The invention that created the fastest F1-car and was immediately banned

DAF, we know the company today as a major manufacturer of trucks,as the pride of Eindhoven. You might not quickly link DAF toFormula 1, but then you undoubtedly have not been to the DAF museumin recent years. DAF, the company we know today as a majormanufacturer of trucks, may not be an obvious company when youthink of F1, yet one invention taken on by a team in the early1990s was so strong it was swiftly banned by the FIA. The Dutchcompany also made passenger cars in the past which were equippedwith a "witty little gearbox," or automatic gearbox with a belttransmission. In 1993, Williams - which had won the championship ayear prior with Nigal Mansell - tested a substantially advancedversion of that system, called CVT [Continuously VariableTransmission]. They found a metal belt strong enough to withstandthe forces of an F1 car. Instead of the driver - in this casethen-test driver David Coulthard - having to upshift, everythingwas controlled entirely by sensors. Gears in the gearbox were athing of the past. Instead, the belt lay across two opposingpulleys. These were conical pulleys and moved to and from eachother, increasing or decreasing the circumference of the part overwhich the belt lay. Thus the gear ratios were always determined inthe moment. This was seamless and so there was no longer any needfor the driver to shift up or down. The immediate result: fewermovements and shocks in the car due to the start-stop nature of aconventional gearbox and a totally different sound - after all,revs no longer dropped. Indeed, one drove at the optimum speed atall times. FIA put a stop to it During the test, the Dutch VanDoorne Transmission oversaw the proceedings and reportedlyeverything went smoothly. It was estimated that a car equipped withthe CVT system could be at least a second per lap faster - perhapsseveral seconds per lap. When the FIA looked into it, however, thatfairy tale quickly came to an end. The regulations stated that anF1 car could have four to seven gears. How many did the CVT carhave? One all-encompassing gear? Infinite gears correct? To removeall doubt, the FIA called CVT by its name but very deliberately.The system was banned. Until recently, that Williams car was ondisplay at the DAF Museum in Eindhoven but recently Williams pickedit up and returned it to England. View an in-depth video aboutDAF's CVT transmission below. P0lWdUXwVJs