Motor Racing terminology

[Head Rev]

After attending motor racing for some 30+ yrs, I've never really given any thought to some of the terminology used. Terms such as, the pits, dummy grid, paddock, etc I know that some of the terms come from horse racing (am I correct) with regard to Stewards and paddock etc. But terms such as 'dummy grid" have me wandering. Is there any where on the net where these terms are explained. Or can someone out there provide a list of terms. Just find it interesting. I'm sure most of the terms are the same in England as they are in Australia, but the USA would have their own terminology!!

Any helpers, thanks.

[Vitesse]

Paddock and stewards are just two of the imports from horse racing - in the early years you had to have serious money in order to race cars and many of the early car owners were also involved with the turf. Certainly the administration of races at Brooklands was done in the same way as had been done in racing for decades: the owner/jockey theme was even carried over with the drivers wearing colours and it was only after a few meetings that the cars were all numbered.

"Pits" comes from the 1906 Grand Prix de l'ACF. They literally were pits, dug alongside the race track, in which the support team sheltered and where spares could be stored. There were strict rules which meant only the driver and riding mechanic could work on the car, so the "pit crew" were really only there in an advisory capacity. Other races copied the idea, but the familiar "pit counter" quickly evolved. Nevertheless, the name stuck.

"Dummy grid": a fairly recent coinage - 1970s?

[Leighton Irwin]

Mock grid is also commonly used here. Basically same as the starting grid but formed up elsewhere. Same would apply to dummy grid.
Now how did Shunt come about? No comments about Mr. Hunt please.

[zac510]

Shunt - does that come from rail? as in pushing two carriages up against each other?

[zefarelly]

when did mechanics become 'technicians' ?

I find 'spanner' a derisory term myself, it was always a reference to someone who was a bit of a Divvy when I was at school !

[VIVA GT]

Slightly off the topic, but one of my favourite Motor Racing phrases is:
From the engine builder:
The car retired due to an electrical problem.
Meaning that a con-rod has gone straight through the distributor!

[rcarr]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

when did mechanics become 'technicians' ?

I find 'spanner' a derisory term myself, it was always a reference to someone who was a bit of a Divvy when I was at school !

Its a posh word for a mechanic, if you say you are a mechanic, people think old garage working on oily cars whereas technician sounds more important.

[jonners]

Originally Posted by rcarr

Its a posh word for a mechanic, if you say you are a mechanic, people think old garage working on oily cars whereas technician sounds more important.

This is a slippery slope - I mean, washing machine stops working and apparently you have to get an engineer out to fix it...

...so soon the mechanicing spannering 'gofor' will become a fully fledged race engineer...

...spectators become race observers...

...marshalls become incident officials...

...scrutineers become health and safety inspectors...

...drivers become operatives of competing vehicles...

arf arf arf...etc....

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by jonners

...drivers become operatives of competing vehicles...

I always thought racing drivers were the loose nut behind the wheel!

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by jonners

This is a slippery slope - I mean, washing machine stops working and apparently you have to get an engineer out to fix it...

...so soon the mechanicing spannering 'gofor' will become a fully fledged race engineer...

I was talking to one of the founders of Astromega and he said that these days with the spec. formulas (they run in things like A1GP, F2/F3000 or whatever that's called these days) you are obliged to fit parts supplied by the manufacturer, there is no space for design, development or manufacturing.

He said that their mechanics basically 'paint by numbers' - unbolt one part and replace with a similar part. Similar to the kid who services your road car by following a list telling him what to change, rather than checking what needs to be done.

He also complained that Lola's price list has nothing that costs less than a pound (e.g. they don't do pennies) and given it even includes nuts, bolts and washers some of the 'cost cutting' in these formulas does anything but save money.

Given that - spanner is possibly an appropriate term for a lot of the current race mechanics.

[zefarelly]

Another one that used to amuse me was Fitter . . .my Step Dad is a qualified Fitter and as such is able, and also tought me how to make proper repairs to things as well as make tools and parts. He used go nuts when he ran a tool hire shop because the 'fitters' he had inherited struggled to do anything more than unbolt a broken bit and bolt on a new one . . .and even that could be a challenge too far!

The day scrutineers become health and safety officials is the day racing dies !

[COLIN STUBBS]

I used to manage a team of agricultural engineers and if anyone ever mentioned the name Fitter youd get lynched! They all hated that one and reckoned fitters were people who walked round a factory kicking things! then they all evolved into technicians,then field service operatives,senior product support analasysts.Guess our boss laid awake thinking of job titles all night! Think my favorite is senior sales executive. Spotty faced youth with stripey suite selling BMWs!

[rcarr]

Originally Posted by PeterMorley

I was talking to one of the founders of Astromega and he said that these days with the spec. formulas (they run in things like A1GP, F2/F3000 or whatever that's called these days) you are obliged to fit parts supplied by the manufacturer, there is no space for design, development or manufacturing.

He said that their mechanics basically 'paint by numbers' - unbolt one part and replace with a similar part. Similar to the kid who services your road car by following a list telling him what to change, rather than checking what needs to be done.

He also complained that Lola's price list has nothing that costs less than a pound (e.g. they don't do pennies) and given it even includes nuts, bolts and washers some of the 'cost cutting' in these formulas does anything but save money.

Given that - spanner is possibly an appropriate term for a lot of the current race mechanics.

Happens in Formula 1 too. I dismantled a "BAR" and all the parts had serial numbers, so when the "techinian" removed a certain part, they would go to stores and pick-up a part of the same serial number and refit it to the car.

[JGM]

A few weeks ago I required the services of a plumber so I looked up Yellow Pages and found a number under 'plumbers'. When the telephone was answered I said 'Hello, I'm looking for a plumber...' There was an exasperated sigh at the other end and through gritted teeth the response was 'I am not a plumber. I am a Heating Engineer...'

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

I find 'spanner' a derisory term myself

Used to known a girl nicknamed Spanner, everytime she looked at you, your nuts would tighten...

[jonners]

Originally Posted by Slippy Diff

Used to known a girl nicknamed Spanner, everytime she looked at you, your nuts would tighten...

Sister Anna used to get a lot of grief at my school - can still sing the song if anyone's interested....