The tech does filter down to the consumer though. Moving away from F1 to Rallying, The Audi quatro system, first used on their championship winning race car is now used on basically all their models.
Sticking with Audi we have their win at LeMans with their diesel powered race car. If you read top gear magazine you would see that they now basically recommend the diesel version of MOST of the cars available on the market.
Then lets go to Mazda, who were racing rotary powered engines wherever they could, resulting in the Renesis engine in the RX8. You want innovation? The renesis engine can run on Hydrogen with just a few modificaitons.
rustypup wrote: we need transportation mechanisms which don't burn fossil fuels
you turning into some sort of commie hippy?
rustypup wrote: that don't produce stockpiles of non-degradable/unrecoverable rubber, plastic, heavy metals and foul oil...
I think as far back the 90's Mercedes was making car that were 90% recyclable. Don't quote me on that figure. But they were using recyclable / bio degradable materials for everything from the paint to the roof lining.