Porsche Indy Car

[Calvin]

I do kinda like the Porsche with the Turbo in front of the engine.

[mjjracer]

Feb 28, 2014 12:08:56 GMT -5 Calvin said:

I do kinda like the Porsche with the Turbo in front of the engine.

Now that is beautiful.

Of course, I can't think of any early '90s Indy cars that weren't.

MJ

[indy]

Feb 28, 2014 12:08:56 GMT -5 Calvin said:

I do kinda like the Porsche with the Turbo in front of the engine.

I think it was the '90 that had the turbo in front of the engine. It is a rather unique packaging attempt. The big exhaust exit and metal on the sidepod are pretty different in their thinking.

Still surprising to me how fast March went from dominating to gone. I mean, they won Indy from '83 to '87 (including 30 cars on the '84 500 grid) in '89 they won a CART race but after '90 they were out of IndyCar.

Jordan

[pje]

I guess I'm a bit of the odd man out here, but once I saw the 1990 Fosters car in person on display at Indy, I became quite interested in it. Spent a lot of time just looking at it from as many angles as I could as I photographed the car and kind of just tried to soak in the whole car. I found it be be much smaller and lower than a Lola from the same period and just overall a nice looking and very sleek car. Liked it enough that I have the 1/43rd scale kit and I for one would buy a 1/25th scale kit.

Paul Erlendson

[indycals]

Mar 1, 2014 1:02:30 GMT -5 pje said:

I guess I'm a bit of the odd man out here, but once I saw the 1990 Fosters car in person on display at Indy, I became quite interested in it. Spent a lot of time just looking at it from as many angles as I could as I photographed the car and kind of just tried to soak in the whole car. I found it be be much smaller and lower than a Lola from the same period and just overall a nice looking and very sleek car. Liked it enough that I have the 1/43rd scale kit and I for one would buy a 1/25th scale kit.

Paul Erlendson

Yes, but I think the car in question is this not-so-attractive car from the previous year:

[trevor83]

Feb 28, 2014 10:09:39 GMT -5 indy said:

Feb 28, 2014 8:56:45 GMT -5 2lapsdown said:

Very good points made by everyone. I'll go back to shoveling the driveway now.

Just to be clear, it is not a bad thing to discuss subjects that interests us here to see if it is worth producing. Previous discussions have yielded new cars and reissued of beloved previous issues. I like how we get to interact with the resin and decal guys here. My hope is that being part of the group here strengthens their business.

So, if you want something, I want you guys to speak up. My only request is to go easy on the vendors here and really make sure we appreciate them (they aren't in it for the money). Anecdotally, in reading about Chris Etzel hanging it up, I read that he did not appreciate showing his newly finished car to put for sale only to hear "so what's next." Sometimes, it is how we say something that matters. Remember to thank your suppliers for all they do, with your next order or just a quick email, note, or PM on this forum.

Off to read some more about the Porsche Indy effort, this thread has me catching up some more on the history of the project since I only caught Indy 500s back in those days of my childhood.

Jordan

Be sure to give this a look. Well researched. 8w.forix.com/march90p.html

[2lapsdown]

Thanks for the offer Calvin, but if I build it it will be curbside. And yes the Fosters cars were very nice. That's the one I was originally interested in when this thread caught fire. Great discussions though.

John

[kuzlynn]

Hi All,

A big thank you goes out to everyone who purchased the Lola Formula 5000 kit. I am in the process as of right now getting more kits put together for a second run. I am surprised that as many kits sold for being a non Indy car. Again, a huge thank you to everyone who bought one.

As far as the Porsche Indy car ( the Fosters Porsche), I have been kicking around the idea for a number of years about doing a kit. With the advent of 3-D technology, I plan on doing the Fosters car in 3-D with of course white metal for the suspension. I know that not everyone admires this car as much as I do, but sometimes I like to produce a kit simply because I love the subject matter. My Primus kit falls into that category. I will keep you posted on my projects. Thanks Kevin K.

[2lapsdown]

Boy, I didn't see that coming! Thanks Kevin, and congratulations on the Lola.

John

[clm1545]

Mar 1, 2014 10:17:35 GMT -5 kuzlynn said:

Hi All,

A big thank you goes out to everyone who purchased the Lola Formula 5000 kit. I am in the process as of right now getting more kits put together for a second run. I am surprised that as many kits sold for being a non Indy car. Again, a huge thank you to everyone who bought one.

As far as the Porsche Indy car ( the Fosters Porsche), I have been kicking around the idea for a number of years about doing a kit. With the advent of 3-D technology, I plan on doing the Fosters car in 3-D with of course white metal for the suspension. I know that not everyone admires this car as much as I do, but sometimes I like to produce a kit simply because I love the subject matter. My Primus kit falls into that category. I will keep you posted on my projects. Thanks Kevin K.

WOW, it looks like we have a new "machine". The Lola, 2 Lightnings, and now this.

[AJ]

i hope to have my 90p 1/18 done by may. That car was awesome!

[vintagethunder]

The rules were never re-written to exclude the Porsche full CF Chassis, they never allowed it in the first place (at the time in question). Porsche lobbied for an exception and were apparently given a verbal OK. They bet everything on what the others didn't do only because the rules didn't allow it. It was logical the regulars would balk and a ruling would be made in their favor. Porsche had tried working around the written rules before and been burned.

There was reason for Indy/CART not to embrace a full CF tub at the time. Indycars on an oval spent considerable time at a much higher speed than F1 cars were experiencing at the time, so F1 experience wasn't really a valid comparison. An oval collision often involved more than one impact, and the protection in those secondary impacts with CF was inconclusive. They did eventually embrace CF tubs but the material and it's utilization evolved into what they eventually adopted.

[Deleted]

Mar 1, 2014 20:43:48 GMT -5 vintagethunder said:

There was reason for Indy/CART not to embrace a full CF tub at the time. Indycars on an oval spent considerable time at a much higher speed than F1 cars were experiencing at the time, so F1 experience wasn't really a valid comparison. An oval collision often involved more than one impact, and the protection in those secondary impacts with CF was inconclusive. They did eventually embrace CF tubs but the material and it's utilization evolved into what they eventually adopted.

Safety was offered at the time as the reason for exclusion of March's CF tub, but safety was not the issue.

Both Penske Cars and Lola Cars knew March had a decided weight and CG advantage with the 90C. The March CF tub was excluded at the instigation of Roger Penske and Carl Haas (exclusive importer of Lola Cars at the time) in order to give both Penske Cars and Lola Cars time to catch up, and replace the then-stock aluminum honeycomb construction with CF.

In 1991, both Penske Cars and Lola showed up with CF tubs near identical in construction to the previous year's March, making it clear that safety wasn't the reason for Porsche's exclusion.

When you stop and think about it, March had over eight year's experience building Indy cars by 1990, so they knew exactly how rigid the Indy car tubs needed to be. They would never have built them unable to perform the task.

Penske and Haas had a lot of $$$ in the game, and Porsche/March had outplayed them on the track. Penske and Haas outplayed Porsche/March in the boardroom, behind closed doors. Yet another "unfair advantage".

The real shame with the Porsche project 2708 was the loss of Al Holbert. His untimely death handed the project to Derrick Walker, who has never shown the aptitude to manage such a program. Too bad.

FWIW,
Tom B.
Indy

[billgtp]

I would like to see the car made in 1/24. If I remember right Cart pulled some really cheap shots on Porsche at Indy.
I will give a call to a friend that worked for Dan Gurney & Patrick racing & find out.