Question: What does your everyday Ford Focus, Nissan Altera, VW Passat and virtually every other mass produced vehicle on the road have that a NASCAR race car doesn’t?
Answer: Electronic fuel injection. That’s right, NASCAR still uses carburetors, same as your father’s Oldsmobile from the 1950s.
Fuel injection delivers an even flow of gas to the engine, something that a carburetor can't always manage. Sensors in the engine regulate the fuel intake and make sure it is dispersed properly.
Which is one of several reasons why after decades of using carburetors and long after they were relegated to the junk heap by the world’s automakers (production vehicles haven't had carburetors since 1989) NASCAR teams will use fuel injection in 2012, starting with the Daytona 500.
Each team will pay about $26,000 per car to use a system developed by McLaren Electronic Systems and Freescale Semiconductor, which produce the engine control units. Apart from the performance benefits expected to accrue NASCAR reports use of electronic fuel injection will also allow officials to better police how teams power their engines.
The Sprint Cup car manufacturers — Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota— all underwent on-track testing of fuel injection racecars last week at Kentucky Speedway.
The new system is expected to also provide better fuel mileage, which could give a team an edge in a sport where extending the number of laps run between pit stops can make a difference in how high up in the field a car finishes.