. On June 26, 1906, the very first motor race was held at Le Mans, the historic track in France. The 103-km-long circuit was on public roads, which were closed for the occasion. After 12 gruelling hours, the top three teams to finish the race were Renault, FIAT and Clément-Bayard. Winning this was the ‘Big Prize’. The French term for this became the name by which these races are now known. How do we know the races now?
Grand Prix, Le Mans
. Camber is the vertical tilt of a wheel. Normal wheels have zero camber as they are perfectly perpendicular to the level ground. If the top of a wheel is tilted outward it has positive camber, and if it is tilted toward the vehicle it has negative camber. In this particular motorsport the cars are designed with negative camber for the right wheels and positive camber for the left wheels. This is because the cars make only left turns, and the right wheels will always be on the outside of a turn. Which race is this that has drivers taking these turns at more than 300 km/hr?
NASCAR Racing
. This particular item in a normal car usually does only one job and in modern cars might have a few more functions. In a Formula One car it is custom-designed for every driver. They can change gears, apply a revolution limiter, adjust fuel/air mix, change brake pressure, and call the radio. An LCD screen shows engine rpm, lap times, speed and the gear. Made of carbon fibre, it is designed to be removed every single time the driver has to exit or enter. What is this highly functional object?
The Steering Wheel
. Valentino Rossi is the only rider to have won the World Championship in four different classes: 125cc, 250cc, 500cc and MotoGP. He apparently got his unique nickname because in Italy high-ranked people are given this title. His bike sported the number 46 (in blue and green), which one can now see even on autos and cycles in India. What is his nickname?
Valentino Rossi, The Doctor
. This class of motorsport uses only environmentally friendly electric-powered cars. The races take place on city-centre street circuits. The concept came about after FIA president Jean Todt and Italian politician Antonio Tajani talked about electrification of the automobile industry to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. What is the name of this motorsport, which refers to the defining characteristic of this event?
Formula E
. At the very first Indianapolis 500 race held in 1911, Ray Harroun was driving a Marmon Wasp. At that time, one mechanic would also be in the car, who would, among other things, keep an eye on the competition. Ray convinced his team that without a mechanic, the lighter car would be faster. He made just one additional change by fitting something on top of his windshield. What did he fit, which is now seen in cars everywhere that helped him win the first Indianapolis race?
A rear-view mirror
. In motorsports, there are two main classifications of racing. The first one is about cars that have wheels outside the car’s main body and have only one seat, with the engine typically located behind the driver. These cars have low road clearance, have a high degree of technological sophistication and are usually not road legal, for example-F1, F2 and F3 cars. What is this classification that explains the nature of the car?
Open Wheel Racing
. The second classification is where the wheels do not stick outside the bodywork and are multiple seaters. Since there is more room for the driver, there is less need to focus all of the vehicle’s controls on the steering wheel. Therefore, these cars will have standard controls such as hand brakes and gear stick in the same places as they’d be in any other car on the road. What is this classification of motorsport that covers stock-car racing and cross-country racing?
Closed Wheel Racing
. This driver was known for his extraordinary quick reflexes and his fantastic peripheral vision, which helped him have a record five consecutive wins at the Monaco Grand Prix. He once won a race even though his brakes had completely failed. In 2020, Amazon Web Services used machine learning to find out the fastest ever F1 driver of all time. Second was Michael Schumacher and third was Lewis Hamilton. Which driver came first, who is considered by many as one of the greatest drivers of all time?
Ayrton Senna
. This British automotive company was founded by Bruce ____, who learnt engineering by hanging around his parent’s service station in New Zealand. He moved to the U.K. and at the age of 22 won the U.S. Grand Prix. He started a team in his name that entered F1 and went on to win eight championships and 12 Driver’s Championships. Which iconic team is this whose cars and fans can be easily identified by their beautiful papaya orange livery?
McLaren
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
