Yahoo Autos This Video Illustrates All the Major Differences Between Street and Race Cars
The cliche of describing a sports car as a "race car for the road" is as old as it is inaccurate. Sure, there are modern road cars that offer race car-level performance, but in reality, the engineering behind the two is wildly different.
Essentially, as Engineering Explained's Jason Fenske illustrates in his latest video, race cars are designed to be driven hard for a relatively short period of time, then rebuilt for the next race. Street cars, by comparison, don't have to endure as harsh conditions as race cars, but they need to run for many more miles with minimal maintenance.
Fenske uses one of Andretti Autosport's Formula E racers as a focal point, but the basic principles applies to all race cars, whether they're designed for quick sprints, 24-hour endurance races, or multi-day rallies.
This isn't to say race and road cars are diametric opposites, though. A race car uses many of the same basic components as a road car, but most of those parts are designed with a very different task in mind.
Just think about this before you describe something as a "race car for the road."
You Might Also Like
