Formula 1 Technology in Road Cars

Paulie Walnuts

Can anyone tell me what Formula 1 technologies have been adopted for use in road cars throughout the history of the sport?

muckwarrior

ABS and traction control would be two big ones.

mikemac

I'm pretty sure the tyre companies make developments in F1 which they can pass on.

It's not so obvious but if it'd make sense to use the R&D they've done on the retail market.

As an example Bridgestone Ireland sell the "Bridgestone Potenza F1 tyre". Could be a marketing gimmick, who knows

BoardsRanger

Id have a guess at paddle gear shifts and an underbody air diffusor (mainly supercars)

Biro

Would Fiat's pioneering variable valve timing back in the day come from Ferarri ideas maybe?
There's probably plenty of things that we wouldn't know about. Advancements in fuel injectors and all that kind of stuff. As said, gearboxes, like the one in the Enzo is from the F1 technology.

muckwarrior

LIGHTNING wrote: »

ABS was invented in the 20`s for use in Aircraft and had nothing to do with motorsport. The americans were the first crowd to really implement into their road cars with Mercedes using the first proper modern ABS system in their cars (S class). Again Traction control devolpement had nothing to do with motorsport and was originally pioneered by Volvo I think in the 70`s and then the Americans took it up. In any case very few motor racing series use ABS and traction control isnt too common either.

Interesting. I'd always heard that they were developed in F1 in the early nineties. Perhaps it was a reference to advancements made in F1 filtering down to road cars rather than the technology being pioneered there.

meditraitor

http://cars.uk.msn.com/News/Top_ten_article.aspx?cp-documentid=8168776

vectra

The predecessor of modern electronic traction control systems can be found in high-torque, high-power rear-wheel drive cars as a limited slip differential. As this system worked mechanically to transfer power to the individual rear wheel slipping the least, it still allowed some wheel spin to occur.

Volvo 760 pioneered and introduced electronic traction control to the market.In 1971, the Buick division of GM introduced MaxTrac, which used an early computer system to detect rear wheel spin and modulate engine power to those wheels to provide the most traction. A Buick-exclusive at the time, it was an option on all full-size models, including the Riviera, Estate Wagon, Electra 225, Centurion, and popular LeSabre family sedan. Cadillac also introduced the ill fated Traction Monitoring System (TMS) in 1979 on the redesigned Eldorado. It was criticized for it's slow reaction time and extremely high failure rate.

daveharnett

Not exactly common in road cars, but I presume that launch control came from the world of motorsport.

I also have a notion that quattro (or at least the idea of variable front/rear power distribution) originally came from rallying?

vectra

daveharnett wrote: »

Not exactly common in road cars, but I presume that launch control came from the world of motorsport.

Launch control refers to an electronic device that is used to assist a Formula 1 driver in the very moment of the start of a race. Launch control also refers to an electronic setting on many modern sports sedans and coupes that let the driver take off from the line at a certain high speed without the wheels spinning much. Popular cars with launch control include the BMW M series, certain Volkswagens, certain GM products, and the Nissan GT-R.

In 1985, Renault's RE60 F1 car had a device that hosted a diskette which stored information inside and was unloaded at the pits, giving the engineers detailed data about the cars' behaviour.

Later on, telemetry allowed the data to be sent by a radio connection between the pits and the car. The increase of electronic-driven devices on the car allowed the engineers to modify the settings of certain parameters on the car while it was on the track, this being called bi-directional telemetry.

Among the electronic driving aids there were semi-automatic transmission, ABS, traction control and active suspension. The pinnacle of the automated driving aids was achieved by Williams F1 team on its 1993 FW15C model, which featured them all. This rising trend was put to a halt by the FIA by outlawing them for the 1994 season, considering the fact that it took too much work out of the drivers' hands. Also bi-directional telemetry was forbidden, which was soon reinstated as the FIA found it too hard to analyze the engine programs in order to search for hidden code that could be found breaking the rules.

Fully automatic transmission and launch control were allowed again from the Spanish GP 2001 onwards, but as of 2004 those are forbidden for the sake of budget reduction of F1 teams.

daveharnett wrote: »

I also have a notion that quattro (or at least the idea of variable front/rear power distribution) originally came from rallying?

quattro (meaning four in Italian), is the name used by Audi AG to indicate that four-wheel drive (4WD) technologies or systems are used on specific models of the Audi automobiles.

"quattro" is a registered trademark of Audi AG, subsidiary of the larger German automotive conglomerate, Volkswagen Group.

quattro was first introduced in 1980 on the permanent four wheel drive Audi Quattro (often referred to as the Ur-Quattro - "Ur-" being a German language augmentive for "original"). The term quattro has since been applied to all subsequent Audi 4WD models. Due to the nomenclature rights derived from the trademark, the word quattro is now always spelled with a lower case "q", in honour of its former namesake.

Other companies in the Volkswagen Group have used different trademarks for their 4WD vehicles. Whilst Audi has always used the term "quattro", Volkswagen branded cars initially used "syncro", but more recently, VW use "4motion". Škoda simply uses the nomenclature "4x4" after the model name, whereas SEAT uses merely "4". It is important to note that none of the above trademarks, or nomenclatures define the operation or type of 4WD system, as detailed below.

mickdw

Well firstly, Im sure the use of wind tunnels in F1 showed the motor manufacturers what benefits could be had from more aerodynamic designs in relation to fuel economy compared to the boxes of the 60s & 70s
Active suspension as offered in some high end cars was introduced by williams around 93 94.
Turbo technology will have benefited from advancements made during the turbo F1 era.
Traction control systems although they may be invented some time ago were unable to handle the power involved in F1 and were developed highly on introduction a few years ago, this has trickled down to high power road cars today.
Composites & materials technology is a big one in my opinion. Season after season the F1teams push the boundaries of whats possible with modern materials in relation to strength/stiffness versus weight. This is allowing major steps to be made in all car manufacturing leading to lighter, stiffer, better balanced modern car chassis.
Tyre technology undoubtably moves forward as a result of race technology, whether it be F1 or touring series or whatever.
Engine advancements relating to increases in bhp/cc in my opinion are gained from F1.
You also have stuff like throttleless engine systems increasing efficiency big time being taken straight from motorsport.
You then have engine oil technology coming straight from F1 again allowing us to drive much finer engineered engines leading to greater efficiency & power.
Brake & clutch technology from F1 is used in road going supercars.

Oblomov

ABS, aircrafts first, invented by a frenchman, Voisin, ( spl? ), then Dunlop maxaret system..... 1950's.... the German car manufacturers played and the JensenFF in production cars and the Ferguson P99 in racing cars...... and if I remember correctly, I read somewhere Jim Clark drove one at something like the BOAC 500 at Brands........

Variable inlet manifolds, al la Ferrari are now commonly used within production cars from Mercedes to Toyota.

The developments in Metallurgy in pistons, cylinder linings have been off shoots from racing cars, The sprayed bore lining on the Chapparal GM motors and strangely enough used by Citroen in their low cost model, visa...?? similar to the early Peugeot 106 bodyshell.

Brake materials, pads etc, tyres a definite... small power steering pumps and racks? Not only paddle change with gearboxes but types of material and designs,