How Motorsports Technologies Lead To Innovations In Production Cars

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels (How Motorsports Technologies Lead To Innovations In Production Cars)

Car manufacturers all over the world continually push out new models every year. It seems like each time they do that, there’s always some kind of new and innovative technology that they’ve included into those cars.

Most people would readily assume that those innovations came from engineers’ drawing boards as they designed that new model. In most cases, that’s true. However, some automotive innovations that we enjoy in our cars today weren’t born that way.

That tech wasn’t necessarily designed specifically for use in mass-produced passenger cars. Instead, many technologies were initially designed for motorsports use. Only later was it adopted for the mainstream and put into production cars.

That’s right! Many of the same components designed to help race cars beat their competition on the track are now being used in the vehicles that we use to drive to college or work every day.

What are some of them? Well, let’s take a look. Here are some motorsports technologies that lead to innovations in passenger cars.

Disc Brakes

It used to be that passenger cars relied on drum brakes, a standard feature in most vehicles since the early 1900s (i.e. over a hundred years ago). Yet, if you look around today, almost all cars and other automobiles use disc brakes instead.

So, what happened?

Well, all of it started to change somewhere in the 1950s. Around that time, disc brakes were a newly-developed technology that was being used on the race track. It began at the LeMans Grand Prix in 1953 thanks to the Jaguar team, which developed the new brake technology.

Simply put, Jaguar won that race, and within a few years, that same technology found its way into the mass market.

First, disc brakes were mass-produced by Citroen. Fast forward to today, and disc brakes are such a standard feature that it’s hard to find a vehicle that doesn’t use them.

Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS)

Here’s another safety feature that’s so common these days that we take it for granted. Most, if not all, cars on the market these days have an anti-lock brake system or ABS, which keeps the vehicle from skidding when you hit the brakes really hard.

Alright, so the ABS has its roots in the aeroplane industry. But from there, it found its way to the racetrack first in 1961. Due to the benefits of the ABS, the technology spread far and wide.

Some countries even make the ABS a compulsory standard feature in all production cars, which the United States did back in 2011.

Paddle Shifters

Okay, so this one might not come as a surprise at all. Paddle shifters are a way for drivers to shift gears without having to move their hands away from the steering wheel. This tech was initially developed by Ferrari in 1989 for use on the race track. As anyone can probably guess, this gives the driver an advantage by saving time when shifting gears.

For us regular drivers, taking a second to move our hand away from the steering wheel to shift gears might not seem like such a big deal. But on the race track, every millisecond counts.

After its initial development and use by Ferrari in the late ’80s, paddle shifters became a standard feature in all F1 cars by the mid-90s. Today, many high-performance production cars also include this feature.

Push-Button Ignition

More and more vehicle makes and models have become push-to-start. They offer plenty of convenience to drivers by reducing the need to push and turn a key in the ignition. Now, for production cars, the obvious benefit here is convenience. A push-button ignition system makes car owner’s lives much more straightforward.

You can probably guess what we’re going to say next.

Firstly, yes, the push-button ignition system has its origins in race cars. Just by pushing the button, typically located next to the steering wheel, the car will start and the driver’s ready to race.

Here’s where it gets interesting: when it was initially developed, the push-button ignition was designed to save time. The idea here is that if the driver took the car into the pit stop and shut it off, they could start it back up in no time with just the push of a button.

On the race track, the technology was designed for speed and performance. In production cars, the main benefit is convenience. As you can see, both environments have very different priorities, even when using the same technology.

Improved Aerodynamics

Another transfer of technology from motorsports to passenger cars is a bit more obvious: improved aerodynamics.

Racecar engineers continually work to improve their team’s car performance by any means necessary. One method to reduce drag and increase traction is by working on the vehicle’s aerodynamics, i.e. its shape and how air flows around it.

Now, aerodynamics might not be one of the top priorities for engineers designing production cars. Still, you can see traces of the same shapes in today’s vehicles that originated on the race track.

A perfect example of this is the use of rear spoilers on production cars, either as a standard feature or as an aftermarket add-on. Where does that come from? You guessed it: from the race track.

Better Tyres

Last but not least, you also have tyres, the contact point between the vehicle and the road underneath.

Tyres need to be able to put up with harsh conditions, like Malaysia’s scorching roads and wet conditions when it rains. So, what would be the best way to develop and test tyre designs under the most challenging conditions imaginable? 

That’s right. On the race track!

Automotive tyre manufacturers are continually working to improve their tyres to give racing teams a split-second advantage. In doing so, they learn what works and what doesn’t. To maximise the benefit of those lessons, they also use them when designing tyres for use by the general public.

Final Thoughts

So, what does this mean for regular motorsports fans like you and me? Well, think of motorsports as a starting point for innovative production car technologies. When you see your favourite race team using some kind of new technology to gain the upper hand, pay close attention to it.

That new technology could become a standard feature in all passenger cars in the near future, just the same way as the disc brake and ABS have done in the past.