behind closed garage doors

[spiritone]

Good column in Valvoline racing web site. http://www.valvoline.com/racing/behind-closed-garage-doors/2855.

[ChicagocrewIRL]

to paraphrase "damn the safety issues, FULL SPEED AHEAD!!"

"Insanely fast" with a bazillion horsepower is how IndyCar should proceed. These cars should be the most challenging to drive, the most powerful to drive, the most dangerous to drive.

Give each team a set budget and have them build something from scratch. No limits. No specs.

[garyshell]

to paraphrase "damn the safety issues, FULL SPEED AHEAD!!"

"Insanely fast" with a bazillion horsepower is how IndyCar should proceed. These cars should be the most challenging to drive, the most powerful to drive, the most dangerous to drive.

Give each team a set budget and have them build something from scratch. No limits. No specs.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, "most dangerous", "no specs". Please tell me this was a joke.

Gary

[Chris R]

great article - and Gil DeFerran is not a driver I would have regarded as reckless or overly "macho".....

"Insanely fast" sounds about right. I am not sure a completely open formula will cut it because there do need to be safety measures - but we can clearly see that spec racing does not necessarily favor interesting racing....

[Blancvino]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, "most dangerous", "no specs". Please tell me this was a joke.

Gary

Do we need to list all the name the bought it at Indianapolis in the 70's as the speeds outpaced technology?

[nigelred5]

241.428 mph.. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. BOUGHT THE T-SHIRT!

I'll leave out the Most "dangerous" and replace with most "challenging" to drive, but I'd love to see the series opened up again to a run what cha brung within acceptable safety standards. I don't care what pushes it, as long as it pushes it FAAAAASSSTTTT!! There's no need for Tom Carnegie at the brickyard anymore. He hasn't uttered the phrase "It's a NEW track RECORD" in ages.


Gil's spot on. What Indycars always represented (to me at least) was the fastest racing cars on earth.

[nigelred5]

Do we need to list all the name the bought it at Indianapolis in the 70's as the speeds outpaced technology? however you have to admit the track itself is far safer than in the 1970's, not just the cars driving on it.

[spiritone]

I think what the article is trying to point out is that the present car has absolutely no appeal to the general race fan. This is clearly born out by the declining tv ratings. Formula 1 is number 1 in the world because there cars are insanely fast. They are not only fast, they look fast. We are not talking about dangerous fast, we are talking about the appearance of being the fastest cars and backing it up at the tracks that bring you publicity (indy)

Think about it, if you were trying to sell this series what would use to attract an audience? It certainly isn't the car. The drivers right now have no appeal simply because there is no american superstar among them. Cart was once popular because it had the unser's and the andretti's and they were driving for the biggest owners. Right now you have the biggest owners employing foreign drivers. As good as they are they cannot be sold to the american public right now.

The old series was popular because there was a good mix of tracks. Right now i don't think indycar has that. Where are the road america's, the clevelands and the replacement for milwaukee.

Like the article says, if there is still a series around, the new car and engine is critical to the future success of openwheel racing in this country. It must look insanely fast and be able to back it up. When the new champ car was rolled out and turned a faster lap than the toyota f1 car at lacuna thats the type of publicity the new car needs. It doesn't matter if the car is in legal trim or not it needs to have the appearance that it is one of the fastest cars on the planet. You need to capture the publics imagination.

For you people who are worried about safety, we're not in the 70's anymore. The car safety is miles ahead of where it was in the 70's. The drivers equipment is miles ahead of where it was in the 70's. Do i advocate unlimited speed at the ovals, of course not, but what i would like to see is less emphasis on areo and more on mechanical grip. Let the drivers be the deciding factor.

Indycar is in desperate need of new leaders, some forward thinkers. The new engine rules have been delayed much to long. Openwheel racing is on the brink. Lets hope there is still some fans around by the time this new car is introduced.

[Blancvino]

however you have to admit the track itself is far safer than in the 1970's, not just the cars driving on it.

No augment.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Faster racing isn't always better racing. NASCAR laps most circuits at 70'% of what an Indycar will do, yet they race better and have more fans. Some of that is hype but they RACE. This year's Indy 500 was almost processional by comparsion. We need innovation and maybe more speeds, but at a track designed in 1909, you have to be really careful with the idea of having cars running 250mph laps. God forbid someone got airborne and into the stands....

[Andrewmcm]

That's the thing - the placement of the stands at an oval-track is very counter-intuitive for safety. If anything the grandstands should be on the inside of the turns.

[fan-veteran]

Fast? That means high top speed, right? Or high average speed? :) The reason for "cuote: "This year's Indy 500 was almost processional by comparsion", (which i think was not so) is ... tyres, tyres ruined the race, like in 2008, they did too many marbles and other rubber dust and had made parts of track slippery.
As for Indy - 220-225 mph cornering speed and 235-240 mph top speed would be pretty good IMO. And no rubber dust on the track anymore :) ...(hard tyres should solve the problem).
As for technical specifications - maybe turbo engines on methanol, more power on road circuits (boost to say a little over 1000 bhp, there were days in F1 with similar power) and less for ovals (say 800 bhp for Indy); less downforce from wings?

[Easy Drifter]

Sorry but hard tires can also go off as they slide more and overheat.

[NickFalzone]

I thought this years 500 was boring as hell and as far as I know, the tire compound wasn't any different from 08 or 07 (then again those races weren't all that either). I think it comes back to bigger issues with the current spec of the car, that they tried opening up from Kentucky on this season as far as rear wickers, downforce settings, etc. What we saw at Homestead was not great, but it was a real step up from the racing there the last few years. What having a discrepancy in speeds does is it allows more passing. You might say, well it also allows more lapping, and it does. But it keeps more than a single-file lane open, because that passing is going on and cleaning up the high line. So when you get to the last 10 laps and everyone's going for it, there's a real chance for a pass for the win. Whereas if all the cars are spec'ed out to identical they seem much more likely to run single-file, and you have the very fastest cars that can't get around the slowest cars, only one lane to drive in by the time it came to try and lap the end of the line. That happened several times earlier this season and was terrible to watch.