Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers could be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embody a query usually tend to be printed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday might be saved for the next week.
Q: Given the shortage of progress in securing a 3rd OEM for IndyCar, and a brand new engine method supposedly simply a few years away, has IndyCar ever given a cause why it hasn’t appeared into utilizing the extremely profitable IMSA method?
Scott C, Greenwood, IN
MARSHALL PRUETT: This may be the most well-liked query/answer on this matter lately, however sadly, the identical reply applies: An IndyCar chassis has a really quick, slim, and low house supplied to hold an engine. Each GTP or GTD engine – apart from Acura’s ARX-06 motor, which is similar 2.4-liter engine IndyCar was meant to make use of – is waaaaaay too large.
The house in an IndyCar is sort of a Dimension Small, and every little thing in IMSA is a Massive or XL.
An enormous a part of what makes an IndyCar carry out prefer it does is the shortage of weight, therefore the Dimension Small motors. You’d double that weight, or extra, going to an IMSA motor, and it will destroy the dealing with with all of that broad, tall and lengthy mass rolling all over. And to suit these motors, there would should be a complete redesign by way of which the vehicles would get longer and presumably wider and taller, and acquire a ton of kilos.
Q: You’ve stated you’re assured in there being greater than 33 entrants for the Indy 500. Is it protected to imagine they’ll come from the Honda camp?
Don Weidig
MP: Sure. With Chevy at 15 full-time and Honda at 12, Honda’s within the comparatively unfamiliar function of being the go-to for additional Indy motors.
Q: You talked about that among the TV crew individuals had moved over from NBC to FOX. I puzzled if you happen to may give us an concept as to the variety of personnel and their positions are required for FOX to current protection of an IndyCar race? I assume there are vital variations between a street course, reminiscent of Highway America, in comparison with quick oval like Iowa, however would simply be fascinated about what the typical variety of individuals moreover the six faces we see are concerned.
Butch Welsch, St. Louis, MO
MP: I attempted to get a quantity on what number of went from NBC to FOX however couldn’t. Let’s go together with dozens on the trackside half, and I’ll see if I can get one thing definitive.
Q: Final yr it was a “scheduling battle” with Texas. This yr, no Texas. Guessing it’s gone for good then. Exterior the five hundred, there aren’t any extra superspeedways proper? Any rumors of one other giant oval approaching?
Bernardo, San Antonio, TX
MP: Not that I do know of. The need to proceed with IndyCar has been misplaced in Denton, Texas.
IndyCar had some good instances at Texas over time, however the observe went out with a whimper. Sean Gardner/Getty Photographs
Q: I learn your article “Why St. Petersburg was IndyCar’s finest season opener in years,” and I needed to learn it a number of instances. However I’d argue that it wasn’t as large as when Nigel Mansell introduced the worldwide consideration when he got here to IndyCar and gained the Australian IndyCar Grand Prix.
Anyway, if the sequence will get two million viewers, do you assume we may get an IndyCar/NASCAR doubleheader sooner or later? I do know it wouldn’t occur in 2026, however dare I say in 2027 it will be good to see it occur in Austin or Phoenix.
Alistair, Springfield, MO
MP: Thanks, I don’t recall saying it was greater than Nigel’s debut, and even the early days of the St. Pete race with large names like Dario and Danica, so I’m undecided what what’s being argued. I used to be there, working as a mechanic within the Method Atlantic sequence that 1993 season, and Mansell Mania was insane; having the reigning Method 1 world champion in IndyCar was wonderful.
The IndyCar and NASCAR factor is difficult, since each need prime billing. I do know IndyCar performed the undercard on the second Indy GP/Brickyard 400 occasion the place no person cared in regards to the IndyCar half, and if I’m NASCAR, I’m doing nothing to assist IndyCar to achieve extra followers and problem its supremacy. That’s simply dangerous for enterprise. But when there’s anybody who may get each side to think about it, it’s FOX Sports activities CEO Eric Shanks.
Q: Have you learnt what the burden distribution of the present DW12 is? So far as I can bear in mind, the final time IndyCar shared some numbers was most likely through the 2011-12 winter, which at the moment was 43/57 entrance/rear. However then got here the aero kits, first the engine producers’, then the common one used these days; then the aeroscreen and final yr Harry the hybrid. So, how did it evolve from what it was 13 years in the past?
You beforehand wrote that the present automotive has a “suboptimal” weight distribution and the truth that with Harry’s additional weight (which is positioned on the rear) and energy increase, the rear finish tends to slide very simply. Nonetheless, I heard some drivers reminiscent of Dixon and Rossi appear to really choose oversteery vehicles. So, what would, in your opinion, be a great weight distribution? Or no less than one that will make most drivers content material?
Lastly, wherein areas on the present automotive do you assume Dallara may trim some weight and apply this to design the upcoming one? Additionally, how about downsizing the interior combustion engine just a little bit? Might going to a 2.1 or 2.0L engine displacement assist saving just a few kilos? If IndyCar plans to extend each the hybrid’s peak energy and the ESS capability, wouldn’t it make sense to take action?
Xavier
MP: To start out with the final query, you’re conscious that going from a 2.2-liter motor as used immediately to a 2.1 or 2.0 doesn’t contain making a smaller motor, proper? It’s a discount within the cubic capability inside the cylinders of the prevailing motor, which is like taking a Dimension 12 shoe and stuffing some padding into the toe space to make it a Dimension 11. Neither Chevy nor Honda would spend numerous tens of millions to make brand-new and barely tinier engines to assist IndyCar save just a few kilos. Not except IndyCar needed to pay for it.
Arduous to say on an optimum weight distribution, because the reply is dictated by driver desire. Dixon isn’t a lover of oversteer as a lot as he desires the nostril of the automotive to be pinned to the bottom, so in his case, he’d choose a better weight distribution quantity on the entrance axle. My outdated pal Sebastien Bourdais was one hundred pc the alternative, wanting the rear pinned always and to handle velocity by way of understeer, so his magic quantity was biased in the direction of the rear axle.
In accordance with my engineer associates within the paddock, the power restoration system that sits between the engine and transmission has shifted between 0.5-1.0-percent of weight to the again of the vehicles, which has moved the burden distribution to someplace between 43-44 p.c up entrance and 56-57 p.c on the rear. The ERS has added plenty of rearward weight. The aeroscreen has added 50-ish kilos to the entrance, so collectively, there’s a slight tilt to the rear, however nothing to drastically alter the early F/R cut up. Simply much more kilos.
There’s some weight to be saved with a brand new tub design, however it isn’t an enormous financial savings, in accordance with IndyCar’s technical division. I’ve heard of a light-weight gearbox being floated, however how it will stand up to extra horsepower and extra torque is sweet query to think about.
