Three times Formula One World Champion, motorsport safety campaigner and former F1 team boss Sir Jackie Stewart will join leading motorsport figures for the first History of Motorsport Technology Conference and Dinner at Cranfield University on 3 July 2012.
The History of Motorsport Technology Conference will be an integral part of National Motorsport Week 2012, held between the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The History of Motorsport Technology Conference will address:
• Grand Prix giants and the Land Speed Record
• Ground effects from the 1920s
• The major ‘schools of motorsport engineering’
• Engineering insights from an innovator’s career: the remarkable Colin Chapman
• F1 race car design and development in the 1960s and 1970s
• First age of F1 turbocharging
• Developments during the Group C era
• Safety in motorsport
• Race car simulator development
• Gaining advantage in Grand Prix motor racing
• Evolution of the UK motorsport technology cluster
Organised by Cranfield’s Motorsport Engineering and Management Programme Director Clive Temple, speakers include Peter Wright, Joe Saward, Karl Ludvigsen, Brian O’Rourke, Graham Humphrys, David Tremayne, Mark Hughes, Professor Mark Jenkins, Graham Campion and Charles Armstrong-Wilson. Craig Scarborough will display his illustrations covering technical developments in the atrium.
There will be a display of competition cars from the early years to the 2000s that reflect some of these key technical developments. It will be a full day’s programme including a keynote address given by Peter Wright, together with a networking lunch. Tea and coffee will be available at registration. Following the conference there will be a dinner. Guest of honour at the dinner is Sir Jackie Stewart. In recognition of William Boddy OBE, there will be the Bill Boddy Award for the best presentation on the day.
By organising this conference – the first in a series of annual conferences dedicated to the motorsport – Cranfield University is setting out to recognise both the contributions of our engineers and the historians and journalists who have charted these developments. It is considered that the latter groups should receive greater recognition of their work academically.
Cranfield is one of the world’s leading university centres for motorsport. The University has been actively engaged in motorsport research, consultancy, education and testing since the 1970s. Cranfield’s facilities are second to none and include the Cranfield Impact Centre and Cranfield Motorsport Simulation. The MSc Motorsport Engineering and Management has accelerated many graduates to careers in motorsport.
For more information, visit www.motorsportconference.com.
[Source: Cranfield University]
