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HCR Innovations: two generations of drag-and-drive racing on a PDM28
Racer and wiring specialist Devin Vanderhoof has built two record-chasing Mustangs around the Hardwire PDM28. The results were good enough that his shop, HCR Innovations, became a Hardwire dealer.
CLIENT
HCR Innovations
BASED IN
USA
APPLICATION
Drag-and-drive race cars
PRODUCTS USED
PDM28, CAN keypads
230+ mph
Top speed of Big Ern, the original PDM28 car
6-second
Quarter-mile passes, then driven home on the road
2
Generations of race car on the same PDM28 setup
The challenge
Drag-and-drive cars live a double life: single-digit-second runs at the strip, then hundreds of kilometres on public roads between events. Their electrics have to control a big turbocharged engine reliably at the track and run fans, pumps, lights and driver controls on the road, without extra weight or a maze of point-to-point wiring.
Devin’s first car, a twin-turbo 1993 Mustang convertible called Big Ern, ran deep into the six-second range at over 230 mph. Its successor, an S550 Mustang called Reddi Whip, is built to go into the fives. In both, he wanted power distribution on the same digital network as his Holley EFI and CAN keypads, not as a separate hard-wired system.
The solution
Each car runs its whole electrical system from a single Hardwire PDM28 in place of a fuse and relay panel. In Reddi Whip it sits on the passenger side, within easy reach for diagnostics and changes.
- Two-way CAN communication with the Holley Dominator ECU, so engine management and power distribution work together
- Cockpit CAN keypads read straight off the bus, removing a wiring run for every switch
- The PDM28 switches everything from fuel pumps and fans to lighting, based on keypad inputs and ECU data
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A Hardwire Electronics (UK) project.
The results
Consolidating relays and fuses into one CAN-connected module saves weight and removes failure points, which matters in a car that has to be both fast and roadworthy. The setup proved so dependable in Big Ern that it went straight into Reddi Whip.
HCR Innovations then became an official Hardwire dealer and now makes its own flying-lead harnesses for the PDM28, giving customers a quicker path to the same setup Devin races with.
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