Seminar at Long Beach Grand Prix Examines Possibilities
By Brad Nelson, Contributor to www.edmunds.com.
Click here to read the full article at www.edmunds.com.
Creating sustainable vehicles and related technology is no longer a stretch for many car manufacturers and suppliers.
The bigger problem now is how to get consumers to understand, embrace and most importantly, plunk down their recession-depleted dollars for cleaner, more efficient vehicles that often carry a premium price for advanced technology content.
Increasingly, members of the motorsports fraternity are saying that auto racing can help do for green cars what is has so often done for automotive performance, safety and handling - test and prove, or disprove, the technologies under the harshest and most demanding of circumstances.
Despite the move on many fronts toward sustainable transportation and fuels, the elephant in the room is the fact that consumers, despite any stated interest in getting greener, are reluctant to sacrifice the comforts of their normal modes of transport for something unproven, uncomfortable or un-fun
Proving Ground
For much of the 20th century, racing served as a fast-paced proving ground for new automotive technology.
Car manufacturers used racing to valuable effect, touting the performance and technical innovations of their latest and greatest, often proving and refining ideas in the hyper-fast crucible of a top racing series.
But as automotive technology matured and racing became increasingly expensive in the '70's through the '90s, those same manufacturers (and now sponsors) wanted a better return on their investment, while spectators often demanded more entertainment value.
The inevitable result was a tightening of rules to improve "the show" and contain costs, while discouraging - and in some cases virtually banning - technical innovation.
More recently, some racing series have struggled, in part due to a lack of interest in cars with technology stuck in another time period and with nothing to differentiate the cars.
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