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When somebdy goes and buys a commuter car they usually aren't thinking about what it might have in common with a race car. Most people assume that the similarities end shortly after "they both have four wheels and a steering wheel," but they would be wrong.
Motorsport is as much a competition of engineers as it is one of drivers — Sebastien Vettel couldn't have just won his fourth consecutive F1 title if he hadn't been in those amazing Red Bull cars — and that means that tons of automotive developments happen in the pursuit of racing speed. Road car manufacturers know that these technologies can be adpated to give them an edge in the marketplace, and that's why we're telling you about 10 Awesome Technologies That Came From Racing.
Limited-Slip Differentials
In 1932, the Auto Union race car that Ferdinand Porsche designed was so powerful that it was spinning a rear wheel on slight corners at 100 mph, so Porsche comissioned ZF to create a differential that would route the proper amount of power to each rear wheel. The result was that the car could power out of corners much sooner than cars that didn't have the same capability.
Today, this is still one of the main differentiatiors between good sports cars and mediocre ones.
All-Wheel Drive
Yes, all-wheel drive did exist in road cars first, but we're arguing that they don't count since they were Victorian electric cars with less operating range than a toddler and less power than a shih tzu. The first car to really use AWD effectively was the 1903 Spyker 60 H.P., a hill climb car. Later the techn would spread to military vehicles, and then back to motorsport with the legendary Audi Quattro.
Disc Brakes
Drum brakes suck. Some cars still come with drums on the rear axle, but when we review those cars we complain about it. Luckily, F1 teams looking for an edge put disc brakes on their cars in 1955, and they quickly became common in performance cars, and eventually all cars.
Carbon Fiber Chassis
Carbon fibers have been around for a long time. Hell, Edison used carbon fibers as filaments in early light bulbs, but it wasn't until much more recently that the miraculously strong and lightweight substance started being formed into complex shapes. Rolls-Royce Aerospace is often credited with the first carbon fiber parts, but the manufacturing techniques cam a long way once we started making race cars out of it.
Now the carbon fiber chassis is just starting to trickle down to an attainable level with the Alfa Romeo 4C.
Paddle Shifters
Sequential manual transmissions are faster than regular manuals, and sequential manual transmissions operated by robots are faster than any human could ever hope to be. The Ferrari 640 in 1989 was the first race car to make extensive use of paddle shifters, and it managed a third place finish. By 1995 there weren't any manual transmissions left in F1.
Overhead Camshafts
Engines with overhead camshafts have fewer reciprocating parts and weigh less, despite often being more complicated than OHV pushrod systems. The first ever car with a Dual Overhead Camshaft engine (DOHC) was the 1912 Peugeot that won the French Grand Prix in the hands of Georges Boillot. Engine design has never been the same since.
KERS
KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is just starting to find its way into road cars like the McLaren P1, and it should certainly shake things up when it becomes more readily available. It's a sport-minded hybrid system that captures energy for later use aiding acceleration, rather than for increasing efficiency.
Anti-Lock Brakes
Anti-Lock Brakes are mandated by law in all new cars these days, and most young people have never driven a car without ABS, but the first fully mechanical ABS on a car was on the legendary Ferguson P99 F1 car in 1961. ABS had been used on airplanes previously, but it wasn't suited to cars until the P99.
Kammbacks
Why are so many hybrids that weird, not-quite-a-wagon shape? It's, oddly enough, because of a Ferrari that was best known as the "breadvan." This smooth shape that is abruptly terminated caused a significant reduction in drag, and as a result, the Ferrari 250 GT Drogo "Breadvan" was very fast, and the Toyota Prius is very efficient.
Rear View Mirrors
That's right, the first rear view mirror was on a 1911 Marmon Wasp at the Indy 500. The Marmon Wasp had a particularly well built motor and chassis, meaning that it did not require a mechanic to ride with the driver, which of course gave it a huge edge when it came to weight. However, when the engineers weren't keeping the engine from falling out they kept an eye out for the driver. Wasp driver Ray Harroun mounted a mirror to his car so that he could see behind himself, and probably averted more accidents than any other person because of it.