Innovations which changed Motorsports.

[Lake X Kid]

Innovations which changed Motorsports and the transportation/recreation industry it is affiliated with, are worthy to be acknowledged here too.

[Lake X Kid]

Year 1911 the inaugural Indy 500 race.

Ray Harroun decides instead of having a ride along mechanic, like all the other competitors, he installs a mirror. The rear view mirror will give him the advantage of seeing competitors trying to pass him, without the added weight of a mechanic looking behind and notifying him of pursuing competition.

In racing the mirror is the New Spotter. Ray wins the first ever Indy 500.

The automotive industry takes notice, and subsequently the mirror becomes an accessory of production vehicle models.

[David]

Cooper’s 500 cc mid engine Formula 3 cars

[Lake X Kid]

Romain Grosjean attributes the cockpit halo (surrounding the drivers head) saved his life, at the Bahrain GP 2020.

Another safety innovation, that lets a driver race another day again. A funeral was avoided.

[Lake X Kid]

The First Winged Race Car appeared in 1956.

This Porsche 550 Spyder, which was fitted with a dining table-sized wing over its midriff by the under-sung German engineer Michael May in 1956, was years ahead of its time and anticipated an appetite for aerodynamics that would turn motorsport on its head…
The gossip in the paddock ahead of the Nürburgring 1,000km sports-car race in 1956 did not concern the ambitious four-car entries from the Works Ferrari and Maserati teams fresh from their dominant performances in the Mille Miglia, nor the roll call of star drivers assembled to drive for them, which included Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill and Stirling Moss, to name but a few.

Nope, the real fuss surrounded the Porsche 550 RS Spyder entered by the 22-year-old German-born driver-slash-engineer Michael May and his brother Pierre or, more specifically, the comically large inverted aerofoil shadowing the car’s open cockpit. See, in qualifying, May’s Porsche with its unusual contraption lapped the technical 14.2-mile circuit a staggering four seconds quicker than the factory’s own 550 Spyders, which, to add insult to injury, had just been given a comprehensive refresh.

A graduate of mechanical engineering at Zurich Technical University, May expertly recognized that an inverted wing wouldn’t only increase stability, but it would also generate downforce. He mounted the aerofoil in the middle of the mid-engined chassis would maximize strength while lowering the car’s centre of gravity.

And the wing wasn’t fixed – a lever in the cockpit could change its angle of attack by up to 17 degrees while on the move, resulting in higher top speeds on the straights and more downforce in the corners. The drag-reducing endplates, which had not even appeared on commercial aircraft by that point, were the proverbial cherry on the cake. At 93mph, the downforce generated was reportedly equal to the weight of the car.

Porsche’s racing director Huschke von Hanstein was as peeved with May’s pace as he was perplexed by exactly what the aerofoil was doing to help find it. A complaint was promptly lodged with the race organizers, Von Hanstein claiming that the giant device not only hindered the visibility of the other drivers but also potentially posed a lethal threat to the spectators in the event of an accident. They conceded and May was forced to remove it. With its wing clipped, the Porsche stood no chance.

[Lake X Kid]

While the car never raced competitively with its wing fitted again, May’s ingenious invention pioneered an innovation that would come to be embraced by the likes of Jim Chaparral, Colin Chapman and Bruce McLaren more than a decade later and, ultimately, change the face of motorsport forever.


And by no means was this the only contribution this forward-thinking engineer made to the sport he so adored. Using the knowledge he had gleaned from working at Daimler-Benz, May helped both Porsche and Ferrari introduce fuel injection systems and later developed the special high-compression ‘Fireball’ cylinder head for Jaguar.


So, whatever happened to May’s visionary Porsche 550 Spyder, which he’d originally purchased after sweettalking his banker brother Pierre into contributing towards its cost? It has recently been comprehensively restored in Padua to the exact specification devised by Michael May, who consulted and signed off on the restoration with great enthusiasm despite his 82 years.

[Lake X Kid]

Jim Cushman drives the first Sprint Car with a Wing (designed by the Miller brothers) in the late 1950's.

Might be the first American race car with a down-force wing.

[TraceF3]

How about the infamous Delta Wing?

[CDave]

The engine that changed motorsports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosworth_DFV

[Lake X Kid]

The industrial-age combustion engine, began receiving an evolutionary upgrade in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The early ECU (electronic control unit) received sensor data to control the fuel flow and ignition timing.

Today’s Engine Management Systems requires the engine tuner, to digitally adjust the performance parameters of the engine. Now the shade-tree mechanic needs a laptop with engine code specs, in addition to, the standard 20^th century wrenches and tools.

[David - WI]

The engine that changed motorsports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosworth_DFV

I read somewhere that Cosworth used a special pump out of a nuclear reactor ($1 million back in the 1980's?) to pump the molten aluminum up into the mold from the bottom... forcing all the air & slag out the top. Pretty clever dudes!

[Lake X Kid]

Bentley’s aluminum-copper alloy pistons were more reliable and increased engine’s RPM.


Walter Owen Bentley was born in London in 1888. W.O. was an early proponent of racing as a way to boost sales, and the diminutive Doriot, Flandrin, & Parnat DFP 12/15 car from France proved competitive. He realized the car's potential was limited by its steel and iron pistons, which would melt or break. Inspired by a piston-shaped aluminum paperweight, he began experimenting with aluminum-copper alloys and developed a lightweight, durable aluminum piston. His modified DFP set several records at Brooklands in the U.K.


In 1919, Bentley Motors was established in the Cricklewood area of London. W.O. developed a 16-valve, overhead-cam, twin-plug four-cylinder engine that was extraordinarily advanced for its time. His first experimental cars established the Bentley ethos: tractable and reliable enough to drive every day yet fast enough to compete on the racetrack.


Bentley Motors Ltd, with the goal of building high-powered sporting cars that had unrivaled reliability. Their first 3.0-liter, 4-cylinder road racing EXP1 and EXP2 claimed further victories at Brooklands, followed by valuable exposure at the 1922 Indianapolis 500, and then in 1924, the first of five checkered flags in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race, between then and 1930.

[Lake X Kid]

Nigel Mansell uses Paddle Shifters at the season-opening 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix. And he wins the race. Nigel and team Ferrari pioneer a new technology in Formula One racing, and subsequently to commercial sports cars.

Ferrari’s technical director, John Barnard with drivers Mansell and Gerhard Berger developed the new Paddle Shifters application. One of the reasons for installing F1 paddle shifters is, it aerodynamically narrowed the Ferrari 640 race-car’s cockpit.


Ferrari 640.

[Lake X Kid]

Panhard

After competing in a 1900 motor race in Newport, Rhode Island, in which the first Vanderbilt Cup was awarded, this 12 horsepower 4-cylinder Panhard et Levassor Type B1 was given to works racing drivers David Wolfe Bishop and Fernand Charron to compete in the New York to Buffalo endurance race in September 1901.

Rene Panhard was the first to manufacture a motor car with an engine mounted in front and rear-wheel drive - a revolutionary design at the time. The Panhard was victorious in every stage of the 1901 endurance contest and was declared the overall winner. The car was then equipped for road use.


https://www.conceptcarz.com/z26456/P...r-Type-B1.aspx

[rock]

Guy in the middle has a 2 stroke.

Rock