Miller:no cause for stupid

[Dare]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/miller-no-cure-for-indycars-stupidity/

[cosworth151]

I think the fact that this guy refers to the beloved Indy Racing League name as "hated" shows what ax he has to grid. Miller is first, last and always a CART guy. He'll be right at home on Fox Noise when they dump Speed in January.

From the beginning, Bernard made it clear that we I.R.L. fans, the fans that remained loyal to Indy throughout the years, were no longer welcome.

[Dare]

For me IRL started going downhill when they took the
live streaming off their site.Switching to Versus didn't help either

[lkjohnson1950]

If Tony the idiot George returns now I'm done with Indy. Indycar was not perfect, but it was moving forward. Bernard improved every area except TV ratings. The cars are ugly but faster, they may sound bad but they have more power. More drivers were competitive, Ed Carpenter won a race with a brand new team. This is Roger the dodger Penske and Chip Ganassi whining because they aren't dominating with the new cars. Never liked either of them. Cossie you may have been an IRL fan, but you were in a minority. Tony George nearly destroyed the Indy 500 by excluding the CART racers, now he can finish the job. A sad, sad day for Indycar.

[cosworth151]

If going faster is all that matters, just make the naturally aspirated V8's bigger.

If IRL fans are in the minority, then why did CART fail and the IRL succeed? Last season's "IndyCART" was pretty much a flop, too.

Take a walk around The Speedway. Look at the Pagoda. Tony built that. Walk through The Plaza and The Chalets. Tony built those, too. Check out the state-of-the-art garages of Gasoline Alley. Tony again. Look at the fantastic pavement on the oval. Tony's work. Walk around the road course. Guess who built that. And, of course, he brought F1 back to The States, with the best venue since The Glen. Tony rebuilt the crumbling infrastructure of The Speedway. He saved both it and the series.

Ed Carpenter won a race with a brand new team.

Ed is Tony's stepson.

As I said, the IRL fans have always remained faithful, even through the terrible turbos. I forced myself to watch this past season's races, but I have to admit that I fell asleep during several of them. The series my loose a few hard-core Tony bashers, but it will be much better and healthier when Tony returns.

[Jericoke]

Take a walk around The Speedway. Look at the Pagoda. Tony built that. Walk through The Plaza and The Chalets. Tony built those, too. Check out the state-of-the-art garages of Gasoline Alley. Tony again. Look at the fantastic pavement on the oval. Tony's work. Walk around the road course. Guess who built that. And, of course, he brought F1 back to The States, with the best venue since The Glen. Tony rebuilt the crumbling infrastructure of The Speedway. He saved both it and the series.

Then let Tony get back to running race tracks.  Hell, let him compete with Herman Tilke instead of competing with Mike Helton of NASCAR.

I don't care who runs IndyCar.  I don't care who owns it.  I just know that it's been a long time since they cared about me as a fan.  I don't know it's possible for me to come back.

[lkjohnson1950]

Tony had the 500. It used to be a cash cow. Tony used that money to refurbish the Speedway. He did a good job of that. The Road course is hardly the best venue for the USGP, the Speedway is fantastic, but the track is mediocre at best. The IRL was a monumental failure, not a success. If Tony hadn't pumped millions of dollars of 500 money into it, it would have failed long before CART. That is why his sisters dumped him, he was using their shopping money to prop up the IRL. The 500 itself slid from being one of the 2 or 3 greatest races in the world to being largely a regional event. Sorry, Buddy Lazier is a good driver, and tough as nails, but he doesn't really belong on the list of 500 winners. It's unlikely he could have won if the entry had been open. If Tony starts undoing what has been accomplished in the last 2-3 years he'll need another source of money to prop up what's left of the series. The V6 engines were not Bernard's idea. Honda said find another manufacturer to compete with us or we are gone. RB approached a number of manufacturers and they originally wanted to build Turbo 4s, but when he asked them to commit, only Chevy, Honda and Lotus would step up. THEY wanted to build Turbo 6s, because V8s are not relevant to what they are selling these days.

[cosworth151]

GM just sunk a TON of $$$$$ in the next gen V8 they're releasing in a few months. They're about to release a new, rear drive V8 SS sedan to replace the V6 Impala. I think they see where the future is.

Indy was a fantastic venue for the USGP. It's right in the middle of the racing capital of the world, not out in some inaccessible cow pasture. One of the finest racing museums in the world is right on the grounds. Reasonably priced motels are within walking distance. The prices were extremely fan friendly. It even would have beaten Singapore with a track that runs right under a grandstand if the track changes Tony proposed in 2005 had gone ahead.

In spite of all the Tony-bashing propaganda, CART was well on the way down the tubes. It was fixated on replacing F1 (which it never, ever could) and didn't care a fig about American fans. Tony put the focus back on what the fans wanted. He flushed out the turbos and the offshore races. He made tickets affordable to working families, not just the wealthy elites that CART (and F1) fixate on.

[lkjohnson1950]

The "new" V8 is likely to be yet another revision of the Mouse Motor. Not a bad thing, but most of the tooling will carry over. Most of the engines will go into the Silverado. %The V8 Impala will be great, but Chevy's biggest sellers are Malibus and Cruzes. And as I said, the manufacturers wanted Turbos not Indycar.

[cosworth151]

You said that IndyCART wanted 4 popper turbos and the manufacturers wanted 6 poppers.

Ford's been trying to cram turbos down our throats since the 80's - Remember the Mustang SVO, Merkur XR4Ti, T-Bird Turbo Coupe. They all flopped. I don't expect the EcoBust engines to do any better. Chevy isn't in any hurry to put turbos on anything except diesels.

The Gen V will also be in the Camaro and the C7 Vette.

[John S]

You said that IndyCART wanted 4 popper turbos and the manufacturers wanted 6 poppers.

Sorry Cos but on my reading of Lonny's post it's the manufacturers that RB approached who wanted 4 cylinder units, however the firms that finally signed on for engine supply then changed their minds in favour of 6 cylinders.

I know the FIA originally specified 4 cylinders for F1 but then ended up agreeing 6 with the builders, be a bit of a coincidence if Indy rule makers had the exact same circumstance don't you think.    

    

[lkjohnson1950]

Both the FIA and Indycar were trying to woo VW-Audi, who are heavily invested in T-4 engines. Neither was successful. I think them both ending up with T-6s was a coincidence.