BEHIND THE WHEEL

Unlike in our road cars the steering wheel in a V8 Supercar is an extremely complex and technical piece of equipment, when in the driver’s seat, Shane van Gisbergen and Alex Davison have everything available right at their fingertips.

Here’s what happens if you push that button........

	Shift Light Module A fully programmable cascade of coloured lights that tells the driver when to pull the next gear		Headlights Turns the headlights on/off		Helmet Fan Pressing this keeps the driver cool
	MoTeC Mini Dash Display All the data and information our drivers need right at their finger tips		Scroll Lets the driver scroll through information on any of the three pages of the Dash Display		Reset When all hell breaks loose and the lights are flashing this resets everything. Also turns off alarm lights
	Main Reserve Switch Pretty self explanatory really!		Mode Dial There are four settings here but this one is top secret (Can’t tell you)!		Headlight Flash Tells other drivers to get out of the way, used for maximum intimidation!
	Tyre Light Press this to indicate you’re on the soft tyres		Pit Switch When this button is pressed the car is kept under 40KPH in Pit Lane but only if you’re in 1st gear		Fuel RPS Light Press this to indicate that you have taken fuel on board during a race
	Radio Push this to talk to the engineer and crew		Brightness Intensifies the illumination of the Dash Display and Shift light Module		Washer Windscreen washer
	Drink For when it gets hot in the cockpit, pushing this gets the Powerade flowing!		Page Changes the Dash Display page		Track Map Not a button or function, in place for driver reference only. Indicates corners and sector breaks of the circuit

SBR’s Command Module Steering Wheel is a custom built device that is produced in house. Stone Brothers Racing is the only V8 Supercar team to design and build their ownsteering wheels givingthe team theflexibility to create a functional and purpose built piece of equipment.

Thewheel starts life as a piece of billet aluminium, after a day and a half in the HAAS CNC Machine Centre the finished body is ready for anodising. The foam padding is also CNC cutand the cover stitched on, whilethis looks simple the upholstery takes the best part of a day!

The Mini Dash Display and Shift Light Module are purchased from MoTeC and along with their fitment the wiring takes a further day and a half. All in all the steering wheel is a fairly labour intensive piece of equipment; bearing this in mind the end result is impressive. The approximate cost of a completed steering wheel is around $10,000.00.