Racing Season Heralds New Trends for Passenger Cars
After a week of near perfect weather, frigid temperatures returned over the weekend; however, I was not too broken up about since it gave me an excuse to stay inside most of the weekend and enjoy some of the great auto racing that was going on. I was going through withdrawals after the end of the Dakar rally back in January until the start of the WRC season—already in full swing with four events down. This weekend marked not only the start of the Formula 1 season but also the start of the American Len Mans Series with the 12 hours of Sebring.
This year’s edition of the legendary endurance race, which is the oldest motor sport event in North America, featured groundbreaking technologies that will surely impact, not only road racing, but also passenger cars. This year’s event featured a new Ethanol based fuel. Additionally, the Audi R10 diesel race cars featured prominently—as they did last year—capturing first place overall.
Advancements in racing Diesel technology, not only in off-road racing with Volkswagen’s successful cross-country rally program, but also on prototype circuit racing are a sign of things to come. Off-road and overland travelers look forward to reliable, economical and powerful engines in future light trucks and passenger cars that rely on alternative fuels like bio-diesel, Ethanol and even hydrogen. After all, if diesels and engines running Ethanol-based gasoline can withstand 12 hours of racing at insane speeds, they should be able to handle a few trips around the world at normal speeds.
The fact is that computer aided design and modeling, among other technologies, are making engines—even those in the family minivan—a lot more reliable. One no longer needs to wait to build a super-modified overland vehicle for most trips as the average passenger car or truck has the power and reliability to drive around world. This was evidenced as legendary Swedish long-distance driver Christer Gerlach drove 24,000 Km around the world through Siberia in a Kia Sorento—a low-end compact SUV. Gerlach had previously driven 45,000 Km around the world in a Volvo V70XC.
Eco-friendliness seems to be the theme for this season of auto-racing. Even Honda F1 cars are featuring an eco-theme paint scheme despite the obvious lack of any environmentally friendly features on the car itself. Perhaps in the near future we will see a diesel or hydrogen-based F1 car. BMW already has a record-breaking Hydrogen Racer. Whatever the future of transportation looks like, we are bound to see it first in the race track. It is going to be an interesting summer!
