First off, Jestal...
I never said anything about electronic gauges or dashes being in racing first... However, the first use of electronic data acquisition and logging I am aware of was used by Ford Motor Company back in 1965-66 for their Le Mans racing program developing the Ford GT40 Mk. II and later the Mk. IV. That's a bit before 1981.
Now certainly numerous advances were outlawed from certain race classes along the way (like moveable aerodynamic devices like Jim Hall's wings and fans and Colin Champman's sliding skirts and Brabham's fan), but still quite a bit got started in racing, nonetheless, and GM didn't invent everything automotive.
On reflection I did realize that I was wrong about electronic fuel injection as that was first developed by the Bendix Corporation for use on the 1958 DeSoto Adventurer. It was also arguably the first production throttle-body fuel injection system. The patents on this system were later sold to Bosch. But electronic fuel injection systems where in use on Porsche sports racing cars quite early, and they were developed by Bosch.
It was you that made the statement:
Kind of playing the devils advocate here....but.....anyone care to put forth an idea of a technical "innovation" from racing that made it to a passenger car? Besides the rear veiw mirror from 1903.... Just don't happen.
Nothing in that statement said anything about anything being "invented" in racing... Just an "innovation" that appeared in racing first, prior to passenger cars. If racers borrowed ideas from aircraft and aerospace development before the passenger car industry caught on, that's still racing be more innovative, right. Otherwise you entire premise falls apart, because then everything that makes up a production car was done somewhere else first.
Sure, monocoque construction was developed in airplanes first (but was it? Maybe not...), but it was then adopted by racers next, only obtaining widespread use in production cars quite some time later...
You mention composite materials being used in aircraft first, and of course they were... Fiberglass is a composite material, and it was used in aircraft long ago, and finally did appear on production cars (like your vaunted GM's Corvette), but it was on race cars long before production cars. Maybe you were trying to restrict your view of composites to more recent developments with carbon fiber and other fiber-based reinforced resin materials... Still, certainly developed in aircraft first, but then on race cars next... And if you are contending that carbon-fiber construction hasn't ever made it to production cars then perphaps you never heard of the Ferrari F-40, F-50, Enzo, etc... Or the McLaren F-1 street car... Or the current Porsche Carrera V-10... Or even one of dozens of other cars that use carbon-fiber composites in their construction. Hell, I have a Subaru out on my lot that has carbon-fiber bits on it!
First traction control systems were developed by Renault, and first put to use on some various race car projects they were involved in, subsequently to be outlawed in every class they ever stepped into damn near (still legal in MotoGP, though...)
Honda and variable valve timing... Well, first of all Honda was not the first to develop variable valve timing. Not by a long shot. Do you know who did develop the first workable variable valve timing system? (Hint - the first system proposed was right here in the USA, but the first one that worked was in Europe...). Honda's first application of their VTEC system used on an endurance road racer at Bol d'Or back in 1979, and then first appeared on Japanese domestic market 400cc inline four sportbike years later.
I won't even touch on the oval piston racers Honda developed prior to them producing a street version with oval pistons called an NR-750.
Nothing was invented in the IRL... And General Motors didn't develop the IRL they called an "Aurora", and certainly Olds had nothing to do with it. That engine was developed by TWR in England, and hell, I still have three of 'em! Some of the development engineers are still good friends. And it's electronics had nothing whatever to do with tire pressure monitoring systems... Those were developed a long, long time ago, and if memory serves me correctly, were first used by Peugeot in their Le Mans racers in the late 1980's.
Aero devices used for different purposes on street and race cars? Perhaps, if you mean that most race cars primarily try to use aero devices to produce downforce... But still, there are quite a lot of street cars that use aerodynamic devices to produce downforce, too. GM doesn't make any I don't think, but Bugatti, Ferrari, Porsche, etc. do... However, much of the shape of today's cars stems from ideas first pioneered in racing to reduce drag. You do remember Dr. Kamm, don't you?
Sure, disc brakes were on airplanes long before race cars... But they were on race cars long, long before production cars. Certainly production car engineers didn't wear blinders when they were around airplanes, did they?
Run flat tire inner liners led to the development of the sidewall and carcass construction that gives us our run flat capable tires today, and you know that. If not I have a number for you to call at Goodyear where you can talk to an old friend of mine about it.
And I never said a damn thing about CAD/CAM production, finite element analysis, rapid prototyping, or any computer modeling being developed in racing... Not one thing. Of course those technologies were developed elsewhere first, but it wasn't in the automotive industry. You can think aerospace for those if you want me to let you in on that little tidbit.
Seat belts? Well, the first auto racing sanctioning body to require them was the SCCA in 1954. The Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo was the first to make them a prodcution standard in 1956. Only then, that same year, did US auto manufacturers offer them (and Ford and Chrysler both did before the mighty GM did, oddly enough) as an option the same year. Seat belts were not required by law in the US until 1968. Actually, the very first seat belts were leather, and used horse-drawn carriages in the late 1800's. They were first used in a race car in 1922. In fact, the first commercial aircraft to have them was in 1926...
I could go on, but suffice to say, GM did not invent everything automotive, and racing had plenty of innovation that ended up on production cars. I won't even mention all the examples of my previous list you simply chose to skip completely.
Dallara
