The "Ren-ske"

[seamusoldfield]

Does anyone remember, back in the glory days of CART and the mid-90s, Penske made heavy modifications to their off-the-shelf Reynards, so much so that the announcers took to calling them Ren-ske chassis?

My question is this - does the IRL allow for custom mods of this sort and, if so, why have we not seen radical chassis mods by some of the better-funded teams?

If the IRL does not allow for this, perhaps it could consider opening up the rules just a wee bit. It could liven things up while we wait for that new car . . .

Thoughts?

[chuck34]

Does anyone remember, back in the glory days of CART and the mid-90s, Penske made heavy modifications to their off-the-shelf Reynards, so much so that the announcers took to calling them Ren-ske chassis?

My question is this - does the IRL allow for custom mods of this sort and, if so, why have we not seen radical chassis mods by some of the better-funded teams?

If the IRL does not allow for this, perhaps it could consider opening up the rules just a wee bit. It could liven things up while we wait for that new car . . .

Thoughts?


I don't think they allow much development anymore. Remember the "windows" in the mirrors were a Penske development a few years ago. I think that was about the last thing they allowed.

I agree they should allow some mods. But then cost, etc. we get in this loop all the time. I'm sick of it. If you can't afford it, don't do it.

There that should get some people going (big grin) [slinks off to the back]

[Mark in Oshawa]

Chuck...I am with you. This constant drive for cost containment at some point has to go away. Not sure when that will be, but when you consider Ganassi and Penske will likely win 80% of the races anyhow, it says to me the best funded teams will win no matter what rules structure you put in place. It is the nature of the sport.

[chuck34]

Chuck...I am with you. This constant drive for cost containment at some point has to go away. Not sure when that will be, but when you consider Ganassi and Penske will likely win 80% of the races anyhow, it says to me the best funded teams will win no matter what rules structure you put in place. It is the nature of the sport.

Nail, head, you!

[garyshell]

Chuck...I am with you. This constant drive for cost containment at some point has to go away. Not sure when that will be, but when you consider Ganassi and Penske will likely win 80% of the races anyhow, it says to me the best funded teams will win no matter what rules structure you put in place. It is the nature of the sport.


But never forget, at the other end of that pendulum, you have the 1300 HP CanAm Porsches, or the IMSA Camel GT series or even F1 in ANY year.

Gary

[Wilf]

But never forget, at the other end of that pendulum, you have the 1300 HP CanAm Porsches, or the IMSA Camel GT series or even F1 in ANY year.

Gary
You take all the fun out of reckless dreaming!

[Civic]

From what I remember reading somewhere, no team can have exclusive mods on their chassis.

[V12]

But never forget, at the other end of that pendulum, you have the 1300 HP CanAm Porsches, or the IMSA Camel GT series or even F1 in ANY year.

*drools...*

I know this isn't very PC and probably a bit offensive to those team members whose livelihoods are at stake, but (IMO of course) the enjoyment of a few years of unrestricted-style racing such as that (before it goes belly-up) is worth decades of endless spec-car "cost-cutting" monotony.

[Chamoo]

I believe it went something like, teams can modify their cars, but they have to make the parts they come up with available to all teams at cost or something like that. So why modify the chassis, do all the R&D, simply for other people to use your work.

Then whenever Tony Cotman came on board, even that was disallowed.

[wedge]

Does anyone remember, back in the glory days of CART and the mid-90s, Penske made heavy modifications to their off-the-shelf Reynards, so much so that the announcers took to calling them Ren-ske chassis?

The dark days of Penske when they couldn't build a competitive chassis to save their lives, so much so they gave up and ran customer chassis ever since.

[seamusoldfield]

Seems to me that since a new car is so far off, why not open it up to the teams to improvise some bits and pieces? You could limit it to a certain number of components so the big teams couldn't go crazy and reinvent the chassis. We need something . . .

[DBell]

The dark days of Penske when they couldn't build a competitive chassis to save their lives, so much so they gave up and ran customer chassis ever since.

:D I was thinking along the same line. I always thought some used the term renske derisively.

[DBell]

Seems to me that since a new car is so far off, why not open it up to the teams to improvise some bits and pieces? You could limit it to a certain number of components so the big teams couldn't go crazy and reinvent the chassis. We need something . . .

I agree with you in theory, but no one has any money for developement. All that would do right now is let Penske or Ganasi come up with something and completely dominate.

[call_me_andrew]

Does anyone remember, back in the glory days of CART and the mid-90s, Penske made heavy modifications to their off-the-shelf Reynards, so much so that the announcers took to calling them Ren-ske chassis?

My question is this - does the IRL allow for custom mods of this sort and, if so, why have we not seen radical chassis mods by some of the better-funded teams?

If the IRL does not allow for this, perhaps it could consider opening up the rules just a wee bit. It could liven things up while we wait for that new car . . .

Thoughts?

I think the better part of the story was when they took the Renske to England and the Reynard engineers didn't recognize it.

[Civic]

I think it was Parker Johnstone who first used the term in a broadcast when he asked "Is it a Reynske or a Peynard?"

From what I remember, Penske played around with the Reynard's sidepods and vortex generators, opting to ditch the 99-00 dimpled sidepods in favor of 98-type sidepods. I think the first race with their new roll-over hoop was when GDF got the 100th win for Penske. They then changed over to a Penske Cars-type sidepod from their last Penske Champ Car chassis.

I'm not sure what rules were in place during Penske's first full IRL season but I seem to remember the Penske team experimenting with different sidepod flipups, possibly during the month of May.

[SarahFan]

The dark days of Penske when they couldn't build a competitive chassis to save their lives, so much so they gave up and ran customer chassis ever since.


Paul Tracy was very vocal about the car.... probably got him canned...


and he was right


the old man will never admit it