Michael May (racing driver)

May studied engineering. In 1956, he and his brother Pierre entered the 1956 1000km of Nürburgring in a modified Porsche 550 Spyder.^[2][3] The car was equipped with an adjustable elevated wing above the cockpit that generated downforce (or down thrust) for enhanced braking and cornering speeds to reduce lap times. During qualifying, the car lapped the circuit four seconds faster than the Porsche factory team 550s. Porsche racing director Huschke von Hanstein protested and May was not allowed to start the race with the wing.^[4]

In 1961, May made his debut in Formula One with Wolfgang Seidel's team Scuderia Colonia. Driving a Lotus 18, May qualified 13th for the Monaco Grand Prix but was forced to retire due to an oil leak. He finished his second race, the French Grand Prix, in eleventh place after starting from 22nd on the grid. He was also scheduled to take part in the German Grand Prix on the Nordschleife. May also took part in three non-valid races for the World Championship. After a crash during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, May concentrated on engineering.

In the 1960s May helped developing a fuel injection system for Porsche. Impressed with May's work, in 1963 Enzo Ferrari hired May to work on the fuel injection for the Ferrari 158. May also persuaded Ferrari to switch to magnesium rims for his racing cars.

 

At the end of the 1960s, May developed a conversion kit with a turbocharger for Ford V6 engines. It increased the power from 108 hp (79 kW) to 188 hp (138 kW). At that time, there were only turbochargers for diesel engines, which could not withstand the high exhaust temperatures of gasoline engines. May led the exhaust gases from one cylinder bank through a long pipe around the engine, where they cooled down and mixed with the too hot exhaust gases from the other cylinder bank, reaching a temperature that the turbine could tolerate.^[5]

He also worked in designing high-compression engines, improving fuel economy among other things.^[6] The most notable example was his reworked 'Fireball' head for the 'high-efficiency' high-compression Jaguar V-12 HE engine.^[7][8]

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1. ^ Sources disagree as to the spelling of May's first name. Forix and The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who say "Michael", whereas www.grandprix.com says "Michel" and this 8W article lists both. However, this source offers evidence that it's "Michael".