Ever since driver Ray Harroun fashioned a rearview mirror and bolted it to the dashboard of his car at the Indianapolis 500 in 1911, automakers have looked to all forms of racing to help refine, improve and perfect the performance and safety of the vehicles they sell.
Such things as headlights, automatic windshield wipers, seat belts, disc brakes, shock absorbers and power steering were developed for race cars, then adapted to production vehicles, says Norm Hudecki, director of technical services for the Valvoline Co., a motor oil manufacturer.
Engineers are still at it, testing everything from sophisticated computer-controlled suspension systems and engine parts to new types of tires, lower-friction fluids and lighter, stronger metals.
Stock-car racing, in particular, has led to many innovations in production cars. The Chevrolet Monte Carlos, Ford Thunderbirds and Pontiac Grand Prixs that thundered around Daytona International Speedway in February don’t have much more than shape and size in common with street vehicles. “The windshield might be the only part that’s the same,” said Kevin Kennedy of Ford Motorsport in Dearborn, Mich.
Kennedy said the National Association of Stock-Car Racing once required race-car drivers to use parts that were stock–made by auto manufacturers. But as the rules have evolved, “the cars have gotten away from stock pieces to `purpose built’ (racing only) parts,” he said.
These days engineers at car companies, tiremakers and oil companies experiment more than ever with high-tech gear designed to improve the handling and efficiency of race cars and, eventually, their everyday counterparts.
The high-performance cylinder heads in the ’96 Chevrolet Corvette are a good example of how racing technology has influenced a production car. The engine’s cylinder-head design was changed as a result of what an Chevy engineer learned while working with a race team, said Dave Hederich, manager of marketing and communications for GM Motorsports. The redesigned heads brought a significant boost of power–to 300 horsepower in the current LT-1 engine from 245 in the old L-98.
Another example of adapted race technology is the electronic engine control system in Ford’s Escort, Contour and Taurus. It was used on Ford-designed racing engines five years before being put into production vehicles, said Walt Clark, Ford’s manager of powertrain control modules engineering.
The electronically controlled suspension system in the Lincoln Continental also can be traced to similar systems developed in Ford-powered Formula One race cars.
The racetrack is often the training ground for General Motors’ young engineers. Though GM doesn’t have a factory racing team for NASCAR events, it assigns engineers to the private teams it sponsors and makes its technology and parts available to the teams, said Hederich. Ford also assigns engineers to race teams.
“A lot of our young engineers learn from racing,” said Hederich from his office in Warren, Mich. What they learn on the track often helps them once they begin working on production cars, he said.
Former race-car driver Ed Hamburger, owner of SLP Engineering in Tom’s River, N.J., believes automakers will continue to rely on auto racing to test complex electronic systems and other parts in the quest to squeeze more power out of engines.
Hamburger said racing technology also has helped production engines lower exhaust emissions and increase efficiency. “The government has mandated lower emissions levels, and CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) numbers keep going up. To improve the efficiency of engines and reduce mass, you can look to racing competition to find some of the answers,” said Hamburger, whose company installs high-performance hardware on the Pontiac Firebird WS6 and Chevrolet Camaro Z28 SS for GM.
Here’s a look at some other areas where racing technology influences production cars:
– Motor oil. Virtually all automakers recommend the use of lighter, thinner oils, such as 5W- or 10W-30.
Race-car drivers and mechanics once favored heavier oils such as 20W-50; it was thought those oils would coat and stick to fast-moving engine parts better than thinner ones, said Valvoline spokesman Barry Bronson in Lexington, Ky.
But lighter oils with chemical additives, tested at the racetrack, were found to be superior. “Thinner oil gets to the engine parts quicker. Because of today’s additives, the thinner oil still protects just as much as heavier oil.” Thinner engine oil also increases fuel economy, because the oil flows more efficiently.
– Tires. Auto racing–on road and off–is the ideal venue for tiremakers to test new tread patterns and materials.
Race-car tires are exposed to higher heat, stress and wear than the tires on the family sedan, allowing engineers to evaluate materials and designs under the harshest circumstances.
Goodyear’s Aquatread rain tire is a racing-developed product that has been a big hit with consumers. The Aquatread rolled onto the market in 1992. Its grooved directional tread channels water away from the tire, which helps increase the tire’s grip on wet roads. Goodyear’s engineers perfected the Aquatread’s design on race cars driven by NASCAR driver’s Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin, said Stu Grant in Akron.
Grant, Goodyear’s director of racing tire sales and marketing, said it is rare when a new design, such as the Aquatread, is perfected on the track and marketed with just minor changes. “There’s a lot of experimentation in areas where you don’t see. What happens is we will evaluate new mold shapes and rubber in race tires. The results are shared with other tire development areas,” said Grant.
– Electronics. One of the next race-tested systems that may find its way into production cars is a “drive-by-wire” electronic accelerator. It replaces the traditional mechanical- or cable-controlled connection from the gas pedal to the engine with an electronic one.
When a driver presses the gas pedal, a computer signals the fuel-injection system to make the engine speed up. The engine’s responds more quickly. Such systems have been tested on race cars for years.
Automakers also have installed computer-controlled electronics in their automatic transmissions and suspension systems to improve shift performance and handling.
– Aerodynamics. Managing the way air passes over and under a car might be second only in importance to what goes on under the hood.
For production cars, lower aerodynamic drag means less wind resistance, greater fuel economy, a quieter ride and better handling.
But in race cars, engineers worry more about keeping the car on the ground at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. Using air dams on the rear of the car creates downward force on the tires, but that can affect the way the car handles in a curve. Engineers strive for the best balance.
Ford cars are tested in a wind tunnel with a 9,000-horsepower engine generating winds up to 200 m.p.h. Engineers make production cars as slippery as possible by smoothing out body parts.
Knowledge gained on how to manage the flow of air for racing may influence a production car’s design.
