Win On Sunday ... Sell On Monday?
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 3, 1996
With touring heroes
virtually on the Mt Panorama grid, Peter McKay ponders whether motor sport is a true
test-bed of technology -
or just an excuse for
high-velocity hype.
Is the race car a high-speed laboratory, feeding boffins with important data for future road-going models for the benefit of you and me? Or is it a billboard upon which flashy marketing men build a case based on hot air and burnt rubber?
Sunday's AMP Bathurst 1000 is hardly likely to provide fodder for the car designers of the future. Certainly it will see Australia's two biggest-selling cars going head to head. At stake is reputation and image and therefore sales and, ultimately, revenue.
Australia's two-make touring car category was devised a few years ago to capitalise on the popularity of the two participants, and the almost unhealthy obsession among fans for old-fashioned V8 engines. When the category was introduced, a covert decison was taken that the premier branch of Oz motor sport would ditch technology in favour of show biz.
Dinosaurs they may be, and 100 per cent Australian they are not, these rampaging V8s. But what Australians are seeing and getting is a skilled marketing exercise, to wit, Ford and Holden selling plenty of road cars as a direct result of track successes. Holden Special Vehicles boss John Crennan can show how sales go berserk after a Holden Racing Team Commodore wins.
Howard Marsden is an urbane English-man who ran the Ford Falcon GTHOs at Bathurst in the 1970s, then masterminded Nissan's rally and sports car programs in the 1980s, and who is now developing enhanced models for Tickford, Ford's special vehicles partner. He believes there are tangible benefits to manufacturers from many forms of motor racing. Even the Aussie V8 tourers.
According to Marsden, much of the bold development work flowing into improving motor vehicles is coming from component suppliers. He specifically praises the efforts of tyre makers.
"Tyres deserve more kudos," he says. "The progress in tyre design has had the effect of flattering the ride and handling efforts of some car manufacturers, and many of the advancements made in tyres come directly from racing, and a lot of their development comes from competing in motor sport. This is where the man in the street gains."
Marsden also contends that motor sport has been responsible for stimulating several generations of young engineers in car companies around the globe.
"If a manufacturer has a motor sport program, engineers will be pulled away from the mainstream vehicle program into the motor sporting push.
"An engineer who may be working on the design of a windscreen wiper will certainly be more stimulated if he suddenly finds himself developing a Le Mans race car or even helping solve a problem with a Holden Racing Team Commodore."
Working on a motor racing project produces a group of engineers who, when they return to their regular jobs, are far more adaptable, far more stimulated and, ultimately, far more effective, Marsden says.
"The best example is Honda," he says. "This is a company which has a long history of motor racing involvement. I met Nobuhiko Kawamoto in the 1960s when he was a mechanic in Formula One. Now this man runs the Honda company. He's not just an engineer but someone with an international outlook and understanding of what is needed to be competitive corporately."
Despite the greater involvement of computers and machines in the engineering and design of motor cars, he insists the human factor is vital.
Motor sport can proudly claim many of the technical gains in road cars - disc brakes among them. They were lifted from the aircraft industry, Dunlop adapting a design for Jaguar in the 1950s. An immediate success, discs went immediately into the Jaguar road cars.
A more recent example of improving the breed is the knowledge of airflow over and under the motor car, a motor racing black art which has determinedly evolved into a serious science.
Marsden recalls the very first aerofoil wing was a strange affair strapped over the roof of a Porsche. "It looked very much like a large carrying handle on a squashed Volkswagen," he says.
Racing provides important cutting-edge data to aerodynamicists and brake engineers. The slippery shapes created by aerodynamics can have a startling effect on a car's high-speed handling, cornering grip, top speed, fuel efficiency, tyre wear and even its braking. Such influences do translate to road vehicles.
Formula One's steering wheel-mounted fingertip paddles and semi-automatic gearboxes are starting to appear in road cars - admittedly high-priced Porsches and Ferraris but, in time, bread-and-butter cars will inherit such features.
Endurance races such as the Bathurst 12 Hour for showroom-stock models have provided important feedback for manufacturers, who in some instances have made running improvements to their production vehicles.
These races also serve as a consumer aid, confirming durability, or dragging out problems which may not readily manifest themselves driving around the 'burbs.
Not even Porsche gets it right every time. Two race drivers have reported instances in Australian racing of the 911 RSCS brake pedal "going hard". This car has an antilock system which may, in some circumstances, get confused. You can bet your last deutschmark that an engineering team in Weissach is already working on the problem.
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald
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