Quote Originally Posted by fan-veteran
So V6? I cannot see such a turbo engine for IRL being more than 2.5L. And what rpms, maybe somewhere 10k-11k (as is now). The power limit for speed/safety issues on ovals was proved to be around 700-720 bhp. For road and street courses of course power can be increased to something like 800 bhp or even more without speeds reaching somekind of dangerous levels.
Years ago, a fellow from Cosworth posted here every now and again. Other than him, the only other person who I believe could (reliably) address that would be Hoop98. Certainly there have been small displacement, race bred turbo 4 and 6 cylinder engines in the past that could easily hit 700-800hp. In the case of the BMW and TAG-Porsche F1 units of the 80's, 700-800hp would have been nothing special. I don't know what boost levels they ran, but I know the fuel mixtures were exotic, to say the least. Assuming they stay with ethanol, what size V-6, spinning how fast, with how much boost would be necessary to get that 700-800hp???

I think what the IRL is going to have to balance is performance vs. cost. For about $15 million per 2 car team per season, they could run F1 spec engines (based on some Cosworth numbers from a couple of seasons ago). We all know that's not realistic for the IRL. So what is? I don't know... something close to the million or so that they have now? Don't know. And if you allow the manufacturers to subsidize teams with discounted engines, what happens if & when a manufacturer leaves? What happens if they only want to subsidize certain teams and not others? What happens if the top manufacturer only wants to supply the top (or certain) teams? For whatever reason, the IRL chose to follow CART's engine lease path. Depending on who and how many sign on, it'll be interesting to see how this issue is dealt with too.