MSD’s revolutionary Power Grid has been one of the most talked-about products in the racing industry in recent years, offering advanced programmable ignition that allows for complete control of RPM and timing in conjunction with MSD’s dedicated MSD View software. With the success of the Power Grid in and of itself, MSD has been continually adding new accessory modules to the unit to deliver added capabilities for racers, and here at PRI, we got a chance to see firsthand some of the latest developments.

“The Power Grid is an evolution that’s continued to grow. We’ve taken the feedback that we’ve gotten from the racers and worked to develop these additional modules to increase the capabilities of the unit,” said MSD’s Joe Pando.

At PRI, MSD is showing off two new modules for the Power Grid, one of which has been designed for turbocharged and supercharged racers. The first of these is a Boost Controller, where the rate of boost can be programmed to the nth degree, from what the car will launch at to how it will progressively come in going down the race track. “You can map out the actual boost curve going down the race track, which lets you to tune to the track and keep from blowing the tires off,” explains Pando.

Another new development that MSD has is their four-stage Power Module. As Pando explained to us, this module features a solid-state switch with four switches, each of which is capable of handing 20 amps of current. Each switch can be independently controlled or cascaded together, allowing you to control the fan through a water temperature sensor, to program nitrous oxide based on a set of factors, or control virtually any other system within the race car.

“Each of the channels can be controlled by time, by RPM, or others factors,” says Pando. “Anything that comes to mind can be done with the Power Module.”

The Power Module also features a built-in datalogger, allowing you to look back through the run to identify that everything worked the way you had it programmed and make any necessary changes from that data. Both the Boost Controller and the Power Module have their own software, but like each of the Power Grid parts, they all share a high-speed datalogger.

To utilize these accessories, like the Boost Controller, Power Module, ARC Module, Boost Retard Module, or others, the use of a CAN-Bus Hub is needed. And as Pando shared with us, once you have a have a hub, you’re given access to the CAN, allowing you to cascade or interconnect multiple units. The CAN-Bus Hubs have four ports, however, if you wanted to use a fourth module, you can add another Hub and essentially “daisy-chain” the modules, with the ability to then add three more and so on.

For more information on MSD Ignition and their lineup of ignition systems, visit them on the web at msdignition.com.