The Physics of Race Cars

While motorsports events can appear to the general viewing public as a parade of cars driving around tracks in circles, in reality race drivers operating their cars at the grip limit are constantly on a razor's edge, balancing and adjusting the behavior of the car with a variety of inputs and techniques that are foreign to the average road driver. At the same time, race car designers and race engineers are faced with complex compromises that generate a surprising range of solutions and car performance despite the underlying principles being well understood, and often despite engines being standardized across race series. Using simple, first-year physics, and some qualitative understanding of tire behavior, we'll take a beginner's look at race driving and the techniques used to minimize lap time, as well as the design differences between road cars and race cars, and the changes that grassroots motorsports enthusiasts must make to convert their road cars into high performance race vehicles.