Gerard, I had a look at
www.concours-lepine.com/
and concluded that I cannot think of anything (at least nothing I have heard of) that is similar.
That said I suspect that most research concepts from any UK University might qualify in some way for much the same reason that research projects come to the notice of the
Ig nobel Awards.
There was a time when innovation was especially active in motorsport at the very core of racing development and despite the teams being small and, mostly, lacking money.
In the modern day we might see advances in some areas but so many things are constrained - supposedly due to costs - that we end up with kit cars in various formulas that have a life expectancy pre-planned into the package. This is especially true for open wheel formulas but seems also to limit ingenuity (by which I mean serious new idea ingenuity not just clever ways to stretch the rules) in closed wheel racing as well.
But that, as they say, is probably a subject for a different thread.
As another nomination for the thread as intended - the Rover-BRM turbine car.