-traction control/abs, started in Touring Cars in the 70's (BMW). Banned in F1 but were already in road cars. Further developed in Touring cars in the 90's. (Mercedes) yep i was thinking after I wrote this, traction control was in f1 like late 80's but in cars well before, another F1 trickle down myth, abs came frome f1? no idea
-active suspension, banned from F1 but not really used in road cars, maybe some passive was. Yes, the technologies are used extensively in self-adjusting dampers and adjustable suspension (although only found in top-end hypercars/luxury saloons).
-pneumatic valves, used in Motorbike engines - also lead to the Fiat/Alfa Multiair engine.did not know that
-turbos, most performance turbo cars got their influence from.. Sportscars / GT's. BMW & Porsche pretty much invented turbocharging of petrol engines in Motorsport. Renault copied, then took it to F1. yes I get too hung up on WRC group B being the best of everything, completely forgot about sports cars and turbos.
-carbon fiber, used extensively in performance road cars & motorbikes, as well as boat hulls. One use of Carbon fibRE technology can be most prevalently seen in .... bicycles!remember were talking regular road cars
-crazy exotic metals used for blocks, exhausts and wheels, were all banned. But development of these has been extensively incorporated into the cycle industry, aerospace industry and exotic metals in engines (Gold & Beryllium) was actually a road car development (the BMW V12 in the McLaren F1) which made it's way into F1.still talking regular road cars
-carbon brakes, we get carbon/ceramic brakes for loads of money, but straight carbon, well you wouldn't want them on the road and not really on your everyday mondeo. Correct, fairly useless technology in the main, and being phased out/banned from many racing series.
-semi auto box, yep we now have those and they are common at all levels of cars.
-KERS, does anyone make a car with kers? i'm sure there are other recovery things, not sure. Didn't Volvo make a kers system that is better than a F1 one, not sure, but i read that somewhere, but they still don't use it yet. The Porsche 918 uses the Williams Flybrid KERS, and yes, pretty much all hybrids use KERS. The packaging of it developed in racing is hugely used by Infiniti, Toyota, BMW & Porsche - however much of this has been in Sportscars/GT's by Audi, Toyota and Porsche. (actually Zytek and Williams-produced hybrid systems). Next year in F1 the KERS is being incorporated into the power delivery instead of being a boost button - which unfortunately increases the Ders effect and makes it MORE important - which frankly sucks!are we talking road cars or race cars? I'm sure the prius etc use some sort of recovery thing, but don't know anything about it, is it kers or something else?
-ground effects, nope not much.
-aerodynamics, not sure how relevant they are to road cars, but I'm sure there is some advantages gained. Errmmmm, all of it? Movable / automatic wings, for example, diffusers (effective even at low speed i.e road-car speeds), downforce without drag, all of this is developed through motorsport. well yes of course, but regular road cars ie a diesel mondeo?
And don't forget THE major developments in engines on the last 30 years - fuel injection and engine management.. Developed in Sportscars (Group C was THE major driving force behind engine efficiency and electronic fuel management) and later in F1. Direct injection engines were also developed through motorsport, and have provided a direct benefit to road cars.
Errrmmm... the Euro NCAP crash tests? Max Mosely's idea, developed from the F1 crash testing.
Side-impact and frontal crumple zones? F1 again.. did not know that
There might not be much obvious trickle-down effect, but there's a lot more behind the scenes. Admittedly however, most developments come from Sportscar racing, which is far more open and interesting in terms of technologies - witness the Deltawing and just wait for Michelin's new 'sponge' wet tyres to hit the roads..
I did mean to imply that sportscars was more credit for advances than F1, but I only mentioned it about economy then forgot imply for the rest of my statements, I did try to say regular cars not sports/supercars but then I guess where do you draw the line, someones regular car can be someone elses sports car etc
In terms of racing however, I'm pretty much convinced individual races will be great, but until they get rid of double-points for the finale/s, it's not worth watching F1 - especially now there's a world Sportscar championship back again!
Get well soon Michael....
