Month of May - Indy 500 Innovations

In this year’s “Month of May” series, on each day leading up to the Indianapolis 500 on May 26, a different topic about the race or about Indianapolis will be discussed. Each of these topics will be ranked to create special “fields of 33” regarding the Indy 500. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you learn something about Indianapolis and the Indy 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

One of the great things about open-wheel racing and IndyCar in particular is the ability of innovation. Over the years, IndyCar and the Indy 500 have come up with vast arrays of automobile innovation that have revolutionized not only the racing world, but the auto industry as a whole. Some auto technology first seen in a race car at Indianapolis now appear regularly in typical street cars across the world. Today, we look at those automobile revolutions in our Field of 33 Indy 500 Innovations.

Row 11

33. The Pace Car was Carl G. Fisher’s idea when trying to find a safe way for over 40 cars to race on the same track at once. He created and drove the first ever pace car to start the inaugural 1911 Indy 500.

32. The Rolling Start also got its start in the 1911 race. Fisher brought the field to the green flag with the pace car, drove out of the way, and the race was on. Up until that point, all races began with a standing start.

31. Racesafe Fuel Cells are standard on the new DW 12 Dallara chassis. Too often, cars would pull away from the pits with the fuel hose still attached. Modern technology fixed this issue with the new fuel cells. When the probe is engaged in the fuel cell, the car cannot shift out of neutral. Only once the probe is removed can cars take off again.

Row 10 – Tire Technology

30. Wheel Width has varied over the years. At first, tires were barely the width of your foot. In 1925, Firestone introduced the balloon tire, which had a much wider tread and allowed for greater traction. The wider tire allowed for lower tire pressure, and thus a “softer” tire which gave more control. Soon after, these wider tires with a smooth and soft feel ended up on consumer automobiles.

29. Tire Hardness in general has been an issue since the first Indy 500. Ray Harroun asked Firestone how fast he could go and complete all 500 miles on one set of tires while not risking a blowout. He was told 75 mph. His average speed was 74.602 mph. Not too bad! Since then, finding the right balance between softness for grip and hardness for durability has been a staple for tire manufacturers not only on the race track but on the public roads as well.

28. Tire Cords originally were made from a fabric like cotton. They were soft, had weak sidewalls, and would cause blowouts from the high internal friction they would generate. Twisted thread was used by the end of the 1910s as they provided much less internal friction. As the racing tires changed, so too did consumer tires.

Row 9

27. Paddle Shifting has existed in IndyCar since 2007. This semi-automatic transmission allows drivers the ability to shift gears manually but without the need of a clutch. Now you see street cars beginning to have paddle shifters for easy gear shifting while still giving you the feel of a manual transmission.

26. Crash Data Recorders came to the Brickyard in 1993. After so many terrible crashes over the years, IndyCar decided to put recorders in the cars to measure the effects of a car hitting the wall. Those technologies have led to further innovations in racing safety (HANS Device, PEDS and SAFER Barriers, even better seatbelts).

25. Front-Wheel Drive first appeared thanks to Jimmy Murphy’s idea in the 1920s. He thought it’d be better to be pulled through the corners instead of pushed. Using front-wheel drive lowered the center of gravity and reduced the weight of the car, allowing for higher speeds. Murphy died before he could drive the car, but after the car’s second place finish in 1925, many teams and automakers began designing front-wheel drive cars.

Row 8

24. Elevated Curves didn’t exist before Indianapolis. All roadways were meant for horse traffic mainly. After the Indianapolis Motor Speedway built its corners to average banking of 9 degrees 12 minutes to accommodate higher speeds, highway engineers followed suit with their own banking and guidelines of turns to encourage consistent, higher speeds (then, 35 mph).

23. All-Wheel Drive cars came and went multiple times at Indy, first in 1934 and as recent as 1963 with Bobby Unser driving. While they never showed success on the racetrack, 4WD cars are the mainstay on American roads today.

22. Hydraulic Brakes got their start at Indy in the 1920s, a golden decade for innovation at the Speedway. Hydraulics provided a faster and stronger reaction when needed to slow or stop the car.

Row 7

21. Colored Warning Lights were introduced to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1935. IMS was the first track ever to install safety lights. Now they are a requirement at every facility worldwide.

20. PEDS Barrier (Polyethylene Energy Dissipating System) was installed inside the exit of turn 4 before the 1998 Indy 500. It consisted of five-foot-long impact plates made from polyethylene. It wasn’t a perfect wall for reducing impact energy, but it was the groundbreaker needed for big innovation in barrier technology on and off the track.

19. Alloy Wheels were the idea of racer/engineer Ted Halibrand. During WWII, Halibrand worked with Douglas Aircraft and brought what he learned to the race track. His magnesium-alloy wheels were used by every 500 winner from 1946 to 1963. Low-profile style rims on some of today’s sports cars can be traced back to Halibrand’s original wheel designs.

Row 6

18. Disc Brakes were invented on the race car in the late 1930s. The cars weren’t exactly “fast” during those years, but they could practically stop on a dime. Other teams began using their own disc brakes, modeling after race engineering genius Harry Miller, and by 1948 the consumer market began showing cars with disc brakes.

17. Roadways were typically stone-and-tar paving at best prior in the early 1900s. Horse and foot travel were the mainstay, not automobile, and certainly not traveling at speeds anywhere over 20 mph. When cars were to travel in excess of 70 or 80 mph on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, things got out of hand. They first used a steamrolled clay compound to pave the surface so as to attain to higher speeds. It didn’t work, as ruts developed and many cars flipped and rolled over, fatalities resulted (one driver, two mechanics, two spectators). Something new was needed. Carl Fisher decided to pave the road with bricks, 3.2 million of them to be precise. The “Brickyard” was born. Back then, there was a total of 9 miles of American roads paved with concrete. Today, it is nearly 3 million miles.

16. Electric components on IndyCars show that their racing is not in the Stone Age (cough NASCAR cough). One of the biggest electrical advancements of the IndyCar (and initiated by F1) is the Push-to-Pass system. Kinetic energy is harnessed under braking and stored in a battery. At the push of a button, this stored energy is used to increase horsepower and thus speed. Think of it as a mushroom from your Mario Kart days. Talks continue that this stored energy will be used for pit lane speed limiters in the near future. Now you see more electric cars on the public roads. No P2P out there on the streets, but that would be kind of fun right?

Row 5

15. Turbochargers were a variation of the supercharger, except that they were powered by exhaust gases instead of a crankshaft. It made its debut in 1952 and was wicked fast. In fact, the turbocharger was too powerful as it began to suck up debris from worn tires and ended up clogging and overheating the engine.

14. Superchargers came to Indy in 1923 Mercedes cars. The idea is simple – pump air into an engine’s intake to boost power. Duesenberg won the following year with a supercharged machine. After that, all teams used supercharged engines and soon they became street-worthy as well.

13. Diesel Engines were known for strength and longevity, not speed. However, Duesenberg took a chance by putting one in the field. It went the entire 500 miles without making a single pit stop in 1931. In 1952 a turbocharged diesel won the pole position. The turbodiesel was born that day, but wouldn’t be seen on the road until 1978 (thanks to Mercedes and Peugeot).

Row 4 – Aerodynamics

12. Fuel Save Mode goes along with aerodynamics in that a better a car’s aero, the less fuel it will used. Along with that, drivers began to “trim” their cars’ engines by adjusting the mixture of fuel to air that would go into the engine. This “economy mode” has been modified and put on many street cars as well, except your car does it automatically and you likely don’t even know about it!

11. Air Intake into the engine and radiator is big for car performance. It can also create a lot of drag. The 1970 Chaparral car made huge strides in this air intake to improve aerodynamic performance. Now you see cars on the public roads that are traveling over 50 mph have an automatic flap on the front of the car that closes to improve aerodynamics. Cooling air is not needed at those higher speeds, so aerodynamic improvement is desired to save fuel.  

10. Ground Effects are a key part of aerodynamic performance and also gripping a car to the ground. The more mechanical grip, the more control a driver has of the car. This also has led to more wind tunnel development and aerodynamic improvement of passenger cars as a result.

Row 3 – More Aerodynamics

9. The Front Wing became the common practice for IndyCar and the Indy 500 in the early 1970s. Racing engineers took ideas from aviation and essentially created a flipped airfoil for their cars. The front wing created much less aerodynamic drag and helped trim fuel consumption as a result. While front wings have not become the common practice in passenger cars, the shaping of the front grill of passenger automobiles has become more aerodynamically sound.

8. Tail Fins are as old as the Indy 500 itself when Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp went to Victory Lane in the inaugural race. The Wasp was named as such due to the tail wing that extended down to a point, just like a stinger on a wasp. This was the beginning of the tail fin in modern racing, as well as the future of rear spoilers and wings on your street cars.  

7. The Gurney Flap is a thin bracket attached to the back edge of the rear wing. Dan Gurney first added this flap to his car in 1971 and found his invention to dramatically increase the car’s traction, and as a result, its speed. The Gurney Flap is found on numerous automobiles across the world today. Though most people think that lip by the trunk is just for style, it actually serves great aerodynamic purposes.

Row 2

6. Power Steering did not exist in the early years of racing, thus why the cars had steering wheels larger than the tires in some cases. To improve maneuverability, power steering became the mainstay for teams as cars got lighter. Power steering now exists in every car developed across the world.

5. Methanol became the fuel of choice after the terrible Sachs-MacDonald crash in 1964. Gasoline was much to blame for the huge fiery explosion that occurred in that wreck. From there on, alcohol-based fuels became the mainstay at the Speedway, and racing and driving as a whole became much safer.

4. Ethanol took over in IndyCar around 2007 when cars began using a mixture of E85 ethanol and methanol. The following year, cars used a 100% ethanol fuel. The naturally-occurring fuel made from corn can be purchased at gas stations across the country now as consumers try to be more green in their lives.

Row 1

3. Seatbelts started in Indianapolis in Barney Oldfield’s 1922 machine. He made a harness for his car that was developed by a parachute maker. Seatbelts were not a requirement back then, not on the race track or on the public roads. By the mid-1960s, seat belts in the front seat became a requirement in the United States.

2. The SAFER Barrier is found at every major oval racetrack in the USA. It made its debut in the four turns of Indianapolis. The Steel And Foam Energy Reduction Barrier consists of steel tubes welded together and attached to the existing concrete wall. Behind the tubes are layers of foam. The steel and foam are used to absorb energy from the car crashing into the wall, and the connecting tubes allow that energy to be dissipated over a wider distance along the wall. As a result, cars are more likely to “stick” to the wall instead of bouncing back into traffic. Thanks to IndyCar and the Indy 500, this safe wall innovation is now the norm in tracks all around the country. And they thank NASCAR…

1. The Rear-View Mirror is as common as the automobile itself. Yet you have to thank the Indy 500 for its existence on your car today. In the inaugural 1911 race, all cars had a driver and a riding mechanic on board. One car did not: Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp. Other drivers were concerned that, without the extra set of eyes on board, Harroun wouldn’t be able to see all of the drivers around him. Whether this is true or if they just knew he would have 200 less pounds of weight on board is unclear, but it was a legitimate fear to have. To expunge this fear, he installed a mirror on the cowl on four steel dowels.  He won the race and the “mirrorscope” / “cop=spotter” was seen on all cars by about 1920. Ironically, the original “cop-spotter” was a complete bust. Harroun admitted later that, while driving on the bricks, the car and mirror vibrated so much that he could not see a thing out of it. So while the original product failed, its creation at the Greatest Spectacle in Racing made it become something we all take for granted on our cars today.

The Field of 33 – Indy 500 Innovations

Row 1	1. Rear-View Mirror	2. SAFER Barrier	3. Seatbelts
Row 2	4. Ethanol	5. Methanol	6. Power Steering
Row 3	7. Gurney Flap	8. Tail Fin	9. Front Wing
Row 4	10. Ground Effects	11. Air Intake	12. Fuel Save Mode
Row 5	13. Diesel Engine	14. Superchargers	15. Turbochargers
Row 6	16. Electric	17. Roadways	18. Disc Brakes
Row 7	19. Alloy Wheels	20. PEDS Barrier	21. Colored Warning Lights
Row 8	22. Hydraulic Brakes	23. All-Wheel Drive	24. Elevated Curves
Row 9	25. Front-Wheel Drive	26. Crash Data Recorders	27. Paddle Shifting
Row 10	28. Tire Cords	29. Tire Hardness	30. Wheel Width
Row 11	31. Racesafe Fuel Cells	32. Rolling Start	33. Pace Car