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10th February 2010, 12:43 #31
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Originally Posted by indycool
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10th February 2010, 13:16 #32
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Little late for that.
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10th February 2010, 13:24 #33
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Let's put it this way. It's about money and conflicts of interest. With four chassis out there, nobody's going to make any bucks. With two, someone will be faster and all the teams will gravitate to that car, a la Dallara and G Force/Panoz, which also had some quality engineers, or Ken Anderson, who designed the Falcon, who is a quality engineer. The DW is a Johnny-come-lately who has excited a few people but that's the substance of it. Do you honestly think that Zytek and Elan is poised to gear up for this? Elan has already failed. And just why is the DW a good idea?
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10th February 2010, 15:50 #34
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If Bowlby designed cars for Lola, I'd like to know when. Bruce Ashmore was there forever,
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10th February 2010, 16:14 #35
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IC..you say no one will make money if there is open competition, but I fail to see why the business model that used to exist isn't valid? Is it the lack of money in Indycar to buy new chassis? Teams wont buy new ones, but repair the old ones? I think at some point, the playing field should be kept open, and let the manufacturers make the call on whether they want to participate. Capitalism dictates if you cant make money, you will get out. The IRL shouldn't be making that decision, the teams will do it for them by buying or not buying any chassis from whomever. If this series goes to back to one Chassis for all by law, it is a short sighted decision that will hurt their crediblity to take back the place they used to have.
"Water for my horses, beer for my men and mud for my turtle".
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10th February 2010, 16:43 #36
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Mark, if four mnufacturers arein, that's roughly 5-6 cars per manufacturer. That's a lot of $$$$ for 5-6 cars. Past that, if it doesn't go fast, the customer base will drop rapidly. Could well put people out of business, like G Force.
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10th February 2010, 16:44 #37
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With the current variety of courses, I'd argue that there's a reasonable chance that 2-3 chassis makers could legitimately compete. Now yes, there would likely be a single dominant oval chassis, but on the roads and streets we might see some variety in strengths. And with the schedule slightly more heavily titled to those courses, that might mean chassis competition could work again. I don't think we'll see it, for the previously mentioned cost reasons, but I don't think it's fair to say one chassis is likely to quickly dominate on all courses.
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10th February 2010, 18:04 #38
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Originally Posted by indycool"Water for my horses, beer for my men and mud for my turtle".
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10th February 2010, 18:17 #39Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
It may not be his job to see that Dallara or anyone else makes a profit, but it IS his job to make sure he doesn't create a situation where there are NO suppliers at all. Ask a company to agree to a situation where they will be in a position to build only 5 or 6 cars a year, meet certain safety specs, submit chassis for destruction to insure that meet those specs, and cap the cost of the cars to a number you set and they will tell you to go suck eggs. Their design, tooling and setup costs can't be recouped in that scenario. We are talking carbon fiber these days, not tube frames or aluminum monocoque.
Gary"If you think there's a solution, you're part of the problem." --- George Carlin :andrea: R.I.P.
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10th February 2010, 18:46 #40
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Originally Posted by indycool
Bowlby was chief designer at Lola until 2002 (http://www.racecar-engineering.com/a...olis-500.html).
I think that makes him every bit an expert as the good folks at Lola, Swift, and Dallara.
As for Ashmore, he was at Lola until 1993, when he left to work his magic at Reynard. As you know, Reynard dominated until the last generation Lola Champ Car came out in 2000. IIRC, Bowlby had been with Lola for nearly 12 years- and like Ashmore, was a chief designer.
I admire your will Mirek to argue with the windmills here.
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