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| From race cars to street cars |
November 8, 2007 |
Auto technology you see on the racetrack is coming to your driveway
By Michael Bettencourt
 “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” is the mantra that has led the majority of automakers to direct large sums of money to competitive racing. These investments range from supplying discounted parts to backyard racers all the way up to the McLaren-Mercedes team’s reported US$400 million budget for the last Formula One season.
To deliver on the “sell on Monday” part of that mantra, car manufacturers get a brand boost from their race participation but, just as importantly, racing serves as an R&D lab for technology that ends up gracing suburban driveways. This is especially true with high-end limited-edition performance machines whose production costs can more easily be offset by the high markups of six-figure sports cars. These are the Apple iPhones of the automotive world: sleek, powerful, innovative, pricey and very desirable.
Carbon fibre: strong, expensive
Mercedes-Benz has perhaps the closest real-world association with the track and the glamourous world of F1. Partners with the powerhouse McLaren race team, the German company has also formed a joint development partnership for road cars with McLaren Automotive, the British race team’s street-car division. It was this division that created the three-seat McLaren F1 supercar, a legendary vehicle that came out in 1994 and was noted as the world’s fastest production car and for its million dollar price tag. Even today, the McLaren F1 still impresses, with the best power-to-weight ratio of any modern car.
Once Mercedes-Benz joined McLaren on the track in the mid ’90s, work began on the current flagship of the Mercedes-Benz lineup: the SLR McLaren.
Unlike the F1, the SLR was to showcase both top-flight performance and luxury, as befitting Mercedes-Benz. The joint development venture gave the car a dual personality: its carbon-fibre reinforced body and road manners came from McLaren, a project spearheaded by famed F1 engineer Gordon Murray, while its underlying structural backbone and interior came from Mercedes- Benz, as led by Mercedes-Benz’s SLR project manager Michael Sheer.
“I looked after the comfort and safety side and Gordon did the high-performance side,” Sheer said, speaking outside Frankfurt at the international press launch of the SLR Roadster, the latest iteration of the high-performance car.
So the McLaren/Murray connection gives the 2008 SLR and its new convertible stable mate some serious performance credentials, with 626 hp supercharged 5.4-litre V8 engines and carbon-fibre bodies. Top speed, Sheer said, is 322km/h, only two clicks less than the SLR Coupe. “And it’ll do that speed with the top down.”
The car’s carbon-fibre structure is a light material that delivers potential fuel economy advantages, and it is also extremely strong, which helps in both crash protection and overall comfort.
The big knock against carbon fibre is it’s extremely expensive: the SLR starts at US$450,000 for the coupe and a whopping US$495,000 for the Roadster.
 Race genes drive Audi R8
German luxury car maker Audi doesn’t compete in Formula One but has decided to throw significant dollars at Le Mans, the famous race in France, and the sports car racing series named after it, the American Le Mans Series. Audi Sport North America driver Dindo Capello set a record this summer for the fastest lap ever at Mosport International Raceway, clocking in at 67.169 seconds in his Audi R10 diesel race car.
The R10 is an evolution of Audi’s previous R8 race car, which itself broke many records and dominated the American Le Mans Series. So it’s no surprise Audi would want to link the two cars with something customers could buy, and it has done so with the release of its most expensive product ever, the Audi R8. Price tag: approximately US$150,000.
Besides the identical name, the team suggests the“genes” of the racer have made it onto Audi showroom floors with the R8. “There are 90 years of race history behind the Audi brand,” said Audi Canada product planning manager Karsten Ruwoldt. Audi Sport has spent big bucks researching the use of race technology in its street cars, first with its FSI direct injection system and recently with diesel technology in its current R10 diesel race machines. Audi plans to sell a version of its Q7 SUV with a massive diesel V12 engine in Europe, with at least one Audi insider suggesting the vehicle could make it to North America as well.
Just don’t ask Audi Sport North America driver Allan McNish how R8 racer lap times would compare to a mid-engine exotic car named after it.
“It’s like comparing apples to pears,” McNish said. “It’s a completely different animal from the R8 racer, so it wouldn’t even be interesting.” McNish and driving partner Dindo Capello from Italy did not work on the development of the R8 road car, but they drove it in press preview events. “We weren’t directly involved,” McNish said, “but the technology (from the race cars) makes it down to the road car very quickly.”
The Italian Capello, who owns Audi dealerships in Europe and races for the brand, said Audi’s FSI direct injection technology was quickly ported to Audi’s lineup, and durability and fuel-economy lessons learned during 24-hour races will also help future diesel models. McNish said the American Le Mans Series is a better real-world proving ground than is F1. “In terms of technology, we’re ahead of F1 because there’s such a limit on the technology in that series. We couldn’t do diesel in F1.”
What US$330 million buys
Ferrari has about 330 million reasons to disagree with that assessment. Business F1 magazine estimated the company sank US$330 million into its 2006 race budget last year. The famed Italian firm has always fostered a close marketing connection between its road cars and its racing activities, such as with the recently released Ferrari F430 Scuderia edition. The Scuderia follows the tradition of the Stradale line—cars intended for the Ferrari Challenge club racing series of barely modified road cars. Ferrari’s formula for its performance street machines is simple: make it lighter by about 100 kg and more powerful by 510 hp.
Still, these Ferraris do incorporate Formula One-derived clutchless manual paddle shifting, as does the R8, but it’s quickened in the Scuderia version to a scant 60 milliseconds. The car was unveiled by former Ferrari champion and current spokesperson Michael Schumacher at the Frankfurt auto show in September.
No price has yet been set but, as with the other two cars, when you’re talking the technological pinnacle of road-going supercars—if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
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