IRL Unveils New Chassis Criteria

[cosworth151]

The Indy Racing League (IRL) has released the criteria for their new chassis. Among the highlights: The car must run on road courses, street circuits, high bank speedways, short ovals and, of course, Indy. It should be lighter and safer than the current car, and cost half as much. The aero should allow close racing.

Dallara, DeltaWing, Lola and Swift are all involved in the project. The IRL hopes to have the car on track for the 2012 season.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15726

[Jericoke]

It's not really clear if the suppliers are all working on a common design, or are going to submit their own versions.

Surely given that every bull is a unique animal, they might go that way for IRL, right?   

[cosworth151]

I think that's what they mean when they talk about the cars being "identifiable."

Here's the Dallara entry. To me, it looks very much like their current car, without the air box. The air box is gone because, sadly, the new cars will be turbos.  :'(

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100205/IRL/100209943

[Dare]

I think their taking a step backwards.With the new
hierarchy in place will they last until the 2012 season

[cosworth151]

Laura, our office manager, is a huge PBR fan. She says that Randy Bernard built it up from practically nothing. He's no Tony George, but it looks like there's hope for the IRL. Sadly, with Tony gone, I'm afraid that any chance of F1 coming back to the U.S. is as dead as a doornail.

Here are some more pix of Dallara proposals.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15730

[John S]

Here are some more pix of Dallara proposals.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15730

Ooh - those pics are a bit radical for an open wheel series aren't they Cos? They are almost going in the direction of Le Mans prototypes.

 

[Jericoke]

I think that's what they mean when they talk about the cars being "identifiable."

Here's the Dallara entry. To me, it looks very much like their current car, without the air box. The air box is gone because, sadly, the new cars will be turbos.  :'(

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100205/IRL/100209943

Ford is working towards making turbos a standard feature on production automobiles.  I think that turbocharging a race car is a great idea in terms of trickle down technology that racing is supposed to be famous for.  (I can appreciate how a turbo charged engine is more expensive to design and maintain, but at some point there's got to be an effort to differentiate a 'top level' series from soap box derbies.)

[Dare]

Here are some more pix of Dallara proposals.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15730

Ooh - those pics are a bit radical for an open wheel series aren't they Cos? They are almost going in the direction of Le Mans prototypes.

 

exactly.I wish they would go back to teams  with different chassis and engines.
Now even though the teams look alike the ones with the most money still dominate
the races

[cosworth151]

That's where this is supposed to lead. The series is talking to several engine builders as well.

F1 is far better off without turbos. They run up the costs and kill the sound of the engines. That's one of the reasons I preferred IRL to CART/Champ Car.

Blowers and / or turbos become a fad on production cars every 20 to 30 years. They were big in the mid 1930's, the late 1950's, the early to mid 1980's. They suddenly show up on everything, then the increased costs and maintenance headaches remind everyone why they faded away before.