BrianCunningham

I stopped by the Indy Museum on my trip back to Boston. Real neat collection of cars, especially the homebuilts. I went into the store to get a book on the cars, and they didn't have any! but they had 3 on Danica

I was so inspired by them that I stopped my the IRL office, which BTW is accross the street in a mall

I asked
1) can someone still build a homebuilt and run it?
2) can you still run a stock block

Needless to say I got some interesting looks
I explained that I was and engineer, and that I actually worked on a couple of IndyCars down in Dallas. The tech lead was nice enough to come out and explain that the Honda engine was the only one allowed, and that there would be only one chassis next year.

So there it is, straight from the office.

AU N EGL

SOunds like open wheeled NASCAR. Just differnt head light stickers.

xsiveone

That's what Champ car is too. The Panoz DP01 and the Ford Cosworth engine. The IRL is lucky to have an engine package this year after Toyota and Chevy left the series. At least Kalkhoven co-owns Cosworth, so he won't ever be without an engine in the CCWS.

73-84 IMSA Widebody

The days of small independents running in any MAJOR series is long gone, back in the day, pre 90's, most of the field in most series were teams working there way up. The price of widespread popularity and an influx of money. Thats why we have SCCA, NASA, etc Every thing is different at the top

micro

I emailed Bill Riley, son of Bob Rilley, the following question:

Would you return to open-wheel racing if IRL and Champ Car were to merge?

Bill's response:

If it made economic sense I would go back.

ghoffman

It is a sad day when NASCAR cars have more design diversity than Indy cars. This is not a complement for NASCAR, but rather an indictment on the sad state of open wheel racing in the US today. I was reading my copy of "Racecar engineering" about the new Panoz DP01 and it is a very nice car, but a big Spec Racer Ford series just does not interest me. The teams with money will still have more access to wind tunnels, 7 poster rigs, best engineers, best drivers, etc. At least in the old days, someone who was very clever like Jim Hall or Andy Granatelli could use their brain to partially compensate for a smaller sponsor package.

micro

The only thing carried over from the old Lola Champ Car is the Ford-Cosworth turbo 2.65 liter V-8 with slight revisions.

Cosworth was previously a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company, but has been owned by Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven since 2004.

Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, and Paul Gentilozzi own the Champ Car World Series.

The Car of Tomorrow template is the same for every car in NASCAR. New teams, drivers, sponsors are coming on board with Champ Car next year. IRL just might die next year if they don't merge.

micro

The only true spec racing series in the U.S. is IROC as there aren't any teams.