The Racecar
The official vehicle of the Indy Autonomous Challenge is the IAC-built AV-24 that has been retrofitted with hardware and controls to enable automation. The IAC AV-24 chassis is a modified version of the Indy Lights chassis.
The IAC AV-24 is a collaboration between Dallara’s Italian headquarters in Varano Melegari (Parma) and Dallara IndyCar Factory in Speedway, Indiana.
Since 2001, Dallara has been the sole chassis supplier of the Indy Lights series, a championship whose main goal is to prepare drivers for the NTT IndyCar Series.
Dallara, the exclusive chassis supplier to the IndyCar Series, was founded by its current president, Giampaolo Dallara, in 1972. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, Dallara wanted to continue pursuing his dream of working in the world of racecars. He established “Dallara Automobili da Competizione” in his hometown of Varano de Melegari, Parma, in the Italian Motor Valley. Since its establishment, Dallara has become world renowned for its specialty in designing, manufacturing and developing racecars.
The company’s success can be credited to its achievements in Formula 3, first in Italy and then around the world. Its American acclaim can be traced to its involvement since 1997 with the NTT IndyCar Series, its consultancy for major manufacturers and its continued focus on technology and innovation. Dallara’s core competencies include design using carbon fiber composite materials, aerodynamics by means of wind tunnel and CFD (computational fluid dynamics), vehicle dynamics through simulations and testing, and the fast and flexible production of high-quality prototypes.
Dallara partnered with state universities, as well as with several school districts in the Indianapolis area, to make scientific subjects attractive to students through the use of motorsports. Dallara makes part of its museum available to the STEM program focused on motorsport (M-STEM). This special area demonstrates the relationship between IndyCar development and production and basic concepts of science and mathematics.
The process by which the automated vehicle sensors and computers were fused into a singular package and integrated into the AV-21 was led by CU-ICAR’s Deep Orange 12 (DO12) project.
CU-ICAR is home to the nation’s only graduate Department of Automotive Engineering. On campus, over 200 Clemson University students are pursuing Master of Science and/or Ph.D. degrees in Automotive Engineering.
Deep Orange is a framework within Clemson University’s Department of Automotive Engineering that immerses graduate students into the world of a future OEM and/or supplier. Working collaboratively, students, multi-disciplinary faculty, and participating industry partners focus on producing a new vehicle prototype each year. Each project incorporates integrating breakthrough product innovations and new processes – providing the automotive engineering students with hands-on experience in vehicle design, engineering, prototyping and production from the time they enter into the academic program until graduation. Students lead the project and are ultimately responsible for the quality of the vehicle they produce. The program offers both big challenges and rewards.
Automotive engineering master's students have the opportunity to participate in the Deep Orange project in lieu of an industrial internship. For more on the M.S. program, please review the curriculum information.
For more information on Deep Orange please visit the project's website.
