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Henkel injects Formula One tech into NASCAR

If you know anything at all about motorsports, you know a NASCAR Nextel Cup stock car has very little in common with the exotic, speed-at-any-cost Formula One cars that put on such a great show at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple weeks back.

Both have four tires, both go fast, and at least one of them can be counted on to show up and race as advertised. But I digress.

There is one other thing both cars have in common: technology from Henkel Group.

Henkel Group is the parent company of Loctite, which among other things is used to seal lug nuts to wheels in the Nextel Cup pits. Based in Dusseldorf, Germany, the company is active in both Formula One and NASCAR, the two premier motorsports series in the world.

You should remember Loctite. As part of the Permatex family of products, Loctite was the series sponsor for ARCA for many years, and teams from all facets of motorsports on this side of the pond used -- and still do, in some cases -- Loctite and Permatex products for a variety of needs. The company also makes Fast Orange hand cleaner, as well as other products.

A DEI crew member inspects tires. Credit: Autostock

Henkel is a technology partner of the McLaren F-1 team, based in England. Among the uses of Henkel products found in the McLaren shops are used to make molds for the team's wind-tunnel mock-ups. The team also uses Henkel products to make molds for things like wings out of carbon fiber.

Formula One budgets are something on the order of $200 million and up, way beyond the scope of any NASCAR team. Formula One technical specs read like NASA white papers, while NASCAR teams get by with a rule book that's thinner than the installation instructions for your brand new iPod.

There are, however, times where the two vastly different series use the same products, albeit on a much different scale.

Frekote, which is Henkel's mold release agent, is used by NASCAR teams in the construction of carbon-fiber air boxes and other "bits," in much the same way as F-1 teams use it. Frekote B-15 is a sealer that ensures carbon-fiber parts are free of pinholes that can upset air flow. In a NASCAR air box, which takes air from the windshield and cowl areas and directs it toward the intake ports of the carburetor, are extremely important, especially at a place like Daytona or Talladega.

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Frekote bonds to the surface of the mold without leaching off into the product itself, which allows repeated use of the molds.

Another product used by both F-1 and NASCAR teams is Hysol EA9686 film adhesive, which is also used to improve the strength of high-performance production car bodies. The film adhesive aids in the layup of materials, which are then cut to patterns and formed into specific parts, like the air boxes.

In NASCAR, Henkel has partnerships with Robert Yates Racing through its Loctite brand for drivers Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler. Henkel is also a sponsor on Greg Biffle's Busch Series car fielded by Brewco Motorsports.

The Henkel Group operates in three strategic business areas: Home Care; Personal Care; and Adhesives, Sealants and Surface Treatments. Among the industries served by these three key areas are the transportation, electronics, aerospace, metal, durable goods, consumer goods, maintenance and repair and packaging industries. Henkel also offers a broad range of products for the craftsman and consumer.

While motorsports is often an afterthought among some companies, Henkel is committed to it as a test bed for products it uses in commercial applications. For instance, at this year's Dakar Raid off-road event, which runs for three weeks and covers 10,000 kilometers of desert in Africa, Henkel sent an engineer along for the whole thing to provide technical backup and support at each of the way stations.

In addition, the company provided each competitor with an emergency kit of adhesives, sealants, maintenance products, cleaners and bonding tapes.

If a company can make that sort of commitment to desert racers traveling some of the roughest, most barren terrain on Earth, then it can probably make a difference when it comes to building parts for Cup cars.

Formula One cars are basically fighter jets with wheels instead of flaps, and NASCAR stock cars are production-based bodies on tube frames with the wheels covered. Both, however, need vigorous applications of technology, often where it's not readily evident to the naked eye.

Henkel provides those products on a regular basis, to both sides, and the sport is better for it.