The Formula 1 Car with INFINITE GEARS | The Blueprint

This 1993 Williams has one of the most unusual gearboxes ever in F1. Rather than 8 gears like modern F1 cars, it had an ingenious mechanism that could smoothly change through an infinite number of gear ratios.
It promised to make the car easier to drive, more efficient and much, much faster.
It's called a Continuously Variable Transmission, a CVT. It’s not a new thing but was new to something as powerful as a 90s F1 car.
It meant the car was always in the right gear and could make the best use of the engine's power, delivering all 850 horsepower, all the time.
Photo provided by Tristen Krijgsman
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So how do they work?
There are many different types of CVT - with more clever ones being trialled in cars all the time. They’re not new though and are often used on anything from a Pillar Drill to a Scooter.
But this is the one that was used in the Williams car, it’s essentially two pulleys, with a belt connecting them. One pulley is connected to the engine, the other to the wheels.
Each pulley has one side fixed in place, whilst the other side can move.
When the pulley is squeezed together, it forces the belt up the cone, the same as shifting to the largest cog on the back of your bike.
The same happens in reverse, pull the two sides apart and the belt moves to the bottom, similar to the smallest cog on a bike.
If you were to hold the pulley somewhere in the middle, you can have any gear ratio you like, as the belt can deliver power anywhere on the surface of the pulleys.
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[@Driver61]

Some of you may have seen this one, but most of our subscribers haven't. So here is a remix of an old upload, with some new bits in there! Do you wish this car had run for at least a race or so? Or is the noise too bad?

[@boopitywoop7981]

This is by far the best ban by the FIA

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

It would have been wonderful to see in a race. To see what it did, and if it would have lasted a race!

[@rajvardhanshinde2028]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eafUhaiuiN-CbMU According to this video f1 is fastest but you said that 919 evo break the record of f1

[@sigvejensen9280]

Not a bad idea. I often thought if my Volvo 343 with a Daf gearbox made 800 bhp more, it would be a GP winner. Great video as always !

[@DavidHyman031]

I think it definitely sounds like a boat which was probably just a quick solution considering it was a mule car. I would like to see a CVT considered part of the next engine regulations though as it's definitely road relevant to hybrid cars and efficiency.

[@affe89]

I can just imagine how much better todays CVT gearboxes would have been if F1 had developed them for 25 years or so...

[@eclipset.9683]

One of the weird things is that in cars sold today, they usually make the CVT behave like a regular automatic, mimicking gear shifts, because people didn't like it. The CVT I drive now is definitely the smoothest ride I've ever had, and works great, and you don't "feel" the transmission shifting like it would in an automatic, but it still mimicks the behavior. I drive a 2017 Civic. It also wants the transmission fluid changed every 30k miles, but only half the fluid gets swapped each time with how it's setup.

[@stigrabbid589]

@@eclipset.9683 Some CVTs even can be "shifted" manually via paddle shifters, like the Subaru WRX has on the CVT transmission option. When you use the shifter it "shifts" to a preset gear ratio.

[@Tuberuser187]

@@eclipset.9683 It doesn't help that almost all CVTs have been nasty, poor quality JATCO devices. Then there are the "we can't repair that" or "we cant supply parts" and "its not under warranty" and the only options where to buy a replacement, they are improving in quality and making parts and shop manuals available now but the damage is done and will take a long time for the perception to recover. By the time it does it may well be irrelevant as we either cant afford cars or are all in EVs instead.

[@jeffduncan9140]

@@eclipset.9683 the Honda CVT is definitely a smooth one. We have a '13 Accord and it drives great.

[@R9naldo]

Dont care CVTs are still shit

[@ragerancher]

Teams: Hey we got this new idea! FIA: Oh that's nice, banned. Teams: But we've barely even FIA: BANNED! Teams: What's your reason? FIA: B-A-N-N-E-D!

[@gaomn_03]

*Happy Ban noises*

[@ghostdog688]

Back in the day when FIA stood for Ferrari International Assistance.

[@Cavemanner]

FIA: B-A-N-A-N-A-S

[@leumas75]

Mercedes: We’ve invented a whole new DAS system that… FIA: Totally legal. You may have your toy for this year, and this year only. Then it’s forevermore BANNED. Mercedes: But it’s lega… FIA Banned. Mercedes: Why? FIA: B-A-N-N-E-D! Good day, sir! Mercedes: But can you at least explain.. FIA: I said Good Day!!!

[@YUKKO0110]

It’s confirmed, FIA’s are all Discord mods.

[@WillyWilson11]

During a tour at the DAF museum where the car is on display, I was told it was banned because a maximum of 8(?) forward gears was allowed at the time. While Williams argued it had 1 forward gear, the FIA argued it had infinite forward gears, and thus too many.

[@therrydicule]

At the time, the max gear was 7 and the FIA banned it by name a bit later... They didn't leave place for interpretation. Williams didn't have the time to develop it to it fullest.

[@gercobosch2870]

Yeah and in the end, it costed DAF its car department, since it was seen as a wife car and so lost a lot of traction. Joining F1 woud change that hoped DAF

[@LogiForce86]

@@gercobosch2870 Would've definitely been sweet, especially if DAF was able to develop a nice car for a change that could rival at least a Golf GTI mk2 or Opel Kadett GSI at the time. Even more so if it could rival the Lotus Omega/Carlton! Just imagine... a DAF roasting a Lotus Omega... OH MY LORD!!! 😱 In fact I'd still love to see it today.

[@raymondsanderson3768]

It’s not actually infinite, that means no end. There is a minimum low gear ratio, and a maximum high gear ratio. It’s actually stepless, not infinite.

[@knarf_inc4790]

​@raymondsanderson3768 but you could divide the section between the low and high ratio into infinite small sections or ratio's.

[@megapet777]

I wonder if that system could be made reliable enough for 1-2 races nowadays? Would be very interesting. I can only imagine how weird would be to slow down to corner and still be at nearly max rpm constantly :D

[@Colby_0-3_IRL_and_title_fights]

I wonder what that would do for engine braking

[@megapet777]

@@Colby_0-3_IRL_and_title_fights no idea

[@boopitywoop7981]

Even if its reliable the problem is the engine temperatures for staying in high rpm all the time

[@megapet777]

@@boopitywoop7981 yeah it would be hard to make for sure, but if the horsepower would be slightly reduced and cooler enlarged it might work

[@boopitywoop7981]

@@megapet777 teams are competing to make the cars as sleek as possible and here we are making them theoretically larger for the cvt laughs Not to mention the added weight for the additional engine materials for strength in 300kms of race and the engine we have now is a 1.6 liter v6 so you have to stay close to redline most of the time Its not interesting but just nostalgic

[@jiveturkey9993]

My speculation on why they banned it was they just couldn't stand the sound of it.

[@brianvogt8125]

Too monotonous. The F1 company knows that fans come to races for the excitement of the frequently changing engine sound - club racers & wannabes can relate to that stuff.

[@keisuketakahasi4584]

idk they banned so many things for no reason

[@DekGT5mad]

I think they were scared the cars would have too much top speed & noise limits would be smashed at every GP causing hosting issues. NASCAR tracks are positioned mostly in places where it does not matter if 40 cars are doing 10,000revs nonstop

[@ENKTDeeColon_and_randomnumbers]

Entire field for 60 laps be like: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@ayrtonsenna3895]

This got it

[@KimiButNoDrink]

93 Williams? Yeah loved that car

[@hr_pedersen1439]

A fun quirk of some of these gearboxes is that it can go just as fast in reverse as it can go forward.

[@DeeTofa]

Imma try that

[@doggSMK]

Yeah, Guiness world record for driving in reverse is set with a CVT 😁

[@hr_pedersen1439]

@@doggSMK i had no idea!

[@hothi92]

Now THAT'S an F1 race I'd pay to see

[@Noukz37]

I'm one of the few car enthusiasts that actually like CVTs, for daily driving. But it's a shame there was no usage of this in a full length championship, to test it, develop it and prove it's application in motorsport.

[@giovane_Diaz]

yep, like kay, f1 can't have them now cause it will kill someone, but we will add a safer (heavier), more open category where you can go all nuts and test stuff to your hearts content. if it doesn't want to kill your drivers or the car, we will consider allowing it in a next f1 championship

[@yimpyoi9808]

i think the problems they had with it were that it significantly lowers the skill floor of the sport since you basically have the power curve of an EV with the power and weight of a gas car, and no need to worry about shifting gears, and that it would make the entire race sound like a beoing 747 is idling on the track

[@opperbuil]

Reliability has changed quite a bit. The Japanese self-defense force run the Mitsubishi type 10 tank of 40 tonnes and 1200 hp on a CVT. While the high revs of a formula 1 car is its own challenge, so is 40 tonnes of box bouncing on terrain that's impossible to drive over with wheeled vehicles. The mostly guaranteed reliability distance of a modern tank is closer to the full formula 1 race season than a single GP.

[@MonsterPumpkin]

It is a huge shame it was banned especially without reason but to be fair, the more things drivers have to keep in check and have to do the more entertaining it is to watch, because it becomes a race of skill more than equipment and of course can't forget about the iconic sound

[@boopitywoop7981]

Good thing they banned it tho

[@RDMracer]

I'd dare to say that dealing with the nonidealities gears give you, even with modern sequential F1 gearbox systems; skill would come forward more when dealing with gears. I drive a Volvo 340 with CVT.

[@OhKnow379]

Exactly. Shifting has allowed for some really smart plays in recent f1 history.

[@tony_5156]

Cvt v10 sounds unholy

[@jospi2]

That's why nobody likes EV racing.

[@micahkiyimba8641]

Would have loved to see at least 1 GP with the CVT Williams

[@patrickrodriguez8797]

I sometimes feel like the FIA is purposefully hindering technological advances. Imagine if F1 teams were given a chance to use and perfect the CVT and their advancement would trickle down to us consumers.

[@Brinta3]

Yes, the FIA holds back some advances. This is no secret. Main reasons: 1. Safety. You don’t want cars going through the corners at 400 kmph. 2. To keep the cost down. If certain teams that are rich or have huge companies behind them get to spend endless amounts of millions, then it just isn’t attractive anymore for small teams to stay in F1. According to Wikipedia: “CVTs were prohibited from Formula One in 1994 (along with several other electronic systems and driving aids) due to concerns over escalating research and development costs and maintaining a specific level of driver involvement with the vehicles.” 3. The individual skills of the driver must remain important. As mentioned in the quote above, you don’t want the cars to do all the work for the drivers. The first CVT was invented in 1879 and is still used in cars, e-bikes, tractors, and other vehicles. You needn’t worry about its development.

[@gbraadnl]

7:35 I guess it was a Dutch company. Most likely DAF as they are known for the Variomatic system. The earliest CVT on a production car. But I could be wrong.

[@300400500d]

That is correct, this cvt was made by DAF. the picture of the williams in the museum is not in the williams museum but in the DAF museum. You can see their trucks in the background

[@tollygul12]

Now they are made by Bosch transmission technology also in the Netherlands. It's the company I work for. The F1 stayed a long time for display at our factory before it was moved to the daf museum.

[@jankaas9244]

Hahaha can you imagine racing in a Daf 33 in F1 in 2022? Lol

[@afrikees]

@@jankaas9244 Imagine the F1 car being able to reach max speed in reverse as well, just like the DAFs at the time ,😁

[@NielsWullems]

The car is displayed in the DAF museum in Eindhoven.

[@balazsbelavari7556]

If cvt’s were a thing in f1, a lot more aero engineers would have come to participate. By the late ww2 most aircraft engines were designed to practically have spring adjusted cvt’s in them and they would work with enormous boost for hours. Tho not many revved above 3k rpm, because they were anywhere between 25-45 liters of displacement. Those engines were wild

[@Conservator.]

I remember driving my grandmother’s DAF 66 in 1983. It was considered anything but a sporty car and yet I was first away at a traffic light, every time. Edit: it had the original CVT transmission.

[@VekhGaming]

Well, I mean it was a sports car. If only for racing in reverse.

[@Conservator.]

@@VekhGaming 🤣🤣🤣 “Me gras!”

[@CosmicSeeker69]

I was there (and did the reverse thing!) and yes, My 33 would stay with an MGB up to 55mph - on only 750cc

[@Conservator.]

@@CosmicSeeker69 👍

[@BoB-Dobbs_leaning-left]

@@CosmicSeeker69 Slightly stronger springs in the centrifugal clutch on the 33 allowed slightly higher revs and made quite a difference to acceleration. I used to tune them back in the day. Great car for around town.

[@emi2047]

Well explained, but I think there is a little misconception at 5:50. If you want to maximize acceleration, you want to maximize the wheel torque. In order to achieve that, the engine must be at its maximum power regime, not at its maximum torque regime. The reason is that power =torque*rotational speed. This equation can be applied to the engine, but also to the wheel. So, for a given wheel speed, the more power, the more torque at the wheel, and this is achieved with the engine at the maximum power regime and a shorter gear, instead of the engine at the maximum torque regime and a longer gear.

[@progDes]

Exactly. I was surprised to see this inaccuracy in such a well informed video

[@emi2047]

@Andrew H at maximum torque. The torque at the wheel is proportional to the engine torque at a given gear ratio. So the maximum force at any gear will be at the maximum torque. However, if you can switch gears, at a given speed, you will get more force at the wheel if the engine is at its maximum power regime, using a shorter gear, than using a longer gear with the engine at its maximum torque regime.

[@emi2047]

@Andrew H I don't understand your question. Power (i.e. HP) has a physical meaning: is the amount of work per unit of time. You can calculate that as force*velocity, or as torque*angular rate. An ideal gearbox with no energy loss at all, would keep the input power equal to the output power. So the power provided by the engine would be the same that the power at the wheels. In that scenario, you could have different torque levels at the wheel at different speeds, but the product wheel torque * wheel angular rate will be always equal to the product engine torque * engine angular rate. So, what actually moves a car is the torque at the wheels. But how much torque you can have at the wheels at a given speed, is limited by the power available. Does this make sense to you?

[@emi2047]

@Andrew H Yes, I think it is becoming a little existential. But I think you are not completely right. For example, measuring a torque is no easy. It is usually measured indirectly. For instance, you can measure the deformation of a material with known properties (using strain gages, for instance), and deduce the torque from it. Looking at the question from another point of view, the fundamental physical magnitudes related to torque are time, mass, and distance. A torque is force*distance. But force=mass*acceleration. Moreover, acceleration =distance/time². So, if we want to express the torque as a decomposition of the fundamental physical units, torque = mass*distance ²/time². If we do the same for power, which is force*velocity, and velocity is distance/time, then the power = mass*distance ³/time³. I am typing this on the phone, I hope I am not making any mistake with the math. My point is that both are derivated magnitudes, which can be expressed as a combination of three fundamental magnitudes, but this does not imply that they have an useful meaning. For instance, you can use the power to predict the maximum speed of a vehicle, but you will need the torque to calculate the resistance of the gears of the gearbox.

[@progDes]

Emi explained it well from perspective of the gearbox. I would suggest to look at it from the different angle. Here is the equation for kinetic energy of moving object: E = 1/2*m*v^2 From this you can quickly derive: V = sqrt(2 * E / m) V = sqrt(2 * Power * t / m) Which clearly shows that it's the Power of the engine that is a key factor to acceleration.

[@jackvearncombe9892]

Love that you got DC in this for a quick chat! I was just thinking about the little clip of the fw15c running with the cvt and what his thoughts on it would be, and he pops up! Awesome vid.

[@ahmedrahim2500]

I've seen this vid before

[@Vinz3ntR]

I've seen this car on display in the DAF museum in Eindhoven, Netherlands as the CVT was an invention by Dutch company DAF. It's awesome to see it standing there.

[@gaomn_03]

Wouldn't it be amazing, fitting last year's Mercedes W11 with a CVT, active suspension, advanced traction control and all those bells and whistles, and putting it to the test? It would be absolutely nuts. Not for actual official racing though.

[@NicoKyunKyun]

we're talking about mercedes here mate, FIA would let them

[@gaomn_03]

@@NicoKyunKyun They would not be able to stop anyone from doing it. Any person, team or enterprise, given they have the technical prowess and money, can do it. It's not a decision of the FIA. Though, right now, and until the end of 2021 season, they wouldn't be able to use the 2020 car: they aren't allowed to be used, even as test cars for new drivers to get mileage, due to the 2021 cars being derived from the 2020 because of the delay of the new rules.

[@dodenmanniskan8846]

DAS, CVT, active suspension, TC and all with infinite tuning possibilities, full power engine, and that tunnel-like downside. Would be fast as hell

[@MrGhostBoxer]

Pikes peaks cars would be good with cvt.

[@catchnkill]

@@gaomn_03 Of course they can. F1 imposes technical rules on many areas like chasis, engine, weight, aerodynamic etc. All teams race under the same set of rules. It is not no rule Formula 0!

[@MrEmanuelFerreira]

Thank you for the video. It's crazy how all this information is here for free. You are the best Driver61.

[@davidsherley2652]

Great explanation / illustration Scott! Well done! Certainly this video is a keeper.

[@mrsiersciu]

I don't to think you're right about picking the top torque of the engine for best acceleration - you always want to maximize engine power. Here is why: at any given speed you want to maximize the torque at the wheels, which means that you want to maximize the engine torque multiplied by the gearing ratio. When you do the maths, you'll see that this is essentially engine power divided by rpm at the wheels, so if you want this number to be maximal you need to pick such a gearing that the engine is at its power peak, not torque. To put it differently, if you make your gear longer so that you can have peak torque in the engine (instead of peak power), the extra torque will be consumed by less aggressive gearing, yielding lower torque at the wheels.

[@JohnDoe-td7mu]

"...engine power divided by RPM..." So torque....you essentially described torque...

[@ASJC27]

@@JohnDoe-td7mu He’s exactly right. Wheel torque is what matters, not crankshaft torque. Wheel torque is maximized when the engine is at peak power, not peak torque.

[@mrsiersciu]

@@JohnDoe-td7mu Almost - except it's engine power divided by wheel rpm (not engine rpm). At any speed, the peak torque at the wheels is achieved when peak engine power is achieved. Or to put it yet differently - power is preserved by gearing, torque is not (except for losses which don't affect the reasoning). So, the torque at the wheels is engine power divided by wheel rpm. Wheel rpm is is given so you need to maximize engine power.

[@SlyNine]

@@JohnDoe-td7mu after the gear box multiplies the engine torque. Yea. The total force, which is what hp tells you. Let's say the engine is outputting 50ftlb at 1000rpm and the gear box is 1:1. That's 50ft-lb. But let's say you shift down at a 2:1 and the engine puts out 35ft-lb at 2000 rpm that's overall 70ft-lb after the gear box.

[@ianlewis6717]

I am amazed that a racing driver doesn't understand this concept!

[@SchrodingersCat8813]

This is awesome! I’ve never heard of CVT, great job explaining it, and such an interesting idea to try it in F1. Honestly I’d love to see it tested just to know what it could do…though yeah I can’t imagine it’s sustainable for a race. But with modern technology who knows?

[@alexplays4569]

Maybe its time for FIA to review some banned car features like they did with the 2022 cars, because some of the tech created on the 80-90-2000 made F1 be known as "the pinnacle of motorsport"

[@boopitywoop7981]

WDYM?It is still the pinnacle of motorsport. No other motorsport have this amount of R&D Plus the banned old techs will just eliminate driver's talents and replace the sport with machine precision instead of human talent

[@philiptownsend4026]

I agree. Motorsport generally discourages innovation these days It used to feature competitor engineering and I loved that. It's all politics now.

[@kiefershanks4172]

CVTs would also gain a traction advantage since the car is much less likely to be upset by gear changes (brief spikes in wheel force) since it all happens continuously. This would make the car easier to control on throttle in corners and push harder because you are not limited to a single gear. This would be especially true following corners with changing radii. Driving in rain would also be easier since drivers have better fine control over managing wheel force with a CVT. The smoothness of power delivery is pretty important to maintaining control and a CVT really makes that easier to accomplish. So yes, I believe it was banned mainly because had it been done reliably back then, it would've had a huge advantage over geared cars.

[@klausbrinck2137]

It has all advantages, cause the system we have is flawed to its core and straight unnatural, but sadly, we cannot do better with current technology. CVTs work cheaply up to 20hp, and beyond that, they become crazy expensive. My CVT is regulated by a single spring, and some rolling weights, and every 10.000km, I unmount half a pulley (1 screw), to replace the belt... Fixing the gears on my (rather simple) bicycle takes longer and costs more...

[@mclarenscca]

Man, i would love to see Williams competitive again!

[@gerbulus]

Fun fact : The DAF cars where just as fast forward, as backwards. There were races on TV with the DAFs driving backwards.. Lots of fun!

[@Herezjush]

I was in DAF museum and I saw CVT in the F1 look like bolid, it had one cvt per one half axle (meaning that each of rear wheels could have separte rpms)

[@joostprins3381]

DAF had in the 60’s a F3 car which did 2 races I believe. At least one at Zolder and 1965 at Monaco where it finished 7th. In 1967 it had 2 victories, it was by then a Brabham DAF.

[@chrishenniker5944]

I think it was a factory transmission from a production car.

[@joostprins3381]

@@chrishenniker5944 modified for the higher torque, but indeed it was from a production car.

[@RyanPerrella]

How rad is it that we have a community where we can learn about F1 from Nigel Mansell’s son who has actual experience in an F1 car and has the enthusiasm to make short films to tell us all about his favorite topics? Thanks Scott, you’ve exposed me to so many aspects of F1 that are just inaccessible to someone who’s only experience with F1 cars came from models, books and the friday-sat-sun weekend tv broadcasts. Thanks friend.

[@umi3017]

The only sim that support CVT afaik is BeamNG, you can fit one into a race spec touring car. I tried, I like the ideal the engine always run in sweetspot, but the sound just killed me. I'm not a ICE sound enthusiast and live perfect with EV sound, but the constant RPM sound really makes me unable to judge power input and output, makes the control very difficult.

[@JessSimpson1313]

CVT + Blown Defuser would have been world beater. Having the engine just always redlining while the acceleration peddle only adjusting the CVT so that the blown Defuser was always hot but the car was only accelerating via increasing the CVT ratio.

[@Tj930]

Great video. Also brilliant that you got hold of DC!

[@philiptownsend4026]

DC looked young there. I think it was old archive footage

[@user-bt4pi6ey3r]

Didn't you upload a video about this car a little while ago?👍🏻

[@IAmLeutrimTopalli]

That’s what I’m saying!?

[@littletweeter1327]

i know in the sports car world, manuals are all the rave.. but cvt tech is super damn cool.

[@ronaldderooij1774]

The other Williams car with CVT is on display at the DAF museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, I believe. They created the CVT for Williams and for their own street cars, obviously.

[@markknoop6283]

Klopt voor de trute schudder .

[@ronpool6577]

The CVT (or Variomatic) was designed by Daf in the late 1950's.

[@techadmirer6475]

i havn't known much of anything about CVT until now, now it's probably my favorite type of Transmission, thanks for the knowledge. i imagine they banned it because people like the sound of gears changing, it's a shame but i must admit i would miss that sound if i watch F1 raceing.

[@faisalmayanja1]

Beautifuly explained and engineering as well!

[@SamWall]

Finally found the gearbox in fast and furious

[@noquartergiven7789]

You do a fantastic job with your videos!

[@leebull3152]

De ja vu? Swear you uploaded this video a year~ ago

[@philliumo]

Do you want to do a video on how this is different to the "CVT" that Koenigsegg is using?

[@felixlindgren4146]

Koeniggsegg isn’t using a CVT, they’re using a hydraulic coupling. It’s basically a very fancy torque converter, which you can find in many different automatic cars.

[@AwkwrdPrtMskrt]

That's a direct drive system, not infinite gearbox.

[@DiegoNoriegaOggo87]

Thanks for using my Grand Prix 4 3D model car at 9:42 :) Great video BTW

[@GertvandenBerg]

There are actually bicycle CVTs as well.... Last time I looked the range of ratios was not as wide as that of gears. (Some of the electronic ones have cool features like allowing you to pedal at a constant speed)

[@alsa4real]

Love the word play the editor is doing in between scenes.

[@ConsciousAtoms]

Small correction: the Williams CVT car is in the DAF museum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, not the Williams museum as stated near the end of the video.

[@dawnguard6472]

Only found this channel a few months ago, binged all of your videos! Great channel! Sure you’re not related to Nigel??

[@gabeholstein4085]

I love your videos keep up the good work

[@aaronanish7400]

Great vid, now can you guys do the active suspension?

[@wietzehuitema5158]

It was a dutch company, the origin of the system was called variomatic or VDT (Van Doorne Transmission) and used in DAF roadcars, later on in Volvo cars produced in Born (the Netherlands). The car is on display in the DAF museum in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. I saw information on this car and the car itself when I visited the museum. Pretty cool idea and engineering.

[@josesegarramarques9921]

Nowadays I am rallying a DAF 66 Marathon Coupe with Variomatic transmission. Really a delight to drive.

[@philiptownsend4026]

That is super. To be better you must be different.

[@michielshub]

The Williams F1 car in question is on display at the DAF museum in Eindhoven (NL). For anybody interested in cars and trucks a great museum to visit by the way. Also the famous Turbo-Twin Dakar racing trucks are there. The CVT steel belts are actually still being made in Tilburg at Bosch Transmission Technologies, previously known as Van Doorne Transmissions.

[@rodmorgan7041]

Love this. Keep it up!

[@arakwar]

Seeing things like this make me wish that there was a "open time trial" event during the week-end where each constructor were allowed to send in cars with new technology to get the best lap time. Current FIA rules makes it quite complex to try to innovate, and there would be so much more interesting technology coming from F1 if there was room to experiment.

[@philiptownsend4026]

As there was once 🙁

[@MrMarinus18]

7:40 It was Dutch, DAF which usually makes lorries. They had a small lineup of cars though and their cars also used a variometic gearbox which makes them fairly unique compared to other cars. One feature of the variometic also is that you have a gear for reverse which means the car can go almost as fast backwards as it can go forwards which is what the DAF 600 became famous for.

[@krakhedd]

1 issue - The maximum torque point around 6:00. HP is a torque rate and the reason you go faster and accelerate faster is due to torque....because it increases the HP. So the sweet spot for the CVT is still the HP peak of the engine, no matter whether it's a slow corner or a high-speed straight

[@Lopez_the_heavy]

Perfect analogy

[@nic-gk9br]

brilliant explained, thx 🙏😎

[@jareknowak8712]

5:50 I think You might be wrong here. For max acceleration the engine will always need to be at highest power, not highest torque rpms. Gearbox will always provide the max torque at the wheels when the engine works at highest power revs. Gearbox ratio (high reduction) will take care of this.

[@hexgraphica]

Infinite gears, I can't deny them

[@Skelterbane69]

Is this an iron maiden reference?

[@tollygul12]

Its not infinite. There is a maximum final drive you can have. Between the max and min there are infinite amount of "gears"

[@DavidGarcia-oi5nt]

So everyone's gonna ignore the fact that this is a repost of the same exact video from 1.5 years ago? Even the same thumbnail and title.

[@batista9419]

I was thinking the same, I couldn't see ppl in the comments saying that. I couldn't be having a déjà vu

[@formulaben]

It's probably because the original was edited, and a re-post shows it as a new video.

[@RogerMiller-td5yc]

The vid posted years ago showing the design of the hd gear driven cvt seems to have been scrubed from u tube. The origanal designer is an electronic engineer, and the design was acquiesced by the military for drive systems, and to maintain rpm for alternators. Ive yet to have a chance to look inside john deere tractors, but i assume they have been given righs for their drive systems seeing as they are superior to hydraulic systems.

[@nikkidixon5672]

93 Williams perhaps had 770/780 bhp, not 850... pneumatic valves were a new thing this year and they were still learning...94 they had over 800bhp, Ferrari V12 even more 👍👍

[@eTiMaGo]

A CVT? I have one in my econobox :p Always been fascinated by this technology

[@kamui004]

Formula 1: "The pinnacle of innovation, but not too much or we'll nail you down like a sticking nail"

[@ClaytonMacleod]

Peak acceleration is at peak power, not peak torque. (Unless by some coincidence a particular engine makes peak power at peak torque, which I don’t think would be very common. But then this would still be at peak power anyway.)

[@danielmax3327]

great video

[@beiowend9150]

Adrian Neweys comments on why the CVT got banned: "In reality, however, Ferrari heard of our plans and complained. Ferrari complaining was to become a recurring theme over the ensuing years. If Ferrari didn't like something (usually because they couldn't get it to work for themselves), they complained to the FIA. Whether or not they were assured of a sympathetic ear is up for debate. I'm sure Max and Bernie would strenuously deny Ferrari were ever showed favouritism. Suffice to say, however, that it was around this time that those in the pit lane began to refer to the FIA as Ferrari International Aid. (It was years later, in 2015, that it emerged that Ferrari did indeed have a secret contract with the FIA that allowed them to veto any regulation changes - galling confirmation of a 'special relationship' that we always suspected but until then had never had confirmed.)"

[@JPWest020]

DAF - nowadays known as a truck manufacturer- is the inventor of the CVT. Most trucks have 12 gears. Sometimes 16. (Aside from some special vehicles)

[@uniearesende]

amazing content

[@kirisaki.777]

LETS GO ITS UP AGAIN WOOOOOO

[@klausbrinck2137]

5:11 That´s why 50cc-2stroke-racing-bikes have as many gears as the number of corners of a single race-track-round, sometimes up to 14 gears. Each gear matches perfectly to a single corner of the race-track.

[@GeoSebastians]

I love CVT. Amazing to drive once you figure it out. Powerful at times, while being efficient too.

[@orcastrike7750]

I have yet to see an actually good CVT that’s made a car better. It’s usually terribly executed in passenger cars. Is there any good examples of CVT that’s been useful?

[@BoB-Dobbs_leaning-left]

@@orcastrike7750 Yes, the DAF 33 to 66

[@GeoSebastians]

@@orcastrike7750 The Honda City Petrol model, that has a CVT mated to a VTEC engine, so most of the time, it's a Beauty that can effortlessly switch to Beast mode.

[@orcastrike7750]

@@GeoSebastians now that sounds like an interesting car. It’s just too bad that here in the States we only get terribly made and incredibly emotionless CVT’s that make driving feel like nothing.

[@rymace2261]

@@orcastrike7750 💯

[@ericrickert3045]

I can see that this would take the shifting out of the hands of the driver, and making the car more automatic. This is also part of the stated reason for banning active suspension.

[@mobythemerpup1515]

Darth Sidious: “GEARS!!! UNLIMITED GEARS!!!!!!”

[@MrHenkjan1998]

That walking animation was a perfect explanation

[@markgoudsblom]

Seen the car at the DAF museum, so cool.

[@nickdegroot1866]

Actually the FW15c is on display at the DAF museum in Eindhoven. This company also designed and produced the cvt.

[@jessiebrader2926]

I used to buy used Daf vans from the Dutch government in the late seventies. Wonderful Variomatics, two belts, one for each rear wheel. If a belt broke you could get home on one belt. Also cheap and easy to replace the belts. 750cc and good for 70 mph, forwards or reverse!!

[@yerrie1908]

The belt is from Van Doorne/DAF who for their DAF road cars were looking for a solution for a long time, the problem was that with more power the rubber belt would brake.

[@Aviopic]

This is the Dutch Van Doorne cvt currently used in several cars and above all trucks and busses. This belt does NOT pull, that was the original version used on Daf cars was a pull belt. This version is a metal push belt.

[@austinreed5805]

Williams was breaking F1 in the Early 90’s. No wonder F1 was nerfing them.

[@rob1399]

CVT gearbox cars are like go carts and scooters which is to say they can be silly fun

[@obamalore]

I thought i saw this video with different editing

[@prodkerstii]

Teams: we have a new cool idea FIA: how about no

[@andraslibal]

7:22 that is the mental image of an F1 car in my brain probably from my childhood ...

[@simboalex]

I'm fairly sure the "weeeeeeeeeeee" continuous sound was the reason for the ban. No F1 fans would've liked that.

[@SupraSav]

Love seeing a CVT attempt in F1.. the sound would have killed it for me though.

[@dotanuki3371]

Happy to see F1 catching up to my '86 Deutz Fahr combine harvester

[@Eduardo_Espinoza]

Thank you! This is half of the time that donut Media did! Quick to the point! 👍🏻

[@11jdstein]

Fantastic explanation

[@christopherknee5756]

Really? He goes over the same point numerous times! Annoying.

[@sixpackpilot]

The last image in this video is from a Williams (showcar?) in the DAF museum in Eindhoven (note all trucks in the background), not the Williams museum in the UK. I imagine Williams have the original car in their museum. DAF was the Dutch company assisting Williams with the development of the F1 CVT. The DAF museum does have an original Williams Van Doorne CVT-unit on display. DAF developed the first ever CVT, calling it Variomatic, for their first passenger car. All successive DAF passenger car models used it.

[@Ronin_PB]

I have one in my Mitsubishi Mirage. Glad to see this Formula 1 technology put to good use 😅

[@costellinify]

It's not Formula 1 tech. DAF invented this for more than 3 decades before this experiment. It was already used in a wide variety of cars. DAF sold the company devision to Bosch.

[@Ronin_PB]

@@costellinify polo

[@chrismatthews6517]

The folks that come up with this ingenious stuff ain't from this earth lol they should be running the world. Awesome explanation

[@vintageludwig]

Basically they looked at a milling machine and was like "hold my gears".

[@mr.awesome2755]

They could do system where the car is always at max throttle, and the pedal varies the rpm in order to mediate power. Below idling rpm, the throttle would be lowered as normal. That would save the engines lifespan (which by extension increases the power teams could put through it), it would maintain an optimal rpm and power level at all times for the driver’s exact needs, and it would quiet the engine down more for the audience.

[@footballman10]

I Was given a vitz with cvt for a few days... late at night we found a nice piece of road and turned into a circuit... after 3-4 laps we broke it... every idication was showing on the dash screen. I think the cvt just could cope and the electronics gave in

[@nitromcclean]

Picture from Willams taken in a museum is not the Williams museum, but the DAF museum in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. I've been there and taken almost exactly taken the same picture.