20 Years of AutotechnicaTV: The Videos before YouTube. This is one of our first videos produced for television never before published on social networks and we now offer them as part of our two decades explaining Clear and Simple Technology.

Ground effects was another innovation brought to F1 by Colin Chapman's Lotus team. It was borne of an idea of making the entire car function as one giant wing to increase downforce.

Up to the early 1960s, race car engineers only focused on making car ‘streamlined’ and minimizing drag. However, as the vehicles became faster, they started to become very unstable, leading to spectacular accidents. After observations of these accidents they became aware that the streamlined cars in high speed were producing aerodynamic lift, in other words, they were trying to become airborne. This greatly reduced the grip available on the car, especially during high speed turning.

Ferrari 330 P4The first attempts to resolve the problem were by trying to disturb the flow, so that it would not be that of a wing like profile. This lead to the use of "spoilers" which in many cases not only eliminated drag, but also contributed to the downforce.
Another idea, also using spoilers, but in the lower portion, was to try and have most of the air flow on the upper part of the car, this was done by blocking the bottom front of the car with some kind of plate (front spoiler). The Ferrari 330 P3/4 was amongst the first competition cars to use them. In the picture up the rear spoiler can be seen.

The desire to further increase the tire grip led the major revolution in racing car design, the introduction of inverted wings, which produce negative lift or downforce.

Chaparal 2eThe aerodynamic downforce revolution actually started when the Chaparral 2D appeared in 1966. This car had controllable wing incidence, and won at Nurburgring. Then Chaparral 2E, which made Jim Hall be credited as the first racer to race a car with aerofoils, appeared at Bridgehampton in the same year. The controllable wing incidence was introduced to lower the drag produced by wings (by putting them in a horizontal position during long straight runs).

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