks [and?] works like an iPod."
and, 3rd sentence of the last paragraph:
"And as a driver, you can let the car [know] how fast you want to take a particular corner and it will adjust its stuff accordingly."
I still enjoy Lieberman's style of writing but the editors at Jalop must have read/edited his stuff before posting because I don't recall seeing those mistakes back in the day.
BTW - if you plan on fixing this stuff, there's another one from your "India's Rickshaw Challenge is lunacy on three wheels" post earlier this morning... Last line of the 2nd paragraph: "Man, we wish were were signed up."
Alex 10:38AM (7/28/2009)
what's up with the speakers mounted on the front of the car?
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13enS 11:38AM (7/28/2009)
(...my thoughts exactly)
For that extra bit of urban street cred, yo! Ghetto blast dat sheet!
Bobmarley 12:31PM (7/28/2009)
Those headlight really are mind bottleing
Ryan 12:50PM (7/28/2009)
It looks like Jar Jar Binks....
http://tinyurl.com/4h5r8k
Avinash machado 10:38AM (7/28/2009)
The grille somehow reminds of the Plymouth Prowler.
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RITmusic2k 12:44PM (7/28/2009)
That car has Alien face.
blurryeye64 10:42AM (7/28/2009)
Reality check: there is absolutely no way the Nissan GT-R adjusts its suspension "thousands of times per second". Just doesn't. Can't. Trust me.
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FThorn 10:45AM (7/28/2009)
Oh my! Award-winningly UGLY.
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Aloysius Vampa 10:59AM (7/28/2009)
"With a touchscreen that looks works like an iPod."
Well, at least it's not like iDrive, amirite?*
* I like iDrive, but still.
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audi_arena 11:04AM (7/28/2009)
I knew this was coming. As cool this is technologically, I can't help but to feel like all these electronic nannies take away from the driving experience. I think there is something to be said for a car with no traction controll, stability control... etc.
I think someone should make a racing league that ban's any and all computerized driving aids.
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Error 11:51AM (7/28/2009)
You mean, NASCAR?
anonymous j 1:19PM (7/28/2009)
Do you even know what you're saying man?
J 2:11PM (7/29/2009)
These aren't nannies so to speak, they are just adjustments. It's like being able to tune your own car. Everything in cars is controlled by a computer anyway these days, why not make it open source?
TigerMil 11:27AM (7/28/2009)
Crap. Sooner or later someone is going to program the 'Ring for optimum/minimum lap time using a GPS-controlled driver....complete with engine control optimization for temp and humidity, localized track/traction conditions, etc. Who needs a driver?
All in the name of safety, of course.
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John P. 11:26AM (7/28/2009)
Now if they could just give us a way to Adjust out that car's ugliness,...
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F50 11:27AM (7/28/2009)
Caterham ripoff
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BoxerFanatic 11:30AM (7/28/2009)
I sometimes agree with Audi-Arena, but sometimes I don't. Sometimes a pure sports car with no power anything can be bliss for a driver.
Sometimes, especially on the road, in bad weather, at night, I want every technological advantage, and a car that is as both mechanically competent as possible, with the additional versatility of technology continuing to widen that versatility envelope.
Technological driver aids, as long as they are supplements to good mechanicals, not substitutes for them... and as long as they are my servant, and not someone else's servant that is unaccountable to me... (OwnStar...) I think driver information systems could be fantastic.
I have long wished for cars to use more fresh technological thinking, in an ethical and privacy-preserving way to aid a driver, and to make an already very good car truly great.
If a new iPod can use a camera, GPS, internet connection, and a compass to overlay specific data about the current observed direction or object, think of the possibilities for such advancement and systems in a car.
Magneto-rheological adjustable dampers, servo controlled spring pre-load, maybe even ride height, or air-spring assist... Torque-vectoring AWD, or even just rear differential, tire temperature and pressure monitoring, real-time overlay of nav-traffic data on a heads-up display, with laser or radar-guided cruise control...
Computer-aided parking alignment. (obviously some folks need help centering, and evaluating whether their car will fit in a space...)
terrain, speed, and traffic sensitive adaptive forward lighting and FLIR night-vision through the HUD.
Adaptive OLED displays that bring information to you intuitively, sometimes unobtrusively, and sometimes with alarm, if needed. Greater information system versatility, with a minimum of button clutter.
A lot of companies could learn from what Apple can do with a very smart orientation-sensitive, touch screen interface, and only 5 occasional-use fixed buttons on an iPhone, and the innumerable functions that the device can do with just that interface alone.
I am not afraid of systems designed to maximize a driver's attention, and to maximize an already good machine's capabilities. I don't need it to report to someone else unaccountably, for legal, or even service-oriented reasons... or to record my activities for those that would challenge me in the event of an accident, in court, or for my car to enable surveillance on me, without my knowledge.
Technology itself is not the problem. Ethics is the potential problem.
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