Chevy Unfortunate Engine

[climb]

Ironically, i feel i must congratulate Chevy engineers who made an item who yesterday proved:
- Least powerful (nothing new)
- Most fule consumption
- Least reliability (poor Hornish!)

Excellent job, really!

[GTRMagic]

Sarah Fisher must have loved it when hers seized up and pitched her into the wall

[DNQ]

Yeah, it's nice that the only American engine in the All American All Oval series happens to be the worst engine in the IRL.

[Down F0rce]

Chevy just didn't realise how much on an impact Toyota and Honda would have. 14 wins out of 15 races last year for Chevy, they clearly didn't think that they would need to do as much work from last year with that amount of wins, and now they are paying for it.

[climb]

Yes, but last year Nissan engine had already proven better (remember the way Scheckter threw Indy500 away?), Chevy won more because of having the best teams on his side (Penske, Panther, Ganassi, Nunn, etc). This makes their evaluation mistake even heavier.
About Sarah: it's curious to know that at the begin of the year she had signed a contract with Honda, and then switched to Chevy because they offered her engines for free.
Saving money is not always the best choice!

[DNQ]

Where did Nissan go?

[racer69]

Nissan-Infiniti decided to concentrate on the Infiniti Pro Series. The Infiniti badged TWR engine is still out there at the moment, owned by MCT, though it needs more development to match Honda and Toyota and needs a badge name. Whether that is Chevy who will badge it or not, time will tell.

Apparently Chevy have new parts on the way for Texas, though they said they had new parts on the way for Indy.....

[climb]

Nissan decided to concentrate on the IPS right in the moment they saw Tomas hitting the wall at Indy, not before, not after.
Had Scheckter won Indy, you can be sure they would continue, after all a great win is all they needed to give sense to a multi-year engagement in the league.

[MA2]

Originally posted by DNQ
Yeah, it's nice that the only American engine in the All American All Oval series happens to be the worst engine in the IRL.

Sorry to douse your misconceptions, but both the Toyota and Honda were designed and built in the US.

In Chevies defense, when that motor was designed, the manufacturers had to base it on existing production designs. Last year the rules were changed to allow pure racing motors, albiet with restrictive rules about sizes, etc. Honda and Toyota had the luxury of designing from scratch, whereas Chevy made the mistake of underestimating how much that would hurt them (not starting all over). IF Chevy desides that it is worth writing off the millions it will take to start all over (the manufacturers are only restricted by how much they sell or lease the engines for, NOT how much is spent on design and development), they be a lot closer to even with the others. THAT is a decision that has to be made by the GM head honchos, not just the bean counters.

Chevy DID have new heads for Indy, but it obviously will take a lot more than just that for them to become competitive again!

[Testure]

Originally posted by MA2
Sorry to douse your misconceptions, but both the Toyota and Honda were designed and built in the US.

(Off-topic?) Haven't Honda contracted out the work for their IRL engine programme to Ilmor? Maybe they're just assembled in the US - how much technical involvement do Honda actually have?

As regards Chevy themselves, what are their development facilities like? Companies like Honda, Mercedes/Ilmor and Toyota have huge open-wheel (i.e. F1) engine programmes, I think GM will find it difficult to keep up... They're screwed.

[429CJ]

Actually how many Chevys popped? It seems, that even some of the shunts were engine-related.

[Muzza]

General Motors has ever had a half-hearted (maybe I should call it a fraction-hearted) approach to racing basically since the group was founded - with the exception of Nascar, and even though only after the early 1980s - so anyone with a little bit of knowledge about motorsport history should not be suprised with their IRL debacle.

General Motors "vision" of racing is so "broad" that even markets where local branches of the group do relatively well on racing tracks - namely Holden in Australia and Chevrolet in Brazil - have to struggle with the headquarters in the US to keep their involvement afloat.

I witnessed for years the uphill battle Chevrolet Brazil had to fight to convince GM to keep backing their single-brand category Stock Cars - even when they became the top racing category in Brazil...

Australian Ten Tenths members, surely you have heard of how many times GM has pushed Holden against the wall about their motorsport activities. Oh, please, write about GM and racing gives me cramps.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by MA2
In Chevies defense, when that motor was designed, the manufacturers had to base it on existing production designs. Last year the rules were changed to allow pure racing motors, albiet with restrictive rules about sizes, etc.

The rule change - that was much more subtle that most may think, and by no means went the way Toyota and Honda lobbied for - was annonced seventeen months ago, so General Motors had more than time to sharpen up its game.

Its current performance reflects an almost-century-long short-armed approach to racing, and period. General Motors racing modus operandi has been "getting involved in a category without much competition and then loudly broadcasts to the four winds that you are re-writing motorsport history by sweeping one victory after another".

Argh - now talking about how GM and motorsport mix is giving me cramps and heartburn.

[double00]

Is it just me, or is Chevrolet now where Infiniti was back in 1997-2001? They really need power by texas, otherwise they've already lost the manufactures championship.

[kmchow]

Originally posted by climb
About Sarah: it's curious to know that at the begin of the year she had signed a contract with Honda, and then switched to Chevy because they offered her engines for free.
Saving money is not always the best choice!

I don't think she really had a choice. If your budget is tight, you must do what you can to save money. Though you do have a point--will your few sponsors be happy when you can't finish any race.

[Shaggy_SoCal]

I would REALLY be surprised if Chevy guts it out another season against Honda and Toyota. They get more out of their NASCAR involvement then they do with Indy.

IMHO, since Toyota beat Honda to the Indy 500 win, I wonder how long it will be before Honda fully takes over the engine program so they can beat Toyota?

Along those same lines, now that Toyota has won Indy, how long will they stay in the IRL before they decide to see how much money it takes to win an F1 Manufacturer's Championship?

[DNQ]

Chevrolet to CART for 2005??

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by kmchow
I don't think she really had a choice. If your budget is tight, you must do what you can to save money. Though you do have a point--will your few sponsors be happy when you can't finish any race.

It helps when GMAC Finance is virtually underwriting the other costs of the package... its not just "free" motors, but operating costs as well

The lady would likely do better with a full season in a car the calibre of a Penske, but I dont doubt most of the field would like that opportunity

[racer69]

Originally posted by Shaggy_SoCal
I would REALLY be surprised if Chevy guts it out another season against Honda and Toyota. They get more out of their NASCAR involvement then they do with Indy.

IMHO, since Toyota beat Honda to the Indy 500 win, I wonder how long it will be before Honda fully takes over the engine program so they can beat Toyota?

Along those same lines, now that Toyota has won Indy, how long will they stay in the IRL before they decide to see how much money it takes to win an F1 Manufacturer's Championship?

All 3 engine manufacturers have contracts with the IRL to provide engines until the end of 2005, so they ain't going anywhere.

Chevy have 3 options;

- Totally redesign the engine
- Give MCT some funds to develop the TWR engine further
- Wait until Honda takes the IRL program in-house then badge the Ilmor engine, like what they used to do in CART.

[BootsOntheSide]

Chevrolet are really in a mess. There's no way a few new parts will result in any significant improvement, not of the extent that they need. I really feel for Sam because he deserves a chance to challenge the incoming guys non even merits.

Going to CART for 2005 will be an idea, but they'd have to build a brand new engine, and are the resources there? Also, it might be seen as them not competing against the big Japanese firms, and are wimping out. It's a bit unfair when you consider the costs involved, but there you go.

[Tim Northcutt]

The Chevy engines blew Sunday because the teams tweaked them up as much as they could to try to be competitive....Sarah's let go right in front of me....you could hear the "pop" even over the roar of the other engines...

But they are clearly way behind the curve....

[BlueStang]

Originally posted by climb
Yes, but last year Nissan engine had already proven better (remember the way Scheckter threw Indy500 away?), Chevy won more because of having the best teams on his side (Penske, Panther, Ganassi, Nunn, etc).

That, and reliability. The Infiniti engines blew a lot early on last year...but seemed not to as much as the year progressed.

The Chevy is not as reliable this year as last.