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Post by stuboyle on Sept 25, 2009 15:37:46 GMT -5
IndyCar dodged a bullet boys. Looks like Honda has signed through 2011.
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Post by illeagle10 on Sept 25, 2009 16:01:32 GMT -5
To bad they can't get some other competitive engine manufacturers and chasis makers. I guess we just have to weather the storm and be thankful for what we have. Even the tire wars were fun!
Jim
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Post by indy on Sept 25, 2009 16:19:52 GMT -5
The IRL has only themselves to blame for the chassis situation - limiting it to three and picking an upstart over Penske and Lola  Well the upstart dies and Panoz fades away so Dallara conquers all. Maybe Lola would still be interested in the IRL but I think Penske Cars (the England based chassis manufacturing plant) is gone now!? Jordan |
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Post by stuboyle on Sept 25, 2009 17:23:55 GMT -5
I thought for a while there that the Penske was just a modified Lola. Is that right?
I kind of forget now. Did the Panoz die-out just because it wasn't competitive?
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Post by indy on Sept 25, 2009 18:03:17 GMT -5
Penske raced his chassis exclusively from 88-99. In 2000 & 2001, he ran Reynards in CART and they got so heavily modified they started calling them "Renskes" (REynard peNSKES). In 2001, Penske made two IRL starts in Dallaras. They switch the the IRL full time in 2002 using Dallaras. In 2003, Penske ran both chassis - in the 500 Gil won in a G-Force while Helio finished 2nd in a Dallara. Since 2004, Penske has run Dallara exclusively though there have been several tweaks along the way ;D
Jordan
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Post by SWT500 on Sept 25, 2009 21:53:08 GMT -5
Panoz had issues from the very beginning in 1996-97. The carbon work was terrible, parts availablity, customer service and organization was worse and the G-Force, later Panoz, always had a very narrow sweet spot. No matter what was done to them, they pushed. Dallara on the other hand, worked steadily to improve and did. By 1998, they had surpassed G-Force. The gap continued to grow and only the very heavily modified cars of Montoya in 2000 and DeFerran in 1993 had really dealt with the inherent problems. Customers without tremendous engineering resources simply tired of this and just stopped buying them. Riley & Scott's pitiful efforts were not at all competitive and Dallara just survived the natural selection process. The IRL was understandably guy shy with Lola and Penske cars because of all the politics and chicanery that went on in CART in previous years. I could fill a book with some of that information. Like the war, politics or business, one really does not know what goes on unless one is on the inside, behind the scenes. Everything else is speculation.
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Post by clm1545 on Sept 26, 2009 9:34:32 GMT -5
Other cars and engines can be done. Look at the Grand AM DP series. It sure is not perfect but they have many car, engine combinations. It takes a good rules package and a good tech inspection team. I'm not sure that the IRL is capable of either. Just remember that in racing, the most money will not always win, but that is the way to bet.
My $.02
Craig
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Post by stuboyle on Sept 26, 2009 10:15:41 GMT -5
Panoz had issues from the very beginning in 1996-97. The carbon work was terrible, parts availablity, customer service and organization was worse and the G-Force, later Panoz, always had a very narrow sweet spot. No matter what was done to them, they pushed. Dallara on the other hand, worked steadily to improve and did. By 1998, they had surpassed G-Force. The gap continued to grow and only the very heavily modified cars of Montoya in 2000 and DeFerran in 1993 had really dealt with the inherent problems. Customers without tremendous engineering resources simply tired of this and just stopped buying them. Riley & Scott's pitiful efforts were not at all competitive and Dallara just survived the natural selection process. The IRL was understandably guy shy with Lola and Penske cars because of all the politics and chicanery that went on in CART in previous years. I could fill a book with some of that information. Like the war, politics or business, one really does not know what goes on unless one is on the inside, behind the scenes. Everything else is speculation. That's for the info. Very interesting. I think its time you wrote a book! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2009 20:28:57 GMT -5
I might be crazy, but I thought that some time in the past year there was a big meeting at Indy where several companies were invited to discuss engine building and that a few were very interested. What happened to all that?
Mongo
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Well the upstart dies and Panoz fades away so Dallara conquers all. Maybe Lola would still be interested in the IRL but I think Penske Cars (the England based chassis manufacturing plant) is gone now!?
