This 94th edition, won by Oliver Solberg in a Toyota, will be remembered for a long time to come. Extreme weather conditions, demanding routes, the 60 remaining crews were able to decide between themselves around the inflatable “donut” set up at the water’s edge. In torrential rain.
The organizer, theAutomobile Club de Monaco, wanted to bring together all the competitors, the public and the Monegasque track in a single event, the“Super Spéciale”.
To enable the many fans to watch the drivers up close, the organizers devised a “donut” in the middle of the circuit. Drivers had to complete a lap around a specific point. The only relevant way to pass the obstacle was toarrive fast, brake hard and skid with all four wheels. All this on soggy cobblestones.
Hurrah has developed an inflatable structure capable of handling all this.
This 1.50 m high inflatable silo had to combine several requirements. First of all, of course, it had to be in theACM and WRC colors, in keeping with all the signage displayed during the event.
As the Super Special was run at night, the object had to be backlit, so a spotlight was concealed inside, set so as not to dazzle the drivers.
As a “high-risk” object, this donut had to withstand the often unfortunate assaults of cars… in the event of contact, it had to stay in place. A suitable ballast ensured stability, while our printed textile structure allowed for pronounced “friction” without tearing or damaging the cars.
But the key to the success of this “donut” lay in its energy autonomy. Isolated on the edge of the quay, right in the middle of a stretch of the legendary F1 circuit, our structure housed an accumulator capable of keeping the wind tunnel running for several hours. It was unthinkable to lay an electric cable under the rubber of the cars.
Installed in just a few minutes, the inflatable donut was the highlight of the Super Special. As much as the cars, it endured 6 hours of torrential rain and wintry temperatures, without failing.
forced-air
in the rain
(no worries)
