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CART: In the Mind of an Engine

24 June 1999

Mercedes-Benz powered race cars in the CART FedEx Championship Series have a highly developed brain, thanks to a unique Motorola computer chip inside the Magneti Marelli engine control unit (ECU). The Marelli ECU regulates the Mercedes-Benz IC108E Phase III (E3) engine, much like the brain regulates the human body. In fact, it controls 240 channels of information and performs millions of calculations per second. As a result, it improves throttle response, ignition timing and fuel delivery. Magneti Marelli developed the ECU as part of the electronics and fuel management system for the Mercedes E3 engine as technical partner with Mercedes-Benz.

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