IndyCar Series

[godlameroso]

Ugh, that youtube stream chat is so annoying, gp2 tires, gp2 engine, gp2 pitstop, gp2 wall, 222 gp2's per hour, gp2 audio.

[dans79]

Ugh, that youtube stream chat is so annoying, gp2 tires, gp2 engine, gp2 pitstop, gp2 wall, 222 gp2's per hour, gp2 audio.

I agree, it was fully of obnoxious little losers.

[Andres125sx]

Alonso indy debut live stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXh9uxthFnk

Wow, 1.2 million views for a first test. How many views did F1 tests got?

[etusch]

Sports.usatoday

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Honda Performance Development believes it has unearthed the answer to the problem that has plagued its cars all season long: engine failure.

Since the start of May, at least a dozen of Honda’s engines have quit, including those in the cars of Fernando Alonso, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball during the Indianapolis 500.

But Honda Performance Development President Art St. Cyr said Saturday at Road America that his team has identified the problem.

“We have done a lot of analysis,” St. Cyr said. “It’s actually pretty deep in our engine. The part that failed is one we’ve been using for quite a while. Ultimately it came down to a parts processing issue for that, but we have been able to identify the part that is failing.

“We have some fixes in place for the rest of this year. As it stands right now, we are getting those parts into HPD at this point.”

Before Honda drivers — and their fans — get too excited, there are a couple of factors to keep in mind. First, there’s no guarantee those fixes will work.

“Honda has done a hell of a job,” Graham Rahal said after qualifying sixth on Saturday. “I said yesterday in my press conference, they’re pushing to win. They did figure out what the problem is, but is there an immediate fix? Who knows. They say there is, but it’s going to take a little bit of time to phase it in.”

St. Cyr conceded the point. He said HPD has begun to build new engines with the appropriate changes made, but they won’t be implemented immediately.


“Unfortunately, with the durability plans that we have, 2500 miles, it’s going to take a while to cycle those engines into our pool,” St. Cyr said. “We hope to have those engines in our spares pool optimistically at Iowa, but more realistically in Toronto. … “Our expectations are that once we get the engines in the spares pool, we will continue the engines that are in the car throughout the remainder of their lives, then those will be replaced with new engines, like I said, hopefully, knock on wood, some of them at Iowa, but more realistically probably in Toronto is when that will really start to show up.”

St. Cyr added that the problem part flares up in about one of every eight engines, accounting for the random nature of the issue.

He also said that Honda’s increased horsepower this year was likely a factor in the failures.
Yes, the increasing power is an attributing factor to (the failures), because obviously there is more stress on (the engine) in general. But the way the part is designed, it should have been able to resist that stress.”

Finally, St. Cyr reiterated what Honda drivers and team owners have been saying all season: The tradeoff off of reliability for speed is not one they regret making. After winning just two races last season, Honda already has five victories this season, including the Indy 500. The goal every year is to win the 500, St. Cyr said, and that’s what Honda did.

“We knew that even if we ran the engines at full power, the majority of our engines were going to make it,” St. Cyr said. “In that case, we were willing to make that tradeoff. If it was going to fail every engine, then maybe not.

“Every circumstance is different. But in this case, we were willing to make that call. You’re at risk every year. Typically both manufacturers will end up having about two mechanical failures. That’s about what we had this year anyway.”

Heading into this weekend’s race at Road America, Honda leads Chevrolet 737-698 in the Manufacturer’s Championship. Chevrolet has won five manufacturer’s championships in a row, dating back to 2012.

Jim Ayello writes for The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network.

[Chubbs]

IndyCar reveals first photos of 2018 Dallara universal aero kit
Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... f-2018-car

[Santozini]

IndyCar reveals first photos of 2018 Dallara universal aero kit
Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... f-2018-car

http://d2d0b2rxqzh1q5.cloudfront.net/sv ... 05d707.jpg

http://d2d0b2rxqzh1q5.cloudfront.net/sv ... 36235d.jpg

http://d2d0b2rxqzh1q5.cloudfront.net/sv ... a9ca4c.jpg

http://d2d0b2rxqzh1q5.cloudfront.net/sv ... d85ea3.jpg

I really like it honestly, and I was never a fan of Indy designs.

It seems that this new chassis is providing even more DF from the floor, good to see they are going in an alternative direction from F1

[Sevach]

Good to see a car without those rear bumper pods.

[RicME85]

Think it looks odd without the rear pod....but thats because of the fairing in front of the rear wheel, if that wasnt there it would look 'normal' for a single seater but as it stands it looks like its had a collision and the rear pods have fallen off.

[jjn9128]

It looks better but I've always felt the DW12/IR18 chassis is too bulky looking. I wonder how the removal of the rear bump pods will affect the wake and wheel-to-wheel racing/overtaking, what you do behind a bluff body like a wheel is more important for the wake than what you do ahead.

Willem Toets reply to the graphic designer behind the aesthetic change on LinkedIn,

Looks nice but of course it has been designed for looks before downforce. How much slower do the simulations say it will be? Have you been doing multi-car studies, spinning car studies and flying studies for safety? The problem with the individual aero packs from Chevy and Honda was that they had not done enough of the safety work - and that caused the dramas at indy in '16. It does look nice but personally I like engineering competition and this is one bodywork pack for all.

[NYGIANTS]

way better than the current cars but nowhere near their heyday for me in the mid to late 90's CART series. those cars whether it be super speedways or street course looked and sounded mean.

this one looks like an up to date version of the indy cars prior to the change. what's weird the current change was to increase safety especially on super speedways after dan wheldons crash hence those rear bumper pods and now its gone. or it this could be the street course spec but i highly doubt it.

[TwanV]

Love them! Smart thinking on the (absence of the) rear bumper; at first glance I was a little worried about safety but on second thought, contact on the rear of the rear tire doesn't propel a front wheel up on contact, the front of the rear tire does that.

[j2004p]

Love them! Smart thinking on the (absence of the) rear bumper; at first glance I was a little worried about safety but on second thought, contact on the rear of the rear tire doesn't propel a front wheel up on contact, the front of the rear tire does that.

Contact with the back of a rear tyre would 100% propel the front of a car upwards, the combination of the direction of spin of the front and rear tyre making contact in this way exacerbates the problem.

Just ask Mark Webber (re: Valencia 2010) or Ricardo Patrese (re: Estoril 1992)

[jjn9128]

On the subject of takeoff, now the bump pods and beam wing are gone what happens to the safety flaps they added to prevent takeoff in a spin?

[TwanV]

Love them! Smart thinking on the (absence of the) rear bumper; at first glance I was a little worried about safety but on second thought, contact on the rear of the rear tire doesn't propel a front wheel up on contact, the front of the rear tire does that.

Contact with the back of a rear tyre would 100% propel the front of a car upwards, the combination of the direction of spin of the front and rear tyre making contact in this way exacerbates the problem.

Just ask Mark Webber (re: Valencia 2010) or Ricardo Patrese (re: Estoril 1992)

Right, silly me. Front wheel of the incoming car has a higher angular velocity and will want to drag over the rear wheel on the moment of impact.. That and a car's inertia pushing it to the only place it can go.

so, it seems the new cars are less safe than in the past in this respect?

[j2004p]

Right, silly me. Front wheel of the incoming car has a higher angular velocity and will want to drag over the rear wheel on the moment of impact.. That and a car's inertia pushing it to the only place it can go.

so, it seems the new cars are less safe than in the past in this respect?

Very much so, I don't understand why, after making such a point of including the rear pods on the original DW12 design to prevent wheel to wheel contact that they've now dropped it.