For those of you who use Co2 in your race car to operate systems like shifters etc. think about this.
When we built the roadster we decided to use an air shifter to make driving easier. Just push a button on the steering wheel so no hunting around for the correct gear & both hands stay on the wheel. This can be important at El Mirage when you start running over 200 MPH on dirt. Anyway, we thought we'd carry the idea (keeping your hands on the steering wheel) a little further. So we added an air servo to pull the parachute cable open after a pass again without taking your hands off the wheel.
So, the button on the right side of the steering wheel is the shift button. Every time the shift light comes on (or at X RPM) push the button for the next gear. The button on the left side of the wheel is the parachute release button, again the drivers hands never leave the wheel once the run is underway. The red "T" lever in the center of the steering wheel is the emergency parachute release (required by the rules & a good idea anyway) so if you should loose air pressure for any reason you have a manual back up. It has worked well for us as the car has tried to spin once at Bonneville & once at El Mirage. Both times the pucker factor allowed the driver to hit the button as a spin started, the car never made a complete 360 because the 'chute was out soon enough to catch the spin & pull the car back straight. I feel this is much better & FASTER than taking your hand off the wheel to reach for a lever.
The second picture you can see the actuator that pulls the parachute cable in the lower right corner with a black air line going to it.
For those that might be wondering, the panel on the right has several switches & such so from front to rear:
Master battery on/off with a cable to the rear of the car for the emergency team
Next is the master transmission engagement switch
The orange rubber coated push button is for the starter
Then 3 toggle switches with safety covers for the ignition, intercooler pump, & priming fuel pump
This is followed by 2 fire bottle knobs
Below those is the plug in for the oil tank heater.