DID YOU KNOW:
...That the advancement of driver assistance technology is now beyond much of the military’s fighter planes? We were honored to spend a beautiful morning the other week at SpeedVegas for a very special demonstration of just how true that is. A brand new 2021 C8 Corvette was rolled out of an enclosed trailer loaded with all the latest “super-tech" one could imagine or even have heard of. The company at the core of this tech is Arrow Electronics out of Colorado. We’d love to tell you we understood all the tech being applied, but words like laser-beams, pressure sensors and driver eye-angle readers were used a lot. The collective result was simply amazing.
Sam Schmidt, partner in SpeedVegas and spinal cord injury victim from a serious Indy Car crash a few years back was the designated test driver. Assisting Sam was Robbie Unser, son of famed Indy 500 Winner Bobby Unser and nine-times Pike’s Peak winner. In short: the kid can drive. Sam, who has no use of his legs or arms, was lowered into the Corvette on the passenger side, where the most sophisticated current technology was installed. Robbie and Sam have worked with Arrow together a lot, including Robbie coaching Sam up Pike’s Peak in the race itself. Robbie had warmed the Corvette up and now it was time for Sam to take to the track. What we expected versus what we witnessed were, to say the least, miles apart.
Sam Schmidt was a race car driver, a damn good one by all accounts, but we had no idea that Sam Schmidt was still a race driver and a damn good one by what we witnessed. We anticipated few slow laps around the SpeedVegas Road Course; what we got was a number of high-speed flying laps with the Corvette at full song. It was hammer down and racer skill fully applied. You could have loaded a tall stack of pancakes in our open jaws. Here’s Sam, belted in the car by a six-point harness, his hands and arms bound together so as not to fly around during heavy cornering loads and a clear tube in his mouth so he can apply throttle and brakes and, trust us, he applies a lot of throttle and heavy brakes. His eyes direct the car to turn to exactly the point he’s looking at. This, Sam says, was “the hardest skill to master.” Robby Unser sits at the steering wheel prepared to take control should something go wrong but to date, after hundreds of miles of co-driving with Sam, has yet be required to do. They make a great team.
We should add that though we were blown away at the skill and determination of Sam Schmidt, a man that is truly an inspiration and a delight to speak with, we were equally impressed with the young man that is Robbie Unser. Polite, friendly, smart and talented, he was very open and helpful in describing all the work that has been done by Arrow and team to develop this technology. Our heartfelt thanks to SpeedVegas for inviting us, to Arrow and their team, and especially to Robbie and Sam for including in this truly amazing day.
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