Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Race Car @ ALMS Long Beach Grand Prix

A lot of technology on production cars — that is, the cars we drive on the street — has, over time, trickled down from the racing world. The people who build race cars have the time and motivation to invest in making their cars the most competitive. In turn, a lot of these components end up going full circle, going from the track to the street and then back again. At the Long Beach Grand Prix, Autobytel’s Editor-in-Chief Michelle Naranjo saw quite a few examples of this dynamic at play. Michelle talked to Bryan Sellers, who’s the driver of the Falken Tire Porsche 911 and had a lot of insight to offer about the development of racing technology. Porsche is a good example to discuss this cycle, because the brand has a long history of creating high performance street legal cars that are always popular choices for the track. And a good example of a specific component is a headlight. Bryan Sellers says the lights are especially important, because he has experience driving long endurance races at night. Weight has to be reduced to keep a race car competitive, but the lights have to be intense. And soon, race cars will have headlights that turn, like those on street cars.