Classy Chassis

Unfortunately, this post does NOT pertain to the establishment-of-questionable-repute on S. Harding St. in Indianapolis. Too bad, right?

Instead, now that we have all pertinent information (read: photos) of the four chassis concepts that are to be considered by Messers. Barnhart, Bernard and Angstadt, it's time for me to throw my small and insignificant hat into the ring for my favorite design.

First, let's consider some pros and cons of the various designs.


Dallara
Pros: Dallara has been supplying cars to the IRL since Day 1 (or Day 366, as the IRL used old Reynards and Lolas for its inaugural season) and Dallara has an established supply connection with the league; The car (that's my fave of the three pictured right there) is a nice evolution of the current car with a much sleeker and attractive look, but elements that still say "Dallara!"; Dallara wants to set up shop in soon-to-be-redeveloped Speedway, IN, bringing jobs and money to a piece of the world that could use it.

Cons: All of that stuff about Dallara being a chassis supplier from the beginning is one of the reasons people don't like them: the current car, introduced in 2003, was considered ugly from the start, in spite of working much better than the prettier Panoz/G-Force; the '97-'02 Dallara was not the safest thing on the planet and there were some driver injuries that were based on the aerodynamics and chassis structure; Dallara chassis have nearly bankrupted the IRL recently, as Gian Paolo & Co. have been charging exorbitant money to build and ship an eight-year-old design of which they've sold hundreds of copies.


DeltaWing
Pros: Being designed by Ben Bowlby and endorsed by Chip Ganassi -- two guys who I'm pretty sure know a thing or two about racing -- gives this car a big leg up on both conceptual and political merit; the "wingless car" idea is very ideal from a racing standpoint: cars are planted, but won't create the "aero push" for the following car that a big wing does; having the engine as a non-stressed piece of the car (meaning the engine block is not physically part of the chassis) means that essentially any engine that will fit in the engine bay can be installed with little additional development.

Cons: The much-ballyhooed look of the car ("phallic" seems to be the consensus on that one); An impossibly narrow front track, which makes those of us who aren't intimately involved with the project wonder how the thing will go around turns such as the Long Beach Hairpin; what we've seen is apparently nothing more than a foam block and may not actually resemble the final product -- not good when we're only two years out from the supposed debut of the car; wingless downforce has been tried before and did not work -- Bowlby is a smart guy, but is he smarter than Colin Chapman?; conspiracy theories that actually seem somewhat sensible make me think the DeltaWing is some sort of power play by the owners (who are largely behind the project) to demand input into IndyCar's 2012 design.


Swift
Pros: My word, look at that thing! It's beautiful!; Swift is an established name in open-wheel circles, producing highly competitive cars for Formula Nippon and the Cooper Tires Atlantic Series; the SwiftLight concept (see previous post), which has many possibilities from providing fans information to allowing for tons of sponsor and livery possibilities is a rather innovative package; the engine sticking out of the back looks like an early 70's F1 car, and that is NOT a bad thing; did I mention the look of the thing?

Cons: As far as I know, Swift has never built a car for the high speeds and hard impacts of oval racing, which calls into question their safety; Swift is based in California and hasn't given any indication of setting up shop in a more convenient spot, which could hurt car cost; speaking of car cost, how much would it cost to make some of those uber-complicated shapes out of carbon fiber?


Lola
Pros: Apart from Dallara, Lola is the most established name of the four choices and has the most history with Indy-style race cars of anyone here -- also apart from Dallara, Lola's '02-'06 Champ Car was considered a resounding success; the shape is not nearly as complicated as some of the others, which holds back production costs; chassis commonality between the IndyCar Series and Indy Lights cars (bottom and top, respectively, in photo), which would allow FIL teams like Sam Schmidt Motorsports to take at least one of their cars and stick it in an IndyCar race without having to spend the money to buy an entirely new tub.

Cons: There is very little evolution of the common IndyCar "look", which is a major part of the criteria for the IRL's top brass; wings, turning vanes, and fins are all bad things when it comes to trying to get cars to follow each other on a track (especially on a road course) -- it's not exactly a 2008 F1 car, but there's a lot of extra jewelry on this design.

My Choice
Were I in charge of the IRL (which, thank the heavens, I'm not), my choice would be Lola. There is a practicality about the Lola, with its simple design and chassis commonality, that really draws me to it. Ideally, I'd like a new car to be based on the Lola, with SwiftLight position indicators and the non-stressed engine of the DeltaWing concept. However, if there is no mashing of the concepts, give me the Lola.

Ugly old Dallaras are getting ready to be tested at various locales in the southeast, and race one from Sao Paulo goes off in less than four weeks...get pumped, IndyCar fans!