Items of Interest & Some Thoughts....

[indycool]

Formula One can run on ovals....indeed, it runs half of one at Indy....but that doesn't mean the cars are well-suited for it.

[luke]

F1 cannot run on ovals. They would have to totally re-design their cars. One flat out banked right means jack ****.

[luke]

Originally Posted by indycool

Adam, yes, they've said it, but why? They aren't going to have any ovals if Milwaukee goes down. So what's the difference in THAT being a come-on?

You can't really say that.

[Adam43]

I think this is getting a little irrelevant and unfriendly and is ruining a thread that covers many interesting observations.

[deejay]

Originally Posted by indycool

Besides, why would a car be built for just ONE oval?

What's so difficult to understand? They're building a car capable of running on both road and ovals. That doesn't just cover next year but any future use of this chassis.

Why would they build a chassis NOT capable of running on ovals? That would be rather short-sighted for an American open-wheel chassis don't you think?

[indycool]

When the current edition of IRL cars came out, they added fuel "buckeyes" on the right side, even though they had no road races on the schedule, and that may be what is happening here.

They may make a "kit" for ovals, as the IRL worked with Dallara and G Force/ Panoz to make when they scheduled road races, i.e., a diff, etc. There were substantial changes....springs, shocks, suspension arms, etc.

Now you have the opposite situation in CC, i.e., transforming a road racing car into an oval car if something comes along to make it necessary. I have always questioned it when CART and/or CC makes public statements that they're going to be all things to all people all the time. All we really know about this car are quotes out of a news release saying that.

Part of the IRL's safety program is a crash-testing arrangement at the University of Nebraska. Are they going to crash test the first DP-01 to come off the line? Of course not. Will Panoz incorporate some or all of the IRL design's safety features into the DP-01? Of course it will.

But to believe the DP-01 is the be-all, end-all of the racing universe so much so that teams could just roll one off the trailer at Chicagoland or Kansas and just yell at the flagstand to drop the green, no, I think not.

[Purist]

No noe said it was the be-all or end-all of anything, so calm down. And no one said that the chassis in question would require absolutely no modifications between road racing and oval trim. They simply said it would be capable of running both types of circuits.

I don't know that IRL would put on a different show at Montreal from what F1 provides, or what CART has been providing, and off topic I know, but I would say that any NASCAR or Grand-Am race at Montreal will be an excruciating affair to watch because of all the yellows. Heck, look how much caution the Busch series has had at Mexico City, even with all the course upgrades.

[indycool]

Indeed, Purist, both CC and Panoz spokespeople and a covey of Internet diehards are indeedc championing the Herculean virtue of the DP-01, when it isn't even on the ground yet.

[paul-collins]

Originally Posted by indycool

Indeed, Purist, both CC and Panoz spokespeople and a covey of Internet diehards are indeedc championing the Herculean virtue of the DP-01, when it isn't even on the ground yet.

"covey of internet diehards"

nice, IC.

Meanwhile, you've pretty much spearheaded the "DP01 is unsafe for ovals" movement.

Get back to me when there's data to support *your* position.

[indycool]

Will do, paul....the thing's gotta hit the ground first and then test. And there's no point in testing it on ovals when it isn't going to run on 'em.

The top average lap speed for CC events except for Milwaukee is around 132+ miles an hour at Cleveland. To start with, there's no need for accelerated safety on ovals because they just plain aren't going to hit anything as hard. That may well be where at least some of the supposed cost savings come from.

[paul-collins]

Originally Posted by indycool

The top average lap speed for CC events except for Milwaukee is around 132+ miles an hour at Cleveland. To start with, there's no need for accelerated safety on ovals because they just plain aren't going to hit anything as hard.

Illogical - they don't have accidents at "average" speed in road (or is that "road"?) racing. They happen at the higher speeds generally. For instance, the top speed at Toronto, on Lakeshore Boulevard, is estimated to be close to 190 mph (which would occur roughly where Servia and Phillipe collided last weekend).

However, you're right about whether they'll get to actual oval testing soon. Without a specific oval to run, they may only get as far as the safety crash testing that's done on their current chassis, to show its general crashworthiness.

On the other hand, it may be that Tony liked what he saw recently.

[indycool]

May be, paul. And you're right about speeds on long straightaways. But it's very seldom that the bumpin' and bangin' occurs on those straightaways.

[luke]

Originally Posted by indycool

And there's no point in testing it on ovals when it isn't going to run on 'em.

Why can't you get it into you're head it will be able to run on ovals! I can't see why they would drop Milwaukee when this year they gained 21,000 in attendance and ovals are still part of the future of Champ Car's plan.

[rustyfan]

Looks like arguing about the new chassis oval-worthyness is a moot point, if Robin Miller's latest column at the SpeedTV.com site is correct in that Milwaukee will indeed be dropped for next year.

It includes the following, which only seems to confirm that Milwaukee indeed will be dropped:

"When open wheel fans show they want ovals back, then we'll go back to them," said Kevin Kalkhoven, co-owner of Champ Car. "The past few years have shown us that's NASCAR's domain."

Guess it was just a matter of time before Champ Car completely turned its back on its history and heritage.

[Jordi]

Perhaps if there weren't two series battling for whatever NASCAR leaves on the plate no one would be turning backs on history or heritage.

The heritage of open-wheel in America is one championship with the Indy 500 and recently (in my time) a variety of ovals, road courses, street tracks and airports, which made for very complete champion drivers and teams and made it rival F1 in certain countries.

Is it so f***ing hard to understand for people that matter in America that union is needed to stop *****ing about this or that chassis, to stop about whether this race is IRL or Champ Car?


(a bit OT, I know)