The Impact of Motorsport on Road Car Development

With fuel prices increasing at an exponential rate, it is unsurprising that an increasing number of drivers are looking towards the ‘green’ car market for help. A recent survey that was conducted by MoneySupermarket.com revealed that 65% of motorists will consider purchasing a more fuel efficient vehicle the next time they are on the look out for a new car.

Car manufacturers have come up with a number of different green options, ranging from fuel efficient diesel cars to fully fledged battery powered vehicles. However, despite the obvious desire of motorists for a fuel friendly option, no manufacturer has yet produced a vehicle which appeals to the masses. This is either due to their models only offering marginal fuel savings or due to disproportionately high prices which negate the running cost savings post purchase.

Motorsport has a reputation for being the test ground for innovative new solutions from road car manufacturers, with Formula One in particular having previously been the testing ground for innovations such as traction control, ABS, semi-automatic paddle shaft gear systems and more recently the hybrid KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) solution. However, with the sports major players not gaining a significant performance advantage through the utilisation of KERS, the focus on developing the technology has largely gone on the back burner. This decision has gone against Formula One, with many car manufacturers pledging financial support to other motorsport categories instead.

Le Mans

The Le Mans 24 hours race was first held in 1923 and the fierce competition between the French, British and Italian teams soon saw a number of technological innovations track tested, many of which were later utilised by car manufacturers on their road car offerings.

However, the sport lost its mantle in this area during the 1950s when Formula One came onto the scene. The shorter races, and various glamorous locations visited helped to attract the rich and famous to the sport and ultimate brought in money which would help in the development of new designs and technology.

The state of play remained until fuel efficiency became an area of major focus for car manufacturers at the start of the new millennium. The endurance nature of the 24 hour race meant that good fuel efficiency was a key ingredient in success. Major manufacturers Peugeot and Audi took advantage of this by racing with diesel fuelled turbo motors.

It is a common belief in the motoring community that fuel efficient turbo charged diesel engines will become common place in the coming year due to their fuel efficient nature. Indeed, Renault estimates that 75% of the road cars they produce will feature turbo diesel engines by 2015. It is not just Audi and Peugeot who have been enticed to Le Man by this, with recent F1 abandoners Toyota rumoured to be considering an entry with a hybrid diesel vehicle.

With these major manufacturers pledging millions of pounds of investment to these categories, it would be logical to assume that they will utilise the technological advances they make on the race track to gain a competitive advantage on the road car market.

EV Cup

It is just established categories that are taking the opportunity to take money away from F1, with a new series called the EV (electric vehicle) Cup having recently been established.

This is not a series to be ignored, with a deal already in place for brand development with Creative Artists Agency who are associated with major sporting figures such as Jack Nicklaus, the New York Yankees and former Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon. Additionally, former F1 champion Damon Hill has pledged his support of the series.

The series has thus far only taken tentative steps, but the plan for the future is to introduce a “prototype EV’ division where manufacturers will be given “free reign in terms of the design direction that they take”, which is currently one of the attractions of Le Mans to car manufacturers.

Nissan’s fully electric Leaf model which was launched in 2010 is the first mass produced fully electric vehicle to be launched by a major manufacturer. However, despite it winning the coveted European car of the year competition, adoption has been slow. This is mainly down to two factors; the limited range of the vehicle (100 miles between charges) and the time it takes to recharge (30 minutes to recoup 80% power with the quick recharge function). This hasn’t been helped by the currently limited recharging infrastructure within the UK.

Participation in the EV Cup would therefore be an ideal place for a company such as Nissan to develop their electric motors and battery energy harnessing techniques. This would ultimately improve the range and performance of their electric road car offerings; making electric vehicle adoption a more attractive proposition to a greater number of motorists.

Future directions

Motorsport undoubtedly has a major part to play in the development of future ‘green’ road car technologies. Formula One has been reluctant to facilitate this, possibly as a result of it famously being oblivious to goings on outside of its own bubble. However, the loss of four major manufacturers in five years (Ford, Honda, Toyota and BMW) served as a major make up call for the sport which realised that it had to act if it was to be an attractive proposition for major car companies and hence remain the pinnacle of motorsport.

This has led to the drawing up of new regulations for 2014 which will see engines changed from the current high revving V8’s to smaller V6 turbo charged motors which are more in line with the developing trend in the road car market which has proven to make Le Mans so popular with manufacturers. On top of this, the energy capacity of the KERS units will be doubled from 60kw to 120kw. This will see teams put much more effort into the development of the systems as a result of them having a greater bearing on overall performance.

The lack of recharging stations in the UK means that it may actually be a bit early for the EV cup to prove a major attraction to manufacturers. Additionally, part of the attraction of motorsport to fans is the spectacle, with Bernie Ecclestone having recently torpedoed plans to introduced 1.6 litre engines into F1 due to his belief that it would put off fans.

The spectacle is also the reason why Le Mans was superseded by F1 in 1950, with a race lasting a maximum of two hours being a far more attractive proposition to a greater number of viewers. It would therefore be unwise to write F1 off altogether, as car manufacturers will likely be enticed to return to the category by the 2014 regulations. At least these other categories have served to help F1 bosses remember that the nature of F1 is to encourage road car developments; something it is now doing by allowing the development of turbo motors and energy recovery systems in its category.

Expect to see these systems influencing your road cars in the very near future.