How to Ship an F1 Car Across the Globe in 36 Hours

Re:How to Ship an F1 Car Across the Globe in 36 Hours by AmVess on Saturday November 22, 2014 @07:31PM (#8647267)

Engineering trickle down from F1 doesn't happen anymore. It does if you buy a McLaren or Ferrari road car, but there's practically zilch for anything else that's both common and affordable. The closest thing you will get to F1 tech in a cheap road car is the $54k Alfa Romeo 4C with its CF tub.

Hybrid power systems existed on the road before being adopted by F1. Things like ABS, traction control, and stability management did appear on F1 cars before road cars, but that's largely concurrent development, not a trickle-down. And besides, F1 cars today are no longer allowed to have any driver aids; no ABS, no traction control, no stability management.

Things like carbon brakes existed in aerospace before F1, so nix on that, too.

Gearboxes that shift in the blink in an eye may have come from F1, but the technology between them is radically different.

If you want actual racing (but not F1) technology that made it into a road car, go buy a Subaru WRX or a Porsche. Or an Audi. Or a Corvette.

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Re:How to Ship an F1 Car Across the Globe in 36 Hours by thaumasiotes on Saturday November 22, 2014 @11:37PM (#8647822)

> Things like carbon brakes existed in aerospace before F1, so nix on that, too.

I know absolutely nothing of the history involved here, but the argument seems wrong to me. Even if the technology exists in an entirely different kind of vehicle, if it works its way through expensive luxury cars before ending up in consumer-grade ones then I think it's fair to give the luxury cars some credit for progress in car engineering. Adapting an existing technology to a completely new environment doesn't just happen, it takes effort.

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