In the higher reaches of motor racing, pitstops can be crucial. Shaving a few hundredths of a second off your time spent at zero velocity is surprisingly important.
Today’s invention is a small contribution towards that goal.
As the car is jacked up, an air driver is used to remove the wheel nut (yellow).
As the nut is removed, it rips open the tyre’s air valve, causing it to deflate via a tube directed towards the chassis (red).
This provides some extra momentum to the wheel being removed, so that it flies more readily off the axle.
