“Hydrogen? Automatic? Autonomous Driving?” The Super Taikyu Series Contributes to a Variety of Automotive Technological Innovations

Super Taikyu

Creating a new technology experiment category

Racing is a laboratory on wheels – these are famous words left behind by the late Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. True to these words, Honda has been actively involved in motorsports and has fed back technology to its production motorcycles.

In recent years, Akio Toyoda, current Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, has coined the phrase “refining cars through racing,” which is now synonymous with this phrase. Toyoda has personally driven the car and participated in numerous races, continuing to refine cars with his own hands on the ground. His passion has even led to the creation of a new technical experiment category called “Q Class” within the Super Taikyu Series.

Races are essentially a competition for ranking, and in a series, the goal is usually to become the annual champion. However, the Q class is different. Here, ranking is not important, and it is a special class established to promote the development of new technologies. In response to this call, domestic manufacturers such as Honda, Nissan, and Mazda have also participated. Development of racing machines using carbon-neutral fuel is underway.

Among these, Rookie Racing, a division of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR), continues to take on challenges that set it apart from other manufacturers. A symbol of this is the “TGR GR Corolla H2 Concept.” This is a project launched in 2021 that uses hydrogen as fuel and aims to eliminate CO2 emissions while driving. In recent years, Honda and other companies have been making progress in commercializing hydrogen-powered vehicles, and once the infrastructure is in place, widespread use by the general public is becoming a reality. The GR Yaris currently being run by Rookie Racing is undergoing improvements, including extending its driving time and reducing the weight of its fuel tank.

AT records times almost equal to those of professional drivers

Additionally, the evolution of transmissions is also noteworthy. Thanks to improvements in the precision of automatic transmissions (ATs), they have evolved to a level that can withstand racing use. This technology has already been put into use in the WRC (World Rally Championship), and is currently being applied to circuit racing.

Kenta Yamashita, who drives the Tom’s Spirit Yaris equipped with this transmission, had this to say:

“We also use an automatic transmission in actual races. At the moment, it’s about two-tenths of a second slower than the manual transmission I use, so I don’t use it in qualifying, but it’s extremely effective in long races like 24-hour races. It’s particularly effective when you’re tired, as you can concentrate on braking and steering while keeping the car in the drive range. I think a gentleman driver could easily beat his personal best.”

It’s amazing that this automatic transmission can achieve lap times almost on par with those of professional drivers.

“Of course, when downshifting, the system calculates the speed and RPM and blips accordingly, allowing you to enter corners while maintaining the optimum RPM. I think it can be enjoyed not only for racing but also for general sports driving.”

A situation similar to a virtual highway

Meanwhile, the Q-Class is not just about being carbon neutral or pursuing the joy of sports driving, but is also embarking on more future-oriented endeavors. One example is the TGR GR86 Future FR Concept, introduced by Rookie Racing last year. This vehicle is not intended for vehicle development, but rather for the development of autonomous driving technology, and was introduced to collect and analyze driver gaze input data.

The Super Taikyu Series is a unique race in which GT3 machines and compact cars race together at the same time. The speed difference between them can be as much as 100 km/h, almost like a highway with a speed difference even greater than the Autobahn. The Autonomous Driving Development Team has focused on this and is attempting to derive advanced decision-making algorithms from recording the gaze of professional drivers and deriving their behavior from this.

Sho Tsuboi, the current Super Formula champion, collaborated on this project. He contributed to the development by wearing special glasses and recording his gaze data in real time while driving. The GR86 is positioned exactly in the middle of the lap time for the entire race, and must overtake while being overtaken. This is a situation similar to that of a virtual highway.

Tsuboi, on the other hand, always checked behind him in the rearview mirror when entering a high-speed corner. This was a surprising behavior for the engineers, as checking behind when entering a corner is not part of normal driving logic. However, during a race, there is a possibility that a faster car may overtake your car, so checking behind is inevitable.

Obtain a huge amount of data in 30 minutes

If we apply this to the highway, if the car in front of us has an accident, we may be so focused on avoiding it that we neglect to check behind us. However, checking behind us is an extremely important action to prevent secondary disasters. Eye-gaze data that supports such “intuitive human judgment” is essential for the evolution of autonomous driving systems. During Tsuboi’s 30-minute practice drive, the engineers collected a huge amount of data, which is already helping to improve the accuracy of autonomous driving. As data continues to be accumulated at high speeds, it will undoubtedly contribute to the avoidance of accidents and dangers on highways in the future.

Soichiro Honda used racing as a testing ground, and Akio Toyoda embodies the idea of ​​refining cars. Their passion is becoming the foundation for building a safe and sustainable automotive society of the future.

PHOTO/Hiroyuki ORIHARA

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