Autosport International Supplement

AUTOSPORT ENGINEERING – INNOVATION

Hooray for Ole? Ole Buhl Racing are well-respected in the industry for powering championship-winning cars – and their new PCM is a strong contender for this year’s Racecar award for innovation

T

he Graham Jones Award is presented for the most innovative product on display at the Autosport Engineering Show.

During his time as Editor of Racecar Engineering, one of the tasks that Graham Jones most looked forward to was picking the most innovative product on display in the Autosport Engineering Show. Every year Graham, who passed away in September 2011, took great pride in presenting the winner with the award, after often lively and

spirited debate. As a tribute to our respected former Editor, the Racecar staff are proud to present the award in his name.

Among the leading candidates for the 2013 show is Ole Buhl Racing (OBR), with its new power control module. The PCM2 will be formally launched at the show after a prototype version was shown off at PRI in December. ‘We were among the first to explore the market for computer-controlled battery power junction boxes,’ says Ole Buhl. ‘Most electrical installations

in competition cars used complex and expensive junction boxes which included old-fashioned relays and circuit breakers. These boxes were often large, heavy and did not offer any form of intelligence in functions.

‘As is our company policy, we were looking for possibilities to improve the electrical installations. Our aim was to reduce the complexity of the wiring harness, simplify installation, save weight and to add logic into the battery voltage distribution in the car.

How wonderful would it be if we quickly could redefine outputs and how they were switched without having to rewire a complex relay box?’

In 2005, with help from Porsche Motorsport, Buhl and his engineers started to develop a microprocessor-controlled PCM. In spring 2006, Porsche tested the first samples, and later that year the first generation Ole Buhl PCM was made available to customers.

‘Initially customers were a bit apprehensive of the new technology, but the reliability of the PCM has been astonishingly good,’ says Buhl. ‘Porsche Motorsport’s RS Spyder’s went on to win the ALMS championships in 2007 and 2008 with our PCM and today many of the world’s top rally and racing cars are equipped with it.’

Over the years the PCM was gradually updated and improved, but Buhl knew that in order to incorporate all the ideas and suggestions from his staff and customers he would have to develop an all-new module.

Today OBR has the capability to conduct electronic hardware design and PCB layout in-house as well as software development.

This advance of the company made it possible to develop a brand new line of products, among them the new PCM. ‘As PCM was the market leader of the first generation power boxes, we have seriously moved the goalposts with the PCM2,’ enthuses Buhl. ‘It takes the whole Power Control Module concept much further than existing modules currently on the market. Based on our experience and the success of the first

“Initially customers were a bit apprehensive of the new technology, but the reliability of the PCM has been astonishingly good” www.racecar-engineering.com • Autosport International 2013