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Trivia
You already know Michael Andretti will be the promoter of Milwaukee--hope his staff works it to bring out some numbers. Looks like Reubens Barachillo (sp) will announce next week his joining the Indy Car Series--with KV Racing--I wonder if he will only do the street/road course events--maybe that will leave a door open for yet another driver to do the ovals????????? Wouldn't it be interesting if Sarah Fisher Racing had to pay twice the cost for an engine as Roger Penske? Could happen--that would create a "big stink" in Indy Car Racing. And isn't it something that the winning car owner of the Indy 500 doesn't yet have an engine. Speaking of engines, its been years since the series has seen motors blow up--this might be the year when it is a standard occurance--but at least the sound of the engines will be incredible. Ed Carpenter Racing may get a second driver--from abroad--stay tuned all Italians. And Randy Bernard has been flying everywhere around the world working hard as the leader of the Indy Car Series--I was hoping his job might have been getting alittle easier as he enters his third year--I guess the work has been keeping him very busy.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by xorpheous on -
Engine failures were always an interesting and important aspect of the sport for me. If there are no engine failures, it tells me that the engineers aren't trying hard enough. I know many have flocked to the Honda camp, but I'm not so sure that I would be if I were a team owner. Honda doesn't have a good reputation when it comes to the reliability of their racing engines. The last few years don't count as there was no competition. Remember the Honda engines in F1? tick tick tick BOOM! Quite honestly, I think the best engines will be the Chevrolets and Lotuses as they're being built by the very skilled and very experienced engine manufacturers Ilmor and Judd, respectively. It seems that no one wants the Lotus/Judd engine, but Judd has been making championship winning engines for years and know what the hell their doing.
I'm very excited to see Rubens come to IndyCar. He had a great run in Formula 1, and he'll be a contender on the road and street courses. Will he race the ovals? I don't know. Perhaps at a place like Milwaukee. I could see him doing VERY well there. I suppose it all depends on the negotiations with his wife. Perhaps IMS, Iowa, and MKE, but not the high-banks of Fontana and Texas.
ECR is looking for an Italian? Fisi? How awesome would that be?
Bryan Herta has been totally screwed by the series. No engine, no TEAM, no luv.
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Permalink Reply by Daddy of Equalizer on
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@ Xorpheous - engines don't let go because technology/metallurgy are light years ahead of where they were even just 20 years ago. Todays 550 HP Indy Car engine will not be under a lot of stress compared to a 550 HP engine of yesteryear. (When was the last time an Indy Car ran with a paltry 550HP? In the 60's?)
When we have street cars with aftermarket junk putting out up to 1000 HP, and running without problems for years, I see the 550HP as a safe bet of sorts. I doubt we see any major internal engines meltdowns. 550 HP is there keep costs down, because there is no cutting edge technology required to constantly "up" the HP in an effort to stay ahead of the competition.
And yet, on that "other site", I see a few people talk about how cutting edge this car and engine are!! Shheeeeesh!!
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Permalink Reply by xorpheous on
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Well, it's not just about the total horsepower, but the power per displacement, hp/L, right? Yes, they're getting ~550 hp, but they're doing it with about 2/3 of the displacement they used to have. While I don't think these engines represent the pinnacle of powerplant technology, I do think they're going to be pushing the limits of these engines more than they have in these past few seasons when Honda was the only competitor.
I'm with you in regards to 550hp seeming very anemic for what is supposed to be the highest level of open-wheel racing in the US. What happened to the 750+ we were promised at least on road courses? It makes us sound 2nd rate and amateurish.
Lastly, if they wanted to keep costs down, mandate that teams can use any production engine they like. No exotic one-off designs, just purchase a crate engine from a catalog and go. I'm not keen on that, but if they really wanted to contain engine costs, there you go.
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Yeah, 550 HP is extremely anemic. Initially, there may be a few engine failures due to design flaws, but I seriously doubt there will be any internal failures leading to total engine detonation. Don't forget, in the 80's F1 had 1.5 liter 1000 HP + engines - supposedly they could boost them to almost 1500 HP during qualifying.
With road cars commonly getting far more HP than 550 HP and running for years, I don't see the IICS formula engines having any massive stress related failures.
I just wish the league had given the drivers the kind of power that they wanted.
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Permalink Reply by xorpheous on
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People don't go to wrestling matches to see scrawny guys beat each other up. Nobody goes to football games to see 160lb defensive lineman. And nobody goes to a NBA game to watch a 5'10" center.
Railroad, I think you just summed up the engine issue perfectly!
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@ RR - it's like I've said before - would Randy Bernard been successful at turning PBR into a winner if he had had to market 6 month old steers as rodeo bulls? Because that is what he is trying to do with Indy Car.
And just like Indy Car fans, there would be a segment of fans who would stick with and and loudly proclaim it the "real deal", by Gawd!!.
It's not the "real deal" in the PBR analogy - or the real world IICS.
To put it another way - who would go watch major league baseball if they decided to start using whiffle balls and bats. It wouldn't be MLB anymore, would it - although there would always be some fools who said it was.
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Permalink Reply by Gilbert K. Arnold on -
And it wouldn't be MLB if they used aluminum bats... I'm sorry but "tink" does not have the same emotive tug as "crack" when ball hits bat.
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Permalink Reply by Squall on -
If keeping costs down requires people being allowed to only push so hard and no harder, then keeping costs down is the best way to neuter the sport.
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When the "low cost Vision" was implemented 15 years ago, the neutering process began. Now, AOWR is in a Catch-22 / no win situation - they have low tech cars as a result of long term policy, but it has become a neccessity, instead of guideline.
End result - they have driven off most of the fans - sponsors reach far fewer people.
The series now can't afford to open up the rule book, because R&D / expenses will balloon, and most teams would find themselves out in the cold very quickly. Most fans simply don't care for this watered down version of Indy Car, and will continue to stay away.
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Permalink Reply by Linda Willareth on -
If Indy car is now low tech, then what do you call NASCAR? Certainly not high tech--and next to football, NASCAR has the biggest following in the country. I don't get it. I see marketing and TV exposure as the biggest reasons for the decline of Indy Car. TV is a must and when it comes to marketing, no one does it better than NASACAR.
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Permalink Reply by Josh on -
I agree with you Linda, it is pretty sad when the Busch/Nationwide/whatever the hell it is these days gets more coverage than an Indycar race. Marketing is big, 6 events on abc this year. Who knows, maybe we are headed in the right direction. I would like to hope.
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@ Linda - NASCAR is basically NO TECH. There is a lot of gimmickry that they don't need, and it seems to have driven off a good portion of their fan base. But most of the actual racing is good. Any driver who has driven both Indy Cars and cabs will tell you that driving cabs is a lot harder than driving an Indy Car.
But one of the big reasons for Indy Cars decline is because the technology has really gone nowhere. Teams are no longer showing up with their latest toys at Indy. The sameness of the cars, the "let's make it fair" attempt at an even playing field, and the cost control measures, which have become a necessity, has made Indy Car a very ordinary series.
If they want to return to greatness, they will give the drivers the kind of cars they want, and open up the technical rules.
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