IndyCar – I Love the Smell of Speculation in the Morning!

It smells like… PROGRESS! If you’re a fan of IndyCar, then you likely have already heard about Peter De Lorenzo’s article on his blog, The Autoextremist, where he claims that General Motors will make a return to the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012 along with an increase in motorsports across the board. You also likely are already aware that SpeedTV’s Marshall Pruitt and the Indianapolis Star’s Curt Cavin are both claiming extreme skepticism of the announcement. So where does this leave us fans? It leaves us in a whirlwind of…

Read More

IndyCar – Welcome Back, Mr. Cotman

This past weekend, the Indy Racing League officially hired Tony Cotman to be the league’s technical director in charge of developing all of the rules and regulations pertaining to the construction and operation of the new chassis and engine packages for 2012. It’s certainly not a new role for him. He was Vice-President of Operations of the Champ Car World Series where he oversaw the development and production of the extremely competitive and cost-effective Panoz DP-01 chassis. Can he do the same thing here in the Indy Racing League? Probably,…

Read More

IndyCar – Fans and Engine Manufacturers Get Their Wish

Today the Indy Racing League issued a press release announcing their specifications for the 2012 engine formula for the IZOD IndyCar Series. The good news is that its pretty much wide open! There will be no spec engines in the next generation IndyCar. Once again, we will see competition between not only drivers and teams, but between manufacturers and engineers as well! Being a bit of an engineering geek, this has me very excited. Once again, we’ll hear multiple engine notes at Indianapolis creating beautiful chords of engineering music. Here’s…

Read More

IndyCar – On the 2012 Chassis Decision…. What About the Engine?

Three significant things came up this week on the 2012 chassis decision for the IRL. An article came out in USA Today with comments from Brian Barnhart, a chassis design criteria was released by the IndyCar Series and pictures of three chassis concepts started circulating from Dallara. The Leagues Design Criteria Safe: The new chassis must adhere to the league’s already high safety standards while exploring new technology to improve safety in all aspects of the car. Raceable: The new chassis must continue to produce the exciting racing that has…

Read More

OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 3 of 5 – Creative Engineering

Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race The Engines Now what can you allow and not allow beyond the standardized tub and safety features? For one, I think you can open up the engine design. Put a cap on the output power of the engine, but allow teams to achieve that power however they wish. Want to run a four-cylinder twin-turbo engine? Great. Twelve-cylinder normally aspirated? Fantastic. Heck, throw one of those super cool Wankel engines in there! Just make all teams bring their engine to a league-operated dyno to check…

Read More

IndyCar – Stagnant Momentum

Shortly before the beginning of the 2008 IndyCar season the long cold war with CART/CCWS came to an end when the former series declared bankruptcy after making a deal with the IRL. The IRL offered the existing CCWS teams a free 1-year engine lease and a free chassis for 2 years to any team that would run the entire season. On top of that, the IRL’s TEAM program guaranteed all full time participants 1.24 million USD per car that ran the full season, plus additional bonuses for podiums, poles and…

Read More