Saturday, February 11, 2023

Chicane

Chicane (pronounced shi-keyn or chi-keyn)

(1) In bridge, a hand without trumps.

(2) In motor sport, one bend or a short section of sharp bends formed either by the design of the track or by barriers placed on the circuit.

(3) To quibble over; cavil at (now rare, probably extinct).

(4) A less common word for chicanery (deception; trickery); to use chicanery, tricks or subterfuge (rare).

1665-1675: A borrowing from the French chicane, from chicaner (to quibble (of obscure origin)), from the Middle French chicaner, from the Middle Low German schicken & schikken (to arrange), ultimately from the Proto-Germanic skikkijaną, origin of modern French chic.  The word has been used in English in various senses, including as an "act of chicanery” (the art of gaining advantage by using evasions or cheating tricks) from the 1670s.  The now most familiar sense, "obstacles on a roadway" didn’t emerge until 1955 (quickly spreading to motor-racing circuits) although it had been a technical term in bridge design since the 1880s.  All the English forms are from the archaic verb chicane (to trick), first noted in the 1660s, from the sixteenth century French chicane (trickery) from chicaner (to pettifog, to quibble).  Chicane, chicanery & chicaner are nouns, chicanerous is an adjective and chicaned & chicaning are verbs; the noun plural is chicanes.

Chicanery & low skullduggery: The film Mean Girls (2004) was based on Rosalind Wiseman's (b 1969) book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence (2002) which explored the interaction of the shifting social cliques formed by school girls.

Of the chicanery of the FIA

The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation)) has since 1904 been involved in the organisation and regulation of motor-racing.  The FIA used to be mostly harmless but in recent decades has degenerated into about the most dopey regulatory body in sport, making the men of World Rugby’s (the old International Rugby Board (IRB)) standing Laws Committee look like chaps of rare skill and talent.  For a long time the FIA have approved not at all of any interesting form of motor-racing, their response always to make things slower and more processional, a curious approach in a sport about speed.  Although most obsessed with publishing volumes of complex regulations which require the employment of FIA officials to administer, the FIA also has an almost fetishistic relationship with chicanes.  A chicane is essentially an obstruction which requires a racing car to slow to negotiate.  While curves, climbs and corners have always been part of just about any form of motor-racing, the FIA seems never convinced there are enough.  It’s suspected if the FIA had their way, there would be no straights on motor-racing circuits, just corners.

Le Mans, before and after.

Mulsanne Straight (Ligne Droite des Hunaudières in French) at Circuit de la Sarthe where the annual Twenty-Four Hours of Le Mans (24 Heures du Mans) is run was once 3.7 miles (6 km) in length.  It was one of the sport’s great institutions, the speeds attained a benchmark of progress in engineering and aerodynamics.

Year

Car

Config

CI

CM3

MPH

KM/H

1961

Maserati Tipo 63

V12

183

3.0

173.6

279.4

1962

Ferrari 330 TRI/LM

V12

244

4.0

182.9

294.3

1963

Ferrari 330 TRI/LM

V12

244

4.0

187.2

301.3

1964

Ferrari 330 P

V12

244

4.0

192.2

309.3

1965

Ford GT40 Mk1

V8

289

4.7

192.2

309.3

1966

Ford GT40 MkII

V8

427

7.0

201.5

324.3

1967

Ford GT40 MkIV

V8

427

7.0

212.6

342.1

1968

Porsche 908

F8

244

3.0

191.0

307.4

1969

Porsche 917 LH

F12

275

4.5

197.8

318.3

1970

Porsche 917 L

F12

275

4.5

205.2

330.2

1971

Porsche 917 K

F12

298

4.9

224.4

361.1

1972

Matra-Simca MS670

V12

183

3.0

205.8

331.2

1973

Ferrari 312 PB-73

F12

183

3.0

210.8

339.2

1974

Matra-Simca MS670C

F12

183

3.0

207.1

333.3

1975

Gulf-Mirage GR8

V8

183

3.0

193.4

311.2

1976

Renault-Alpine A442

V6

122

2.0

208.9

336.2

1977

Renault-Alpine A442

V6

122

2.0

218.2

351.2

1978

Renault-Alpine A442B

V6

122

2.0

227.5

366.1

1979

Porsche 936

F6

131

2.1

218.8

352.1

1980

WM P79

V6

165

2.7

217.6

350.2

1981

Porsche 936

F6

159

2.6

220.7

355.2

1982

Porsche 956

F6

159

2.6

220.1

354.2

1983

Porsche 956

F6

159

2.6

230.0

370.1

1984

WM P83B

V6

165

2.7

225.1

362.3

1985

Porsche 956B

F6

159

2.6

230.6

371.1

1986

Porsche 962C

F6

159

2.6

231.9

373.2

1987

WM P87

V6

165

2.7

236.2

380.1

1988

WM P88

V6

165

2.7

251.1

404.1

1989

Sauber Mercedes C9

V8

303

5.0

248.0

399.1

1990

Nissan R90CP

V8

214

3.5

226.9

365.2

These achievements impressed most but not the FIA which, for reasons of their own, decided to sabotage things, initially by reducing the maximum engine capacity in the premier class, firstly from seven litres to five and later to three.  When this didn’t prove sufficient to nobble the engineers, they insisted two chicanes be added to Mulsanne Straight.  They were installed in 1990 and proved effective, no car since has, in the race, come within 20 mph (32 km/h) of the marks set in the late 1980s and speeds in excess of 200 mph (320 km/h) are now rare.  The FIA has emasculated other circuits too; in 1987 a chicane was added to Conrod Straight at Mount Panorama, Bathurst in Australia.  Quite why the FIA remains involved in motor-racing isn’t clear when it’s apparent they'd be better suited to the administration of something like competitive basket-weaving.

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