In a ceremony broadcast online starting at noon Wednesday, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard revealed the chassis concept for the next several years of IndyCar racing.
The new car is not a car at all. Instead of picking one of the five complete chassis proposals—BAT, DeltaWing, Lola, Swift, and Dallara—the league has chosen to have Dallara build a universal safety cell/suspension unit while allowing any firm to design and build its own bodywork and aero package.
This removes the criticism that every car is exactly the same—–a “spec” car—while still addressing the important issue of runaway costs, that inevitably rises when different companies produce competing chassis designs.
The new car is designed to be lighter, and also cheaper, that the current Dallara chassis.
“Our goal was to maintain the IZOD IndyCar Series as the fastest and most versatile racing in the world,” said Brian Barnhart, president of competition and racing operations for the IZOD IndyCar Series.
The new car is not a car at all. Instead of picking one of the five complete chassis proposals—BAT, DeltaWing, Lola, Swift, and Dallara—the league has chosen to have Dallara build a universal safety cell/suspension unit while allowing any firm to design and build its own bodywork and aero package.
This removes the criticism that every car is exactly the same—–a “spec” car—while still addressing the important issue of runaway costs, that inevitably rises when different companies produce competing chassis designs.
The new car is designed to be lighter, and also cheaper, that the current Dallara chassis.
“Our goal was to maintain the IZOD IndyCar Series as the fastest and most versatile racing in the world,” said Brian Barnhart, president of competition and racing operations for the IZOD IndyCar Series.
“This strategy achieves the different looks that fans wanted while maintaining the close, intense racing that occurs at every IZOD IndyCar Series event, whether on a superspeedway, short oval, road course or street circuit. A new car also levels the playing field, giving more teams a chance to succeed and generating more excitement for our fans.
“The significant reduction in the price of the new car is very important, as it helps to maintain economic stability for our teams as we transition to a new car. It also creates a more attractive avenue for new teams to enter the series.”
“The significant reduction in the price of the new car is very important, as it helps to maintain economic stability for our teams as we transition to a new car. It also creates a more attractive avenue for new teams to enter the series.”
One ingenious aspect of the League’s decision, is that it allows various manufacturers to get deeply involved at a reduced. It is possible that major automobile manufacturers, like Ford, Audi, BMW or Fiat/Chrysler—to name a few that have expressed interest—could build a branded car and get involved in IndyCar for a relatively low cost.
ICONIC Advisory Committee member Tony Purnell invited varied industries to get involved: “Come on Ford, GM, Lotus, Ferrari. Come on Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric. Come on you engineers working in your garage or in small shops. We’ve done our best to provide a framework for all of you to showcase your technical prowess without a need for a major raid on your piggy banks. We want you guys involved, all of you.”
ICONIC Advisory Committee member Tony Purnell invited varied industries to get involved: “Come on Ford, GM, Lotus, Ferrari. Come on Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric. Come on you engineers working in your garage or in small shops. We’ve done our best to provide a framework for all of you to showcase your technical prowess without a need for a major raid on your piggy banks. We want you guys involved, all of you.”
Because all the cars will share a basic structure, have the same or similar engines, suspensions, and wheels, the finished cars should share similar base performance.
The aero package is open, so manufacturers could tinker with bodywork and wings to gain advantages over their competitors, but would likely never be so far off the mark that they would embarrass the parent company (important if the League wants to keep major manufacturers as partners.)
This concept—a safety cell with open aero package—opens up IndyCar for non-automotive companies as well. Any aerospace or airplane firm could build a body package and get national advertising on every race weekend.
All aero kits must receive IndyCar approval before production and must cost less than $70,000 per car.
Dallara’s rolling chassis will cost $349,000—a 45 percent price decrease from the cost of the current Dallara chassis.
The new chassis, ready to race, will be 185 pounds lighter than the current car, ensuring similar performance with the projected 550-700 bhp power output specified by the League’s latest engine rules.
The ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) Advisory Committee, picked by Randy Bernard to develop the next-generation chassis concept, focused on the attributes of safety, raceability, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, relevant technology, American-made, green and modern looks.
The committee is overseen by retired Air Force general William R. Looney III, who was in charge of updating the Air Force’s fighter fleet.
The ICONIC committee is composed of IndyCar Competition Director Barnhart; Tony Cotman, a two-time Indianapolis 500 crew chief who served as vice president of operations for the Champ Car World Series and oversaw its implementation of a new chassis; Gil de Ferran, the former sporting director for Honda F1 and current IZOD IndyCar Series team managing partner; Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway; Rick Long, longtime developer of high-performance racing engines and co-founder of Speedway Engine Development; Tony Purnell, former technical consultant to the FIA and found of Pi Research; Neil Ressler, former chairman of Jaguar Racing in F1 and principal design engineer for Ford.
The aero package is open, so manufacturers could tinker with bodywork and wings to gain advantages over their competitors, but would likely never be so far off the mark that they would embarrass the parent company (important if the League wants to keep major manufacturers as partners.)
This concept—a safety cell with open aero package—opens up IndyCar for non-automotive companies as well. Any aerospace or airplane firm could build a body package and get national advertising on every race weekend.
All aero kits must receive IndyCar approval before production and must cost less than $70,000 per car.
Dallara’s rolling chassis will cost $349,000—a 45 percent price decrease from the cost of the current Dallara chassis.
The new chassis, ready to race, will be 185 pounds lighter than the current car, ensuring similar performance with the projected 550-700 bhp power output specified by the League’s latest engine rules.
The ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) Advisory Committee, picked by Randy Bernard to develop the next-generation chassis concept, focused on the attributes of safety, raceability, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, relevant technology, American-made, green and modern looks.
The committee is overseen by retired Air Force general William R. Looney III, who was in charge of updating the Air Force’s fighter fleet.
The ICONIC committee is composed of IndyCar Competition Director Barnhart; Tony Cotman, a two-time Indianapolis 500 crew chief who served as vice president of operations for the Champ Car World Series and oversaw its implementation of a new chassis; Gil de Ferran, the former sporting director for Honda F1 and current IZOD IndyCar Series team managing partner; Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway; Rick Long, longtime developer of high-performance racing engines and co-founder of Speedway Engine Development; Tony Purnell, former technical consultant to the FIA and found of Pi Research; Neil Ressler, former chairman of Jaguar Racing in F1 and principal design engineer for Ford.
