Event Information about SAE SoCal Virtual Section Meeting Motorsports Engineering Stories

Join us for an SAE SoCal Virtual Meeting
When: Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 6:00 PM PDT

With all of us having more time at home to read, SAE SoCal would like to present this opportunity to hear about two amazing motorsports engineering books.
DEVELOPING A CHAMPION: THE ELECTRAMOTIVE NISSAN GTP STORY
CRASH! FROM SENNA TO EARNHARDT – HOW THE HANS HELPED SAVE RACING
Please join us on Wednesday, August 12th to hear about the development of the championship winning IMSA GTP Nissan 300ZX racecar and the lifesaving HANS (Head & Neck Support) device.
These are great stories for engineering development!

Where: A video presentation of this event is posted below.

Chris Willes

Chris Willes was a young engineer hired right out of college in 1986 by Electramotive. He experienced the innovation, creativity, and passion the team used to successfully transform this car into a multi-time champion. Going back to the drawings and files he saved from that time, and collaborating with many of the people who worked at Electramotive, Chris chronicled the challenges they faced and the solutions they used to go from a mangled heap of metal to champagne-soaked celebrations in one of the most incredible periods of time in motorsports.

Jonathan Ingram

Jonathan Ingram has been covering professional motor racing for magazines and web sites for over four decades. Currently, he writes for RacinToday.com He is also the author of multiple books. This discussing will cover the history of how the HANS Device helped save auto racing – CRASH! His next book, to be released this fall, is a motivational memoir co-written with Bill Lester, for ten years the only black driver in NASCAR’s three major professional series.

CRASH! FROM SENNA TO EARNHARDT – HOW THE HANS HELPED SAVE RACING
Ingram documents the 20-year struggle by Dr. Robert Hubbard and Jim Downing to gain universal acceptance for their life-saving HANS Device—now in use by over 275,000 competitors worldwide—is an amazing tale of family, genius, perseverance, tragedy and triumph. It tells how the world’s leading auto racing series shouldered the task of saving their driving heroes—and a sport.
https://jingrambooks.com

DEVELOPING A CHAMPION: THE ELECTRAMOTIVE NISSAN GTP STORY
Willes’ book chronicles the beginning of Electramotive’s racing history in 1975 with the Datsun B210 and 280ZX race cars, the design and development of one of the first Electronic Engine Control Processors, the Electramotive 1/7th-scale moving ground plane wind tunnel, the design and build of the Nissan 300ZX V-6 race engine, and all the IMSA race storylines from 1985 to 1989.
https://www.chriswillesautoracingbooks.com