One day after the Honda Indy 200, a completely different IndyCar circled the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio: the first running version of the next generation of IndyCar turned its first test laps Monday.
Announced in July 2010, the new chassis has gone from dream to track in just over 12 months, quite a quick gestation for a top-tier racing machine starting from a blank page.
“It’s a great day, to see the work of many individuals in a very short amount of time out on the racetrack,” said project manager Tony Cotman in an IndyCar press release. “It’s the start of a new era for IndyCar.”
The winner of the 2011 Indianapolis 500, Dan Wheldon, was behind the wheel of the new car Monday for the first of 12 days of testing of the car, which many in IndyCar management hope will spark a resurgence in interest in a sport that has languished due to internal politics, and also due to a nine-year-old chassis that all the teams were forced to use.
The past is gone, and the future looked and sounded good as it sped around the Mid-Ohio circuit with Wheldon at the wheel. The car doesn’t look like an F1 car, nor does it look like the old IR3 and IR5 Dallaras.
The new car, designed to be lighter, stiffer, safer, and more powerful, has features all its own, like the drag-reducing rear “bumpers” which should increase speed while limiting cars launching over each other.
Whether or not fans take to the new design (or its many variants; more on that later) will depend as much on the car’s performance as its appearance. And for that, fans will need to wait a while still. Initial tests are designed to test durability, not top speed.
“We need to make sure the parts from all aspects of the car are achieving their goals, so we’ve got aero targets and straight-line speed targets that we’re looking to see,” IndyCar vice president of technology Will Phillips explained. “We want to make sure the basics are right first before we go pushing for those targets.”
Still, with horsepower figures between 700 and 800 being bandied about, in a chassis lighter than the current car, one has to assume performance will improve.
“It’s a lighter car, it has more horsepower and it has a lot less drag than the current car, so naturally on the right day it will go quicker and that’s something that the fans have to look forward to,” Cotman said.
Announced in July 2010, the new chassis has gone from dream to track in just over 12 months, quite a quick gestation for a top-tier racing machine starting from a blank page.
“It’s a great day, to see the work of many individuals in a very short amount of time out on the racetrack,” said project manager Tony Cotman in an IndyCar press release. “It’s the start of a new era for IndyCar.”
The winner of the 2011 Indianapolis 500, Dan Wheldon, was behind the wheel of the new car Monday for the first of 12 days of testing of the car, which many in IndyCar management hope will spark a resurgence in interest in a sport that has languished due to internal politics, and also due to a nine-year-old chassis that all the teams were forced to use.
The past is gone, and the future looked and sounded good as it sped around the Mid-Ohio circuit with Wheldon at the wheel. The car doesn’t look like an F1 car, nor does it look like the old IR3 and IR5 Dallaras.
The new car, designed to be lighter, stiffer, safer, and more powerful, has features all its own, like the drag-reducing rear “bumpers” which should increase speed while limiting cars launching over each other.
Whether or not fans take to the new design (or its many variants; more on that later) will depend as much on the car’s performance as its appearance. And for that, fans will need to wait a while still. Initial tests are designed to test durability, not top speed.
“We need to make sure the parts from all aspects of the car are achieving their goals, so we’ve got aero targets and straight-line speed targets that we’re looking to see,” IndyCar vice president of technology Will Phillips explained. “We want to make sure the basics are right first before we go pushing for those targets.”
Still, with horsepower figures between 700 and 800 being bandied about, in a chassis lighter than the current car, one has to assume performance will improve.
“It’s a lighter car, it has more horsepower and it has a lot less drag than the current car, so naturally on the right day it will go quicker and that’s something that the fans have to look forward to,” Cotman said.
The Dallara ‘Safety Cell’
When current IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard took over in 2009, he asked the fans what changes they wanted, and the overwhelming answer was, a new car—and not an identical car for every team. Fans wanted to see diversity, competition between manufacturers, development, and innovation.
This presented a huge challenge. How could IndyCar, which was still healing from a 15-year battle between sanctioning bodies (there were two competing “IndyCar” series between 1995 and 2008) and which was facing an … “interesting” revenue situation, manage to attract manufacturers? And how could IndyCar keep costs of a new car low enough that the impoverished teams could afford new chassis, spare parts, and equipment?
Randy Bernard created what he called the ICONIC Committee, people from many aspects of racing, presided over by an Air Force general (who would surely know about procurement, evaluating competing programs, and controlling cost overruns).
Instead of picking a replacement car, the ICONIC Committee chose a novel approach: Dallara, maker of the current car, would produce a “Safety Cell,” consisting of the chassis, suspension, nosecone, and some aerodynamic parts, while different companies could contract to produce some of the bodywork and aerodynamic parts.
This kept cost low, via the mass-produced chassis and common suspension, but still gave manufacturers an opportunity to give each car unique flavor and competition characteristics.
This presented a huge challenge. How could IndyCar, which was still healing from a 15-year battle between sanctioning bodies (there were two competing “IndyCar” series between 1995 and 2008) and which was facing an … “interesting” revenue situation, manage to attract manufacturers? And how could IndyCar keep costs of a new car low enough that the impoverished teams could afford new chassis, spare parts, and equipment?
Randy Bernard created what he called the ICONIC Committee, people from many aspects of racing, presided over by an Air Force general (who would surely know about procurement, evaluating competing programs, and controlling cost overruns).
Instead of picking a replacement car, the ICONIC Committee chose a novel approach: Dallara, maker of the current car, would produce a “Safety Cell,” consisting of the chassis, suspension, nosecone, and some aerodynamic parts, while different companies could contract to produce some of the bodywork and aerodynamic parts.
This kept cost low, via the mass-produced chassis and common suspension, but still gave manufacturers an opportunity to give each car unique flavor and competition characteristics.
Next: Aerokits, Engines
Aerokits
The Safety Cell option gives manufacturers the best of both worlds: controlled cost, and branding opportunities. Chevrolet can still build a Chevrolet IndyCar; Honda’s car can be a Honda, Lotus can call its car a Lotus; but none of these manufacturers will have to spend the hundreds of millions needed to produce an entire car from scratch.
Even more important, none of these manufacturers will likely be too far off the pace, as all the cars will be similar. There is nothing a manufacturer hates worse than spending hundreds of millions to produce a losing race car. The Safety Cell option lessens that chance.
The individual bodywork/aero packages, called “aerokits,” will create visual differences that are important in attracting fan loyalty. People want to be able to recognize their favorite cars.
The aerokits will also create performance differences. Different cars might perform better on different circuits. Some will have higher downforce, some lower drag, all in varying degrees. This will create more on-track action as cars could be faster at different parts of the track—drivers might be able to pass and re-pass many times in a lap.
Manufacturers will be allowed to produce two sets of aerokits per season, each in an oval- and road-course variant. This will allow producers to upgrade as they learn their strengths and weaknesses, but also puts a reasonable limit on development, to avoid the spending wars which have ruined some other series.
Three companies have contracted to build motors for the 2012 IndyCar season: Honda, which has been the sole supplier since 2008; Chevrolet; and Lotus. The new engines will be turbocharged 2.2-liter V6s; Honda is going with a single turbocharger, Chevrolet and Lotus reportedly with two.
As with the aerokits, the different engines will provide different levels of performance under different circumstances, which should improve competition.
After the testing wraps up at Mid-Ohio, Honda and Dallara will travel to the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway for oval-track testing, likely with completely different bodywork.
Even more important, none of these manufacturers will likely be too far off the pace, as all the cars will be similar. There is nothing a manufacturer hates worse than spending hundreds of millions to produce a losing race car. The Safety Cell option lessens that chance.
The individual bodywork/aero packages, called “aerokits,” will create visual differences that are important in attracting fan loyalty. People want to be able to recognize their favorite cars.
The aerokits will also create performance differences. Different cars might perform better on different circuits. Some will have higher downforce, some lower drag, all in varying degrees. This will create more on-track action as cars could be faster at different parts of the track—drivers might be able to pass and re-pass many times in a lap.
Manufacturers will be allowed to produce two sets of aerokits per season, each in an oval- and road-course variant. This will allow producers to upgrade as they learn their strengths and weaknesses, but also puts a reasonable limit on development, to avoid the spending wars which have ruined some other series.
Engines
Three companies have contracted to build motors for the 2012 IndyCar season: Honda, which has been the sole supplier since 2008; Chevrolet; and Lotus. The new engines will be turbocharged 2.2-liter V6s; Honda is going with a single turbocharger, Chevrolet and Lotus reportedly with two.
As with the aerokits, the different engines will provide different levels of performance under different circumstances, which should improve competition.
After the testing wraps up at Mid-Ohio, Honda and Dallara will travel to the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway for oval-track testing, likely with completely different bodywork.
