Red Bull Motorsports
F1
This is how motorsports technology has changed your everyday car
From all-wheel drive to active suspension and many other things in between, the technologies innovated in the quest for racing glory more often than not find their way into the vehicles we drive.
Motorsports teams plough billions into developing new technologies to give their drivers a winning edge on the track. It's not surprising, then, that manufacturers want to see some return on their investment by domesticating their innovations and turning them into unit-shifting production technology.
Here are just a few examples of motorsports-developed tech that has ended up being used in more humdrum motor vehicles.
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1. Semi-automatic gears
The long-defunct Group C class for modified production cars was a well-spring of invention and cyberpunk-looking cars, but arguably its most enduring influence is the direct shift gearbox, developed for the Porsche 962 in 1984. Enabling clutch-less shifting, it was the progenitor of the paddle gears that are now used in F1.
Marrying the performance of manual transmission with the simplicity and mono-tasking of an automatic, the direct shift gearbox and its various un-gated semi-automatic offspring obviously found a happy home in production cars.
Flappy paddles aren't quite the industry standard they were predicted to be in the early 2000s, but they are a popular optional extra on everything from Porsches to the Honda Jazz.
Apply the (disc) brakes
© Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool
2. Disc brakes
Originally premiered by Porsche for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, disc brakes began infiltrating production cars in the 1980s.
Enabling fast braking without locking the steering, disc brakes were a clear performance-enhancing technology and were marketed as a breakthrough in road safety for the home market.
The technology continues to develop, too. Road cars are now making an F1-inspired switch from steel disc rotors to lighter, more heat-resistant ceramic versions. Of course, F1 cars remain a lap ahead in terms of tech and have mostly already moved on to using carbon fibre.
Speaking of which...
A carbon fibre part on the 2013 RB9 F1 car
© Vladimir Rys/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Carbon fibre chassis
Super light, flexible and 10 times stronger than steel by weight, carbon fibre is the go-to construction material for speed machines, from F1 cars to hypersonic planes.
It also comes with a futuristic price tag, though. The high costs of manufacturing and moulding carbon fibre means that we're a long way from seeing fully carbonised mainstream production cars on the road. However many manufacturers are incorporating it into carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) bodies.
It's especially popular in electric vehicles, such as the BMWi3, where weight management is important to offset the bulk of their batteries.
4. Rear-view mirror
Perhaps not the most thrilling development from the high-octane world of speed thrills, but definitely the most ubiquitous. Although it's now literally the first thing you do when driving, checking a rear-view was the stuff of James Bond when the technology originated in 1950s motor racing.
Back in those days, F1 did have some quirky rules, but a parallel parking bonus round wasn't one of them. Rather, engineers realised a handily placed mirror would allow drivers to see when rivals were approaching from behind, enabling easier blocking, and brake checking on corners. This crafty piece of gadgetry then went on to be one of most significant safety features on civilian vehicles.
Sébastien Ogier tries out one of those rear-view mirrors
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
5. AWD (All-wheel drive)
Originally introduced by the Audi rally team, and rapidly diffused into their game-changing Quattro road car in 1980, AWD (known as quattro in its rally incarnation) aids smooth handling on both flats and the rough stuff.
Refining the brutalist simplicity of 4WD, quattro varies the power relayed to each wheel depending on its individual needs, making rally cars as nimble as a Mini, but still as powerful as 300-odd horses.
AWD is now de riguer on school runs around the globe, as the likes of the Suzuki SX4, Subaru Impreza and Nissan Juke enable time-poor parents to negotiate tricky rat runs without losing precious milliseconds.
6. Joypad steering wheels
These days, the average F1 steering wheel has more buttons than a laptop keyboard. Each of these has a function essential to maximising performance.
The various buttons on the steering wheel of, say, the Ford Ka fulfill somewhat more pedestrian functions, mostly focused on controlling the media player and enabling hands-free phone calls. But by centring these functions in the driver's eye-line, button steering wheels aid safety alongside convenience.
Is it a games console controller or an F1 steering wheel?
© Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
7. Active suspension
Regular suspension is passive, which means it just does what the road tells it. Active suspension, on the other hand, doesn't take any messing from uneven surfaces and actively raises and lowers the chassis at each wheel to ensure better handling, improved traction and a smooth ride for the driver.
Early active suspension simply adjusted the stiffness of the shocks, but F1 took this to predictable extremes, embedding sensors throughout the car to feed data into an onboard computer.
Toyota were the first marque to take the technology to the road, with the 1983 Soarer, and such fabled roadsters as the Citroën Xantia, and Volvo S60R have ensured its continued rise (and, where appropriate, lowering).
