New car news!!

When the people were dying at speeds pushing 240, no one was wearing a HANS and it was with chassis designed in the 90's originally.

I think this car with modern improvements will be safer at higher speeds.

I do think this car looks better, and since this is but ONE design, that is the key. Other body kits for this chassis will give the car a different look...and different engines will also spread the field a little. Hey...it is something new....and with more power, the drivers will have to work harder. None of this is a bad thing... and THAT my friends is the real point.

Safer? Safer for whom, the drivers or the rest of the folks at the track... pit crews, corner workers, spectators? Yes, the chassis improvements have mitigated a lot of the driver safety issues, but have done little or nothing to answer the other group of folks at risk with higher speeds. As I have said many times before, I think the constant chasing the dragon represented by "a new track record" is a fool's errand. I think it touches a chord in only a very small, yet vocal, constituency of Indy car fans. We do not need constantly higher speeds to create good racing or fan excitement.

Gary

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

Were their more fatalities with speeds under 200 or over 200?

Honest question

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Of course there were more under 200, but that is because there were many more miles driven under 200 and more miles driven in clearly unsafe equipment. I think the proper question would be:

Were their more fatalities per mile drive under 200 or over 200?

Gary

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Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa

When the people were dying at speeds pushing 240, no one was wearing a HANS and it was with chassis designed in the 90's originally.

I think this car with modern improvements will be safer at higher speeds.

I do think this car looks better, and since this is but ONE design, that is the key. Other body kits for this chassis will give the car a different look...and different engines will also spread the field a little. Hey...it is something new....and with more power, the drivers will have to work harder. None of this is a bad thing... and THAT my friends is the real point.

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There is no doubt the new car provides a good safety cell for the driver, the safer barriers provide another way to reduce damage when contact is with the walls, the Hans device has greatly reduced the number of deaths due to the head continuing while the torso stopped, but what have they done to keep the cars out of the grandstands? Those tunnels still turn into wing bottoms when the attitude changes.

I would love to see a new track record at Indy or any other oval, but when we kill spectators the game is over. Enjoy the speed increases at the road and street circuits. The records for the ovals may be beat by fractions but I don't anticipate a 10 mph increase at any oval.

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Originally Posted by garyshell

Safer? Safer for whom, the drivers or the rest of the folks at the track... pit crews, corner workers, spectators? Yes, the chassis improvements have mitigated a lot of the driver safety issues, but have done little or nothing to answer the other group of folks at risk with higher speeds. As I have said many times before, I think the constant chasing the dragon represented by "a new track record" is a fool's errand. I think it touches a chord in only a very small, yet vocal, constituency of Indy car fans. We do not need constantly higher speeds to create good racing or fan excitement.

Gary

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The current car certainly has items in place to help the driver and others you mention. New to this car is the wider body work, and rear crash structurewhich are in place to prevent wheel-to-wheel contact and the flying caraccidents that can result. This is better for drivers and those at the track.

Carry over safety features that protect others at the track include teathered wheel hubs, and rear wings. The wheel teathers came about after CARTand the IRL had fan fatalities at Michigan and Charlotte within a year of each other. The wheel stays were also in place to keep awheel in place even if the nut was left off, again to prevent a wheel fromcoming off and potentially getting jettisoned into the stands like what happenedin 1987.

We can hope and pray that the changes will help prevent ANY fatalities, butthere at times things can happen which no one can predict.

EagleEye, yes I should have been more clear I was referring to the previous iterations chassis throughout the years. I am a BIG fan of the structures on the new car to prevent wheel to wheel contact. And while the tethers are designed to do this, too many times they have failed. (Not to suggest they be eliminated, mind you.) But again I was really thinking more about the specific effects ot 240+ mph speeds and what those effects have on the saftey of all of those around the track.

Gary

Ratings and attendance are at all time lows.... Clearly those who opion is wrong .......i

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Originally Posted by garyshell

Safer? Safer for whom, the drivers or the rest of the folks at the track... pit crews, corner workers, spectators? Yes, the chassis improvements have mitigated a lot of the driver safety issues, but have done little or nothing to answer the other group of folks at risk with higher speeds. As I have said many times before, I think the constant chasing the dragon represented by "a new track record" is a fool's errand. I think it touches a chord in only a very small, yet vocal, constituency of Indy car fans. We do not need constantly higher speeds to create good racing or fan excitement.

Gary

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So fan support is based soley on chasing the dragon? Is that what you are saying?

Gary

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Originally Posted by SarahFan

Ratings and attendance are at all time lows.... Clearly those who opion is wrong .......i

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Attendance at Indy has been increasing the last 5 for so years and last year was the best since the split.

There is no doubt a new track record would be exciting, but a car, not a wheel, wing or chassis part, in the grandstand would end it all. Briscoe was 25 feet in the air and the new rear bumper would not have come into play.

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Originally Posted by garyshell

So fan support is based soley on chasing the dragon? Is that what you are saying?

Gary

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No .... I'm suggesting your claim that only a handful of diehard forum posters care claim is clearly false...

The current post split retuned Honda outdated da Lara era has, besides an occasional blip, produced the lowest rated and attended era the sport has ever seen....and not just talking the 500....

That is indisputable .....clearly the silent majority have spoken....