This CVT F1 car from 1993 was forbidden before it could compete – Jalopnik

If there were a message that Williams Racing was secretly a subsidiary of NASA in the early 1990s, Formula 1 fans would not be too shocked. In an era in which the regulations were still relatively open in sport, Williams was on the absolute advanced, in which the team based in Oxfordshire, England used that active suspension, automatic gearboxes, power steering traction, antilock chats and sufficient data and telemetry sensors used.

The MAD Science reached its boiling point in 1993, when the team further experimented with gearbox technology and a continuous variable transmission (CVT) developed for the FW15C season. In the modern days, all enthusiastic CVTs and their various advantages and disadvantages associate with Econoboxes such as the Toyota Prius or Nissan Sentra. In one of the strangest sounding tests of all time, however, Williams proved that the gearbox at one speed could turn out to be the ultimate advantage for the team … so much so much that the car would not get it past a single on-track test before the prevailing Fédération International de l’Arcalobile (FIA) cums it.

Unlike a more conventional transmission, a CVT has no multiple gears; It previously has two cones or pulleys, with a connected to the motor and another connected to the wheels. These pulleys can change their diameter, so that the transfer ratio in the neighborhood can change. Increase the size of the drive pool and reduce the diameter of the driven pulley and the transmission ratio increases, which gives more speed. Make the drive pool smaller and the driven pulley larger, and you have a shorter transfer ratio, with more power and torque on tap. For visual reference, someone has made a great example of LEGOS to help explain how the transmission works.

This allows the engine to be essentially equipped with a fixed RPM, regardless of speed. It is perfect for economics cars, which gives them a smooth gear and much better fuel efficiency, but Williams knew that the gearbox was also the perfect choice for constant power.

The FW15C was equipped with a Renault V10 that could make 780 hp, but only when the Tachometer reached 13,800 rpm. The great thing about the CVT is that it can constantly keep the car in that maximum power band. Whether it launched from a corner or immediately at the end of a long immediately, it always made maximum power. Without lost time or focus shifts, FW15C had the potential to be an absolute beast in straight line speed.

On a rainy day in July 1993, Williams test driver David Coulthard would put this technology to the test at Pembrey Circuit in Wales. Coulthard’s teammate Alain Prost described the car joke as ‘a small Airbus’, per Sports car -marketBecause of how much modern technology was cleaned in the car. And when Coulthard hit the track, it also sounded the part.

An F1 car that goes on full number with its engine resistance that is located north of 10,000 rpm, easily provides one of the strangest sounds in Motorsports. But this worked, with his gearbox that is reportedly deposited seconds from his pace around the test track compared to the transmission of the conventional Williams … in a car that already wiped the schedule at the time.

The FIA ​​wanted teams that Williams would not win in the coming years, and as a result, to regulate. As part of a large control package for the 1994 season, the FIA ​​forced all cars to have four to seven fixed gears. And to make things even more emphatic, it threw it in a subclause that forbade the CVT. As a result, the CVT never found its way to on-track competition in Formula 1. But the FW15C gave us a taste of what the highlight of Motorsport might look like and sounded.