Great Falls tribune., 1922-02-26
Barney 0ld66ad1 fed says:
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM
AUTOMOBILE RACING
1929. bY King Feature Service

AUTOMOBILE RACING
Copyright. 1922 by King Feature Service
In its respect to the relative bene-
fits derived. automobile racing is some
what similar to horse racing. Horse
racing makes it possible for us to breed
better horses; automobile racing has
taught us certain things which enable
us to build better automobiles com
mercially. Racing has taught us more
than most people might imagine; it
virtually has made the modern car pos
sible.
The cord tire as now used may trace
it's development to racing. 1t was first
used on racing cars and made for them,
because of the inability Of the fabric
tire to stand up for any distance at
high speed. Wire wheels, though first
used on other vehicles, had their full
advantages demonstrated in racing.
While they were first adopted by racing
car drivers because a wheel could be
changed quickly, it was learned that
their heat transmitting powers and
their "resiliency'' made tires last long
er. After racing cars showed us what
wire wheels could do, they were used
more generally on passenger cars.
The next greatest development that
has come from racing is the modern
piston. We learned how to make light
of light weight piston construction.
Aluminium pistons first made their ap-
pearance in racing cars and also alum
mum and hollow steel connecting rods.
Balance Another Feature
Balance is all important to any en-
gine. because an improperly balanced
engine vibrated too much and the VI
bratiOn consumes power. This is an
other leaf from the racing book applied
to general production ears. In our
present passenger cars we have heavy
crankshafts, exceedingly well balanced
statically and dynamically. SO as to
push the engine speed range higher.
Virtually all racing car engines are
of the overhead valve type and while
we bad such types before We had rae
ing cars it was. nevertheless. the de
velopment of the details of design in
racing that showed us what would be
done with this form. 1t showed us
the Importance of light rocker arms
and other moving parts f the valve
gear. We learned also great deal
about valves and valve metals. In rae
ing the punishment a valve receives is
terrific. 1t must operate at high speed
and under very high heat. 1t must not
warp nor break Therefore, metals
and alloys were developed and tungsten
valves were first seen on racing cars.
Later they were adopted by passenger
car makers and now we have not only
tungsten steel, nickel, chrome-nickel
and more recently cobalt-chrome
valves. This latter is not steel. 1t
produces a valve head that gets harder
as it gets hotter. head that does not
warp and valve that does not break.
In any engine the power you get out
of it depends on the amount of mixture
you burn in a given time. In racing
it was necessary to get high engine
speeds and high gas volume. There
fore, came sixteen-valve engines to in
crease the volumetric efficiency. some
used two carbureters. and If not, one
very large one. The combination made
it possible to burn a great deal Of mix
ture and. therefore. get lot Of power.
Spark Plugs Improved
We have learned great deal about
ignition. especially spark plugs. In the
early days of 100 hour racing
many of the drivers experienced trouble
with spark plugs because the nsulator
could not withstand the high heat. In
some engines the insulator would be
blown right out Of the shells. The
spark plug makers found racing a very
excellent testing ground and now we
have insulators that YOU cannot crack
even if you play blow torch flame
against them. You cannot blow out
these insulators in ordinary service.
1t used to be thought that the cam
shaft design had a lot to do with en-
CINE speed and power and while it has
something to do with these, it is,
nevertheless, unimportant compared
with the other factors. When racing
engine is designed it is usual to make
up two or three camshafts of different
design and each one is tried to see
which gives the best results
Had it not been for racing | do not
believe the pressure oiling system
would have been adopted as generally
as it is today. Though one of our
most popular early racing engines used
simple splash system, the drivers III
general found that it was highly i'm
portant to have positive system OF
feed and to have the bearing clearances
Just right to take care Of large vol
ume Of oil. This was necessary not
only to oil the bearing, but to cool il
as well. Later on, some racing cars
even had a method of cooling the oil
outside of the car. In passenger cars
today many use the fundamentals Of
this system-high oil volume with di-
rect feed to all moving parts.
In racing cars. Of course. the en-
gines produce a considerable amount
of power-say 100 or over. Now actu-
ally they do not need so much power
simply to pull 16OO-pound car at 1O(
miles an hour. The wind resistance is
what makes such a powerful engine
necessary. At 80 or 100 miles an hour
most of the power is used to over
come the effects of the wind alone
The true streamline body forms were
developed because of this factor OF
wind resistance. That is why you see
racing cars with such peculiar shapes
1t is not because they look nice. be.
cause some of them do not, it is simply
because they cut the wind easier wher
they more nearly approach the shape
of Il cigar.