Richie Hearn Car Question ???

[Deleted]

Hey Guys,

Would you happen to know which Engine Richie Hearn and his Team used when they had the All-Red Budweiser Swift ? Was it the Toyota or Ford Engine. I know when he had the All-Red Budweiser Reynard the car had the Toyota Engine in it. Also, later hen he had the White and Red Ralph's Supermarkets Swift the car had the Ford Engine in it.

I have a couple of Swift die-cast cars and I'm having Custom Decals for the cars and I need to make sure I put the right Valve Covers on the Engine and that I put the right Engine Decals on the car.

Hope to hear fro you soon.

Thank you Everyone !!!

[mrpeters]

Ford

[SteveK51]

Swift-Ford in 1998
Swift-Toyota, then Reynard-Toyota in 1999




Reynard-Toyota with a carousel of drivers in 2000

[Deleted]

Thank you Guys for the Information. This Helps a lot !!! I can't believe the Expense some Team go though to run better by Switching Cars and Engines in Mid-Season.

Thanks Again !!!

[indy]

Aug 3, 2015 18:29:03 GMT -5 @robber40 said:

Thank you Guys for the Information. This Helps a lot !!! I can't believe the Expense some Team go though to run better by Switching Cars and Engines in Mid-Season.

Thanks Again !!!

Engines had yearlong leases so those very rarely ever changed. Ilmor/Phoenix was dropped by a back marker in 2001 after an ownership change but that's the only mid-season engine manufacturer change that comes to mind in this era.

Switching chassis was much easier, it only took spending more money to make a switch! Multiple teams ran multiple chassis in the same year during this era. When Newman-Haas switch to new to CART Swifts for 1997, Lola lured Forsythe and Patrick Racing to run their cars for 1997 but in preseason testing the new Lola had huge flex issues that made it really inconsistent to drive which made them SLOW. Those two teams were back in Reynards by the start of the season (sometimes running a '96 car until they could get their new '97 Reynard). Tasman wanted to switch to Reynards for 1997, too, but the Reynard factory couldn't fill the orders until the end of May so Tasman stuck out the year with the improving but still underperforming Lolas. The Payton Coyne team switched chassis so often in multiple years that it is too much to really even go into LOL. Penske tested a Reynard in 97(?) to compare to their Penske chassis but never ran it in a race. Penske bought and ran a Lola in 1999, alternating it with the Penske PC28B depending on the track. Team Penske brought their Penske PC28B chassis to the Houston GP when I expected them to bring the Lola. I ran across a Penske mechanic in the paddock on Friday and asked him why they brought the Penske when I thought they would bring the Lola. He just gave me a look and walked back to his pit area LOL. When AAR started running their in-house Eagles chassis (basically a rebodied Reynard) in 1998 they raced one team car with the Eagle and the other with the Reynard. In 1999, Robby Gordon didn't like his Swift in preseason testing so Robby bought a year old Reynard which he ran for the first three races. King Hiro owned Swift and controlled the Panasonic sponsorship on Robby's car, so Hiro kept pressuring Robby to run the Swift. Robby switched to the Swift for most of the season before running an Eagle most of the races from Chicago to the season finale. I have pics of Robby running his Swift at practice during the race weekend at Laguna Seca before settling on the Eagle for the race. Patrick Racing was also supposed to run Swifts for 1999 but Adrian Fernandez jumped back to Reynards at the beginning of the year. Until the Patrick team could get a new car delivered from Reynard, they patched together a complete car from 1997, 1998, and 1999 parts. I want to say it was a 1997 tub with 1998 bodywork and 1999 suspension but I might have that switched up a bit. The car was lovingly dubbed "Frankenstein" and actually won Motegi with the parts from various years. His teammate, Patrick Racing's #20 run by PJ Jones early in 1999 stayed with the Swift a lot longer into the season. Y2K was pretty stable with only Coyne alternating one car from Swift to Lola, it seems Hiro took his Panasonic $$$ to Coyne in exchange for them running his Swift, too. Coyne's car that didn't have Panasonic sponsorship ran a Lola all year LOL. 2001 was a very stable year, I do not believe there were any chassis changes and only Blair racing dropping Phoenix for Ford is the only big change I remember. In 2002, several big teams (Green and Mo Nunn, IIRC) started the year with Reynard but switched to Lolas during the year. At that point, Reynards were not being developed by the manufacturer because they had gone bankrupt so the Lolas had overtaken them as the top performers with superior downforce/drag numbers. AFAIK, everyone in 2003 stuck with what they started with chassis-wise as everyone was now running Fords under the CCWS banner. In 2004, when everyone but Walker Racing was running a Lola, MiJack Conquest took a Reynard out of the mothballs for Justin Wilson (an oval rookie) to run at Milwaukee and they looked really smart because Justin spun the car in T2 on the opening lap and broke the front wing partially off. The Autocourse books have good references to what car ran which race, the 20 years of CARTs book done after 1998 is especially helpful because of how many years it covers.

Jordan

[Calvin]

Aug 3, 2015 23:58:02 GMT -5 indy said:

Engines had yearlong leases so those very rarely ever changed. Ilmor/Phoenix was dropped by a back marker in 2001 after an ownership change but that's the only mid-season engine manufacturer change that comes to mind in this era.

Switching chassis was much easier, it only took spending more money to make a switch! Multiple teams ran multiple chassis in the same year during this era. When Newman-Haas switch to new to CART Swifts for 1997, Lola lured Forsythe and Patrick Racing to run their cars for 1997 but in preseason testing the new Lola had huge flex issues that made it really inconsistent to drive which made them SLOW. Those two teams were back in Reynards by the start of the season (sometimes running a '96 car until they could get their new '97 Reynard). Tasman wanted to switch to Reynards for 1997, too, but the Reynard factory couldn't fill the orders until the end of May so Tasman stuck out the year with the improving but still underperforming Lolas. The Payton Coyne team switched chassis so often in multiple years that it is too much to really even go into LOL. Penske tested a Reynard in 97(?) to compare to their Penske chassis but never ran it in a race. Penske bought and ran a Lola in 1999, alternating it with the Penske PC28B depending on the track. Team Penske brought their Penske PC28B chassis to the Houston GP when I expected them to bring the Lola. I ran across a Penske mechanic in the paddock on Friday and asked him why they brought the Penske when I thought they would bring the Lola. He just gave me a look and walked back to his pit area LOL. When AAR started running their in-house Eagles chassis (basically a rebodied Reynard) in 1998 they raced one team car with the Eagle and the other with the Reynard. In 1999, Robby Gordon didn't like his Swift in preseason testing so Robby bought a year old Reynard which he ran for the first three races. King Hiro owned Swift and controlled the Panasonic sponsorship on Robby's car, so Hiro kept pressuring Robby to run the Swift. Robby switched to the Swift for most of the season before running an Eagle most of the races from Chicago to the season finale. I have pics of Robby running his Swift at practice during the race weekend at Laguna Seca before settling on the Eagle for the race. Patrick Racing was also supposed to run Swifts for 1999 but Adrian Fernandez jumped back to Reynards at the beginning of the year. Until the Patrick team could get a new car delivered from Reynard, they patched together a complete car from 1997, 1998, and 1999 parts. I want to say it was a 1997 tub with 1998 bodywork and 1999 suspension but I might have that switched up a bit. The car was lovingly dubbed "Frankenstein" and actually won Motegi with the parts from various years. His teammate, Patrick Racing's #20 run by PJ Jones early in 1999 stayed with the Swift a lot longer into the season. Y2K was pretty stable with only Coyne alternating one car from Swift to Lola, it seems Hiro took his Panasonic $$$ to Coyne in exchange for them running his Swift, too. Coyne's car that didn't have Panasonic sponsorship ran a Lola all year LOL. 2001 was a very stable year, I do not believe there were any chassis changes and only Blair racing dropping Phoenix for Ford is the only big change I remember. In 2002, several big teams (Green and Mo Nunn, IIRC) started the year with Reynard but switched to Lolas during the year. At that point, Reynards were not being developed by the manufacturer because they had gone bankrupt so the Lolas had overtaken them as the top performers with superior downforce/drag numbers. AFAIK, everyone in 2003 stuck with what they started with chassis-wise as everyone was now running Fords under the CCWS banner. In 2004, when everyone but Walker Racing was running a Lola, MiJack Conquest took a Reynard out of the mothballs for Justin Wilson (an oval rookie) to run at Milwaukee and they looked really smart because Justin spun the car in T2 on the opening lap and broke the front wing partially off. The Autocourse books have good references to what car ran which race, the 20 years of CARTs book done after 1998 is especially helpful because of how many years it covers.

Jordan

OMGosh! ROFL! I'm too dyslexic to read that Jordan!....it looks like wall paper to my eyes.

If anyone has ever noticed.

I always split my sentences up when I post stuff.

[Calvin]

But thanks for the wealth of knowledge Jordan! I like the passion! I get a kick out of it....that's what I'm mainly laughing about.

[indy]

Aug 3, 2015 23:58:02 GMT -5 indy said:

Y2K was pretty stable with only Coyne alternating one car from Swift to Lola, it seems Hiro took his Panasonic $$$ to Coyne in exchange for them running his Swift, too. Coyne's car that didn't have Panasonic sponsorship ran a Lola all year LOL.

You gotta love YouTube. Tonight, I was watching the 2000 CART Season Preview show from Speedvision and found some more info on the Swift saga for 2000. Swift originally signed with Forsythe to be the chassis for the #77 car driven by Bryan Herta (the ex-Tasman team ran Kanaan in McD liveried #44 in 1999). Swift did not get Jerry Forsythe's two Player's sponsored cars to run their chassis, those two cars stayed Reynards. Herta's Swift Honda already had Panasonic livery in preseason testing, remember Hiro controlled both Swift chassis and Panasonic sponsorship so these were a package deal in 1999 and 2000. In Spring Training, the Swift chassis was the slowest with little/no progress afterwards. Then suddenly Steve Horne (the current team manager for the #77 and former team owner) quit. The final straw turned out to be that Forsythe was not able to get a 3rd franchise from CART (which was consistent with the by-laws of the time). Therefore, Jerry pulled the #77 car from full-time competition and only ran Herta at Laguna Seca (where he had won the last two years) in a Honda-powered Reynard. To start the 2000 season, both Coyne drivers were in Lola-Fords. After three rounds, Gualter Salles and the unsponsored Lola were dropped from the #34 team in favor of Tarso Marques in a Panasonic sponsored Swift-Ford for the balance of the season. Coyne also swapped drivers in his #19 car as Takuya Kurosawa (races 1-4 & 7-10) started the season then Salles returned (races 12-14) before Alex Barron finished the season (races 15-20). After a lackluster 2000, the Swift joined the Penske and Eagle chassis in the history books! In just over a year the CART series went from five chassis down to just two.

In talking about his optimism for 2000 in his Newman-Haas Lola/Ford, Michael Andretti put a lot of the team's struggles from 1997-1999 to running the Swift. Even though the Newman-Haas team won each season with Swift, they only managed four wins in three years.

Excuse my tangent but the Swift story just highlights Bryan Herta's star crossed 2000 season. Rahal sacked Herta for 2000 in favor of running 1998 IRL champ and 1999 Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack in the Shell #8 car. Without Toyota or Castrol dollars, Dan Gurney's AAR team signed Herta in hopes of running a Ford powered Lola or Reynard in 2000. After an unsuccessful search for a sponsor, AAR folded their operation and Bryan was lucky to get the Honda-powered ride with Forsythe. When Jerry folded the #77 team, Bryan ended up without a ride. I mean, what are the odds to sign with two teams and have them both fold!? In the lead up to Long Beach, Herta agreed to sub for the injured Shinji Nakano at Walker Racing right before Patrick Carpentier's injury became known. Given Herta's status with Forsythe, I think Bryan would have been the logical replacement for Patrick but when Herta was promised elsewhere then Memo Gidley got to drive the #32 for three races versus the two races Herta got at Walker. Herta's second and final subbing job in 2000 was three races at Mo Nunn's new team after Kanaan was injured. Herta's sixth and final start of 2000 was an unsuccessful bid to win Laguna for a third straight year. It should be said that fourth place for a team's only outing showed pretty well. Laguna was also the ending of a pretty spectacular six-year run for Herta at that track. Forsythe did a good thing in 2001 and ran Herta in the #77 Reynard Ford with Indeck the only real sponsor on the car (Forsythe's company). This car had a Zakspeed association early in 2001 but appears to have dissolved after 9 rounds!? Very strange!!

Jordan

[Deleted]

WOW Jordan !!! You are a Wealth of Indycar/CART?Champcar knowledge. I am a True Fan of the Behind the Scenes action. I like the , why this, why that !

I', like you in this way, but with NASCAR.

If I need Team info, I'll let you know.

Thanks Buddy,
Robby

[Deleted]

BTW..Damn shame that era of Open Wheel Racing is over. I loved it. The cars are to Space like for my taste. Especially the Roadcourse cars. Who the Hell came up with those Body Parts and why were they put in service. My God !!!