Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Light My Fire


Well, I've perused the lengthy PDF from the good people at Swift Engineering and looked at the photographs therein. After my deep analysis (or brief glance) of the release, two things stand out to me.

First, the half-covered engine gives all concepts a totally awesome throwback look and, in the words of Swift, shows off "the engine and some of the 'jewelry'". Plus, the name of the engine manufacturer can go...ON THE ENGINE! What a truly novel concept that is.

Second, the SwiftLights (patent pending) are something that has been long been missing from major motorsport and would be a great tool for the fans. I grant you, I'm fairly certain the lights for the accelerator and brake traces will be fairly useless, especially at the pedal-to-the-metal ovals. I'm also pretty sure the fuel level trace won't be too popular with teams trying to strategize and it would actually decrease what excitement there is in the fuel mileage races because the drama of waiting for someone's car to sputter to a halt will be lessened.

HOWEVER, the position light on the roll hoop is something that absolutely must be implemented -- tomorrow, if at all possible. This is the part of the SwiftLight concept that could be a game-changer in the world of major auto racing. It's too bad that no one has ever thought of something like this as a service to the fans before...

...OH WAIT!

ALMS beats everyone to the punch yet again! Not only do those lights signify first, second, and third places, but they are also different colors for each class. Great help in the chaos of sports car racing, and would be especially fantastic on the IICS twisty races.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Analysis of Nelson Piquet Jr's ARCA Debut


Not shown in this photo is the instigator of this spin, instigator of another large wreck, he who steals candy from small children, and he who eats the cute baby animals from all of those online photo galleries -- not to mention former Formula 1 driver: Nelson Piquet Jr.

This exact sentence came out of my mouth not long after the eye-searingly green car of some rookie lady driver named Dan...er...Dani...er...Danica-something flying across the infield of the Daytona tri-oval: "The only thing Nelson Piquet Jr. has ever done right in a race car is crash it when his boss told him to."

The kid kept his F1 job for an extra six months because of his ability to follow a team order to throw a multi-million-dollar machine into a wall...AND THAT'S IT. Tonight, his incompetence nearly derailed the aforementioned "rookie" Danica's attempt to make a little history in her first-ever stock car race.

Coming through Daytona's fourth turn, Nelson and some other guy had to check up for some reason or another, opening the door for many cars to pass. Nelson, having not been trained in English as his first language, obviously didn't understand the concept of "car low" as relayed by his spotter. He cut back down to the inside where a certain Ms. Danica happened to be driving and sent her careening sideways around the tri-oval. (by the way, if you can find the in-car video of Danica as she goes through this spin, it's quite a lesson in how to work through a spin)

However, not to be perturbed, and with a fresh set of tires, Danica found her way into fifth position in the closing laps before dropping back into a bump-and-grind fight with supercross legend Ricky Carmichael to finish sixth. Impressive, and possibly good for open-wheelers who have to take crap from pro-NASCAR media all the time for not being able to drive a car or something.

Of note to this blogger were Leilani Münter and Milka Duno, drivers of open-wheelers in Indy Lights and IndyCar, respectively, who were moving up through the field when all hell broke loose in front of them. Two cars wrecked, then two more cars wrecked, then spotters apparently took a union break because nobody slowed down and a lot of drivers went the wrong way, making the wreck larger and more dangerous by the second. Leilani and Milka both found their cars bashed to bits when the smoke cleared.

Also of note was the frankly terrifying wrecks of Barry Fitzgerald and Jill George (no relation to Citizen Tony). Fitzgerald lost control coming off of the second turn and the car immediately came off its wheels, rolling five times before coming to a rest. Jill George's accident looked similar to Fitzgerald's in that, after going low to avoid a car with a flat tire and losing control herself, her car simply left its wheels. George's car was pointed towards the wall when it left the ground and the front end caught the catch fence, causing a lengthy repair.

Also notable was the drive of Allison Owens, who ran third for a good chunk of the race before getting a shove out of the way and losing ground. The attention will remain on Danica, but I think Owens might beat her to the punch on putting a lady in a stock car victory lane.

Oh, and some old-timer named Bobby Gerhardt won the race. Congrats.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Verdict Forthcoming...

The Dallara concepts are covered in very great detail at the links to the right of these words. Between the three, I'm partial to the crimson car (I think it's because it shares a primary color with my favoritest of universities). However, I won't pass full judgment until the mysterious enigma that is the Delta Wing makes an appearance at McCormick Place.

I will be sure to take many many photos if the Delta Wing does indeed show up in Chicago.