What technology has been invented/developed through racing?

I have been thinking a lot lately about how racing is quite a dirty sport. As an outdoorsy guy who cares about the environment this bothers me. Which leads me to my point:

What technology has been invented and developed because of racing?

Also, what gas mileage improving technology has been a result of racing?

I have heard that V-tech was a product of Honda's F1 program but I don't know if this is true at all. I assume that tire technology has been greatly developed especially through rally. Aerodynamics is another big one. Is KERS a product of F1? How about Traction Control and ABS? Vented brake rotors?

Anyway, you guys get the idea.

Emissions-wise not much, but power and efficiency are mostly two sides of the same coin. Automotive technology in general...most of it.

I know disc brakes came from aircraft but of course were used in race cars before production cars.

There's nothing too innovative about KERS. It's just a little regen brake system that you can slap on a standard ICE vehicle. Those electric scooters you charge by pushing that were out a decade before? Same thing.

Direct fuel injection. Dual clutch gear boxes. Sequential gearboxes. Tire technology has really improved through motorsports, there are teams of tire scientists at just about every race (professional) for just about every motorsports that focus on JUST the tires.

I suspect you could trace just about every safety and performance/efficiency improvement back to racing. It all depends on just how far back you want to go. Races like Le Mans were started specifically to push automotive development.

The Indy 500 claims the rear view mirror as it's invention.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear-view_mirror

Joshua wrote: I have heard that V-tech was a product of Honda's F1 program but I don't know if this is true at all.

VTEC was indeed developed by former members of the Honda F1 engine team, though it was after they had gone back to road car operations. Same deal with the S2000 chassis and the F series engine.

When they were building F1 engines for BAR and Jordan, Honda would cycle engineers from their road car teams into the F1 team. I always thought that was a brilliant idea. Operationally expensive and a bit crazy, but brilliant nonetheless.

Dual overhead cam engines have their roots in car racing.

Motorsport is also responsible for all of those Porsches with the ignition key on the left hand side of the steering wheel. I'm not sure how that's an improvement on a street car but it's really funny watching people trying to start their cars.

Cool suits?

everything..

Downforce and vinyl wraps for huge sponsor stickers. Everything else was in road cars looong before race cars. Racing is by nature a conservative exercise that rewards development over innovation. Effective innovation is usually rewarded by being banned or heavily restricted in subsequent rules sets.

Such is the power of branding and casual opinion that although NASCAR has aero and engine development easily on par in terms of budget, scope and effectiveness as F1 (CFD and correlation on multi car, multi element draft hurts the brain to even define boundary conditions), although both cars have nothing to do with anything in production, their respective fans will both tout how much 'technology transfer' exists in both series.

How much longer the fiction can be maintained with silhouettes and ground based aeroplanes is a critical question that only the marketing people will be able to answer in the coming years.

It's much simpler to state what wasn't developed from racing.

From an article about Henry Ford's first vehicle, the Quadricycle: Next, Ford, maintaining some financial backing, turned his attention to establishing his name in the automobile industry by developing racing engines. His lightweight, two-cylinder engines defeated the high-powered, and correspondingly heavier, four-cylinder models; in 1902 he began to win prizes and recognition in races staged in Detroit. As Ford continued his concentration on developing more powerful racing cars, his supporters, preferring the prospects for lightweight all-purpose vehicles, left to reorganize and establish the Cadillac Automobile Company.

Racing bicyclists were Ford's next partners; they had the funds and the nerve to drive machines that developed up to 80 horsepower and 60 miles per hour. Tom Cooper and Barney Oldfield joined the team. Oldfield, soon to become a racing legend, won prizes with the 1902 Ford 999 and Henry Ford himself drove the Ford Arrow to a world land speed record of 91.37 mph in 1904.

I'm sure the european manufacturers of the era were doing similar things.

Umbrella girls.

Joshua wrote: I have been thinking a lot lately about how racing is quite a dirty sport. As an outdoorsy guy who cares about the environment this bothers me. Which leads me to my point: What technology has been invented and developed because of racing?

I'm going to guess none of it, although I'm separating technology from understanding.

A lot of engine tech came out of WWII, for example.

grpb wrote: Downforce and vinyl wraps for huge sponsor stickers. Everything else was in road cars looong before race cars. Racing is by nature a conservative exercise that rewards development over innovation. Effective innovation is usually rewarded by being banned or heavily restricted in subsequent rules sets. Such is the power of branding and casual opinion that although NASCAR has aero and engine development easily on par in terms of budget, scope and effectiveness as F1 (CFD and correlation on multi car, multi element draft hurts the brain to even define boundary conditions), although both cars have nothing to do with anything in production, their respective fans will both tout how much 'technology transfer' exists in both series. How much longer the fiction can be maintained with silhouettes and ground based aeroplanes is a critical question that only the marketing people will be able to answer in the coming years.

Might want to do some research before you post next time. Seatbelts came about because of racecars. They were not in street cars first.

racerfink wrote: Might want to do some research before you post next time. Seatbelts came about because of racecars. They were not in street cars first.

I thought development happened in part due to a military project to make cars safer after the Air Force found that more fighter pilots were dying in car crashes than in aircraft.

Every car sold today has stuff Colin Chapman invented to go faster.

The paper air filter came from racing apparently. Damn I miss my oilbath air cleaner.

More interesting is how many advances were from the air industry; aerodynamics, supercharging, disc brakes, space frames, aluminum engines off the top of my head. Maybe not aluminum engines, but the Wright Brothers used or built one. I suppose if it is a good idea in one industry, it is adapted fairly quickly by others.

And you're wasting time trolling a motorsports board.