Michael_May_(racing_driver)
Michael May (racing driver)
Swiss racing driver (born 1934)
Michael[1] May (born 18 August 1934 in Stuttgart, Germany[1]) is a former racing driver and engineer from Switzerland. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 May 1961. He scored no championship points.
After a crash during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, May concentrated on engineering, helping to develop a fuel injection system for Porsche and Ferrari.
May is generally credited with introducing the first manipulated elevated wing onto a racing car - a Porsche 550 Spyder- to produce downforce (or down thrust) for enhanced braking and cornering speeds to reduce lap times. The modified 550 was entered by May and his brother Pierre in the 1956 1000km of Nürburgring. During qualifying, the car lapped the circuit four seconds faster than the Porsche factory team 550s. However, race organizers disqualified the car following a complaint by Porsche racing director Huschke von Hanstein. The wing was removed for the remainder of the car's racing career.[2][3]
He also worked in designing high-compression engines, improving fuel economy among other things.[4] The most notable example was his reworked 'Fireball' head for the 'high-efficiency' high-compression Jaguar V-12 HE engine.[5][6]
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