The 2007 Clio race car developed by Renault Sport Technologies features an integrated engine management controller and data logger by Magneti Marelli. The Marelli ECU doubles up as an engine controller and data logger. Information is displayed on the colour Magneti Marelli dashboard. The lap beacon receiver and 2 axis G sensor is supplied by XAP.

Software supplied to run the data logger is Wintax3 Lite. This is a smaller version of the Wintax software that Marelli uses on its higher performance logging systems.

Vision software is also supplied so the team can watch ECU and chassis parameters in real time. Functionality is deliberately limited to viewing the ECU only. Useful parameters shown are steering angle, (to check that the steering sensor is zeroed correctly), front and rear brake pressure and the total kilometres traveled (which cannot be reset).

The dashboard pages are changed by pressing the red button on the centre console.

Brake pressure. While the brake pressure is displayed on the dashboard as a ratio front to rear, this does not give an accurate view of what the brakes are really doing. The Clio does not have a twin brake master cylinder with balance bar like a single seater. The rear brake pressure is limited by the the adjustable brake pressure limiter valve running to the rear brakes. Thus to prevent the lightly loaded rear brakes from locking up the brake limiter valve is adjusted to prevent too much pressure going to the rear. In practice most drivers set this up for around 24 bar. The best way to view what pressure the limiting valve is set to is to look at some downloaded data, and view the rear brake channel.

Computers. The MM system uses an ethernet network - the same system as a wired network in your office or broadband at home. This means your PC must have an ethernet port or card to connect. The setup of this "network " has to be precisely as MM specify or it will simply not work. So care is required when setting up the IP address, subnet addresses etc. For most users this will render their office or home network inoperable so unless you are an experienced computer user we STRONGLY recommend that your PC used for data analysis is used for that purpose alone, and nothing else.

A minimum spec for your laptop should be :

Ethernet port RJ45
512Mb Ram
20Gb hard drive
be able to go from a cold boot to fully functioning windows in 45 seconds or less
be able to run off batteries alone for a minimum of 20 minutes
No firewalls - at least until the pc has been communicating with the MM system with out problems. After that firewalls could be reintroduced at your risk.

A decent laptop can now be bought for less than a set of tyres (but at the end of the year you will still have the laptop). There is no excuse for having some doddery old laptop with a clapped out battery that is full of games and software that has never been removed properly. Please don't bring a laptop like this to the circuit......

 

Beacons for out of season testing. The car comes with XAP beacon receiver as part of the data logging option. The corresponding XAP beacon transmitter is expensive (approx £600, available from R Sport) and will not be required when the season starts as the Renault technical team put one out for every session.

 

Alternative AiM beacon and receiver

 

For out of season testing an alternative is available. Many teams already have an AiM beacon transmitter that we have been using for the last 6 years. This can be used along with an AiM red top receiver and a short wiring adapter.

 

 

As the UK Aim distributor we still sell and maintain the Formula Renault EV03 systems and 2000-2006 Clio systems. We do not support the Magnetti Marelli Clio systems. All questions should be addressed to the Technical Manager, Allen Collen.