Auto Racing Technologies in Everyday Cars (Part 2)
Aside from transmissions, push button ignition, and independent suspension, auto racing has offered many other everyday technologies that nobody thinks twice about. On the first official race in history in 1894, Georges Lemaitre officially won in his three-horsepower
Peugeot with a time of 6 hours 51 minutes, covering 127 km (79 mi) from Paris to Rouen with an amazing average speed of 19 km/h. In modern times, amazing is on a whole different level. Drag racers accelerate even quicker than a catapult-assisted fighter jet
or a space shuttle launch. “Top Fuel” dragsters are the fastest man-operated vehicles on the planet. With over 8,000 horsepower, and 0 to 510 km/h times of less than five seconds, dragsters can cover a quarter-mile in less than 4.5 seconds with a top speed
of almost 550 km/h. Drag, auto-cross, drifting and production cars are not as different as some believe, with similar technologies in many aspects of the vehicle.
The only times when a driver thinks about their tires are either when they get a flat tire, or when the tires no longer have sufficient road grip. However, tires are given much less credit than they deserve, seeing as they keep the car on the road and allow
the driver to stay in control. Tires are not overlooked by race car engineers, which is how race tire advancements are now on production vehicles. The grooves that are on every production tire were developed in rally racing, which allowed the vehicle to grip
the uneven road surfaces and channel water, slush, and snow away from the car. Track race cars usually have less, narrower grooves than production and off road tires, since they are used for solely road grip, and having fewer grooves than typical tires, allow
more road contact.
Formula One car tires have no grooves and are made of a soft sticky rubber, which heats up very quickly and increases grip. These are known as "slicks." Usually, a Formula One racer drives down the track in a zigzag formation behind the leading car before
the race. This is a technique used to warm up the tires before the race by creating high friction between the road surface and tires, which heat up for better grip. However, drivers shouldn’t be tempted to run out and buy a set of racing tires. Racing tires
are changed several times during the course of a race, where production tires are designed to last over 30-40,000 km.
When a race car approaches a turn at speeds of over 320 km/h, the driver needs the best and most reliable brakes to keep the car in control. Racing technologies keep brakes working and consistent even in most extreme conditions, such as heat, rain, and cold.
One racing innovation is disk brakes, which was implemented on race cars in the 1950’s. Disk brakes have a stationary brake pad, and a rotor that spins with the wheel of the car. When the brake is applied, the pads grip onto the rotors, which cause the vehicle
to slow down and stop. Even under normal conditions, brake rotors and pads heat up very quickly and lose grip, which was a major problem for both race and production cars. To help dissipate the heat, race engineers designed vented rotors, with holes drilled
throughout the rotor to keep them cool. Racing brakes started with cast-iron rotors, to ceramic rotors, and now use carbon rotors. Disk brakes improve regularly, as race cars ideally stop quicker and better with the lightest, yet strongest rotors. Most production
cars these days have at least two front disk brakes, if not on all four wheels. Most production cars have cast-iron brakes, while luxury vehicles have ceramic rotors. Carbon disk brakes are, at the moment, solely for racing.
As important as stopping is, a car doesn’t need to be stopped if it won’t run properly. Engine air intakes allow engines to breathe easily and freely, resulting in higher performance. Just as humans need to breathe harder when exercising, so do cars when
being pushed to their limits. Since most engines are combustion engines, they won’t work without air. The more air that comes into the engine, the better it will perform, and will run even better with cold air, since the cold air thickens the air and fuel
mixture, which results in better combustion. Superchargers and ram air intakes all use air to make the engine perform better. Few production cars come with factory superchargers, and most are aftermarket parts that enthusiasts install to increase performance.
Although NASCAR and Formula One do not allow superchargers, they are widely used on dragsters. Dragsters are built for straight line speed and allow the vehicle to breathe better. Automotive designers applied this same technique to production cars.
The three technologies mentioned are all derived from years of race engineering and allow production cars to be much more efficient, reliable, and safe. Next time, when driving, drivers should appreciate the work, time, and effort that engineers put into
making cars better, which is why production vehicles are what they are today.
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