Zanardi's hand controls for the 24 hours
 

good video on how BMW adapted controls for Zanardi for the upcoming 24 hrs


https://racer.com/2019/01/22/inside-...hand-controls/

-its hard NOT to root for Zanardi!

He is such an inspiration!

The other cool thing is hand controls are within the reach of common people. At the sonoma Runoffs one of the GT3 guys uses his own self designed hand controls to drive his car. He has a narrow wheel chair and help to get body panels off just like anyone else and gets right in there to wrench on his own car. These guys are winners before they ever get on track.

My BIL is in a wheelchair from a cycling accident when he was in college. Years ago we used to play Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed and used an early steering wheel setup that had left and right paddles connected to potentiometers instead of buttons. We used the paddles for throttle and brake. Unfortunately, all of the steering wheel since then have paddles that are connected to switches instead of potentiometers, so he has never really been able to play a simulator the same way.

I wonder why Alex doesn't use a similar setup with brake on the left paddle and throttle on the right paddle and then upshift and downshift being buttons on the steering wheel, near his thumbs.

That was how we had our old simulator steering wheel set up.

Great video :thumbup: good luck and best wish,s on a successful race to him

There's a video on Racer's website showcasing a driver change that is worth watching as well. Alex stays right there and helps get his co-driver strapped in. The steering wheel is the only thing completely swapped out.
Alex is truly an inspiration but the engineers and designers who made this all possible deserve credit as well.

He is certainly a guy who has risen to the challenge. You are correct, it is hard not to root for him.

Watching the driver change, I was amazed at his upper body strength
The man is truly unreal and inspirational

fantastic video!

Yeah those Paralympic medals don't come easy - he is an inspiration for so many. His love for life and competition seems to know no bounds.

Amazing story, i just hope they stop showing the crash, i cringe every time i see it.

John, AZ assisted a company in Italy after his accident to help develop hand controls for competition cars. It's successful, for sure.

I wonder what the problem was with him getting the car fired after getting in. It initially looked like a brake problem, but the swapped the wheel, he motioned it wasn't working, then took off.

Paul Tracy always catches the nuances when he is announcing. Great eye to see they dropped the car just at the time AZ was trying to fit the wheel onto the splines. Those little brass pins are the most delicate things. You'd think that they could make more robust DTM style pins.....

I looked up Zanardi's crash after seeing the interview with him. Then sat there and got sucked into 2 or 3 fatal crash videos and it puts you in a crappy mood. I don't recommend it! Wish I had not watched...