Tag: Chassis

Indy Lights – Freedom 100 Qualifying and the New 2015 Chassis

Doug Patterson

Media Day is a pretty dead day at the Speedway from a fan attendance standpoint. There were some people there, but not many. For that matter, there weren’t many media folk there either! It’s unfortunate, because the Indy Lights drivers had a great practice and a fun and exciting qualifying session. In addition to the three hours of practice and the qualification session, the new 2015 Indy Lights chassis, the Dallara Automobili IL-15 was unveiled. It was a great day of preparation for today’s Freedom 100. Press releases are below…

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IndyLights – Dallara to Make 2015 Indy Lights Chassis

Doug Patterson

Yesterday, INDYCAR released word that the manufacturer for the 2015 Indy Lights Chassis would be none other than Dallara. Surprise! …or not. As regular listeners to our podcast know, we’ve been expecting as much since the announcement that there would be a new Indy Lights chassis. The series solicited bids in 2012 when it was expected that a new chassis would roll out in 2014. Proposals were made by many of the same companies that had gone through the bid process for the new IndyCar chassis including Swift and Lola.…

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Indy Lights – No New Chassis for YOU!

Doug Patterson

So today, Curt Cavin broke the news on Twitter, and the press release from IndyCar followed not too long after, that the new chassis that we’d been expecting in 2014 will have to wait a little while longer. The current chassis and engine spec was originally laid out in 2002 when the series was reincarnated as the Menard’s Infinity Pro Series after the CART version of Indy Lights terminated at the end of the 2001 season. The series at the time was designed to provide a platform to develop drivers…

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IndyCar – New Images of the 2012 Chassis and Rear Diffuser

Doug Patterson

We have some new photos of the 2012 Dallara IndyCar chassis, IR12, in both the Honda and Chevrolet livery thanks to our photographic partner, Tom Turk, from Piratical Photography. One of the interesting things Tom ran into was a reluctance by Chevrolet to allow him a view of the rear diffuser. Odd since it should be the same exact underwing! Either they were just being overly protective, or something fishy is happening. I’m chalking it up to an overzealous engineer. We were able to get some shots of the rear…

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IndyCar – Thoughts on the 2012 Dallara Aerodynamics

Doug Patterson

We’ve now seen the new 2012 car in both its road course trim and its oval trim. The road course package was tested at Mid-Ohio last month the Monday after the race there. This past Tuesday, test driver Dan Wheldon shook the car down in its oval trim at the Iowa Speedway. Perhaps it would be better to call it its short oval trim, as the car was still fitted with a multi-element front and rear wing and looks very much like the road course package used at Mid-Ohio. Regardless,…

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IndyCar Garage Forum Update – 5/12/2011

Doug Patterson

IndyCar Garage Forum – A place for ALL opinions on INDYCAR As part of a weekly series, IndyCar Garage moderator Tyler Carmichael will provide forum updates to the hot topics on www.IndyCarGarage.com. The forum is monitored frequently and is viewed as constructive place to voice all INDYCAR opinions. The past week of forum discussion has brought lots of conversation and with the Month of May heating up on the track, IndyCar Garage is the place to be for all your INDYCAR Conversation! For the week of May 5th through May…

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OP-Ed – Pennywise and Pound Foolish: Why delaying the aero kits is a bad idea

Doug Patterson

There’s been a significant rumbling from the owners, most notably from Jimmy Vasser, co-owner of KV Racing Technologies. What they see is the $75k price tag on new aero kits and rate that as a cost they’d rather not pay. Truth is, they DON’T have to pay it. The Dallara chassis that they’ll need to buy in order to compete in the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012 come with the Dallara aero kit. If they have a relationship with another engine manufacture such as Chevrolet or Lotus, they’ll of course…

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Episode 59 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Shaun

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadApologies for the late arrival. The show is 24 hours old but I left all of my important server uploading info on an external drive that I left at the hospital. #EpicFail! We take a good look at the season finale as well as the pecking order that is the IZOD IndyCar series. Silly season rumors are everywhere for IndyCar and the WRC, while we talk a little bit about Petit. Great discussion and a little comedy makes for a really long show time,…

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OpEd – The Potential Future of the Delta Wing

Doug Patterson

I think most of us here at OpenPaddock share the same opinion regarding the Delta Wing concept that was proposed by a group of team owners lead by Chip Ganassi. Its a hideously ugly car, but the engineering philosophy behind it is brilliant. While I’m happy that it was not selected as the direction for the 2012 IndyCar chassis, not that I’m entirely please with the direction that was selected, I would be very interested in seeing this experiment in automotive engineering actually make it to the track so that…

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IndyCar – RM’s Article, Chicken Little, and Open Rebellion

Doug Patterson

Wednesday evening, Speed’s Robin Miller released an article hinting strongly that the team owners were on the verge of outright and open rebellion against the 2012 car. I read the article and had to pause to think about the veracity of the claims made within the article, or at the very least the commitment of the team owners mentioned to stick to their stated convictions. Here’s the meat of the allegations as told by Eric Bachelart. “The league decided to do a new car and never consulted the teams and…

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