next gen champ car

[jklein6419]

http://expeditivf1.ultraweb.hu/Kepek...dan_1991_2.jpg
what do you guys think. i would like to see champ car adopt the front section of this car. it reminds of a reynard yet more exotic. the front of this car to me looks ten times better than the lolas we have today. it also looks less aero dependent.i say take this front section with 1998 reynard sidepod and the 02 lola cock pit and you have yourself a mean looking champ car. i hope the link works i'm not good with stuff like this.

[nsxr]

the car will have to something differentto set the series even more apart form other series.{IRL} I think a car along the lines of the a1gp car would be cool. that car is very aggressive and looks fast. that should be the direction of the cars in the future.

[jklein6419]

i think if you went along the lines of an a1gp car you would loose the looke of a champ car. a champ car is all about the sexy curves yet aggresive look to it. the a1gp chassis looks to much like an f1 car. and believe me our machines will never look like "indy cars"

[Mackmot]

A1GP cars ugly

[jklein6419]

i agree!!

[luke]

And A1 cars are modeled on Champ Cars and F1 cars.

[macdaddy]

We've come a long way, baby.



Ray Harroun, circa 1911. The car wasn't designed for a riding oilman, and legend has it that it was the first car ever built with fixed mirrors.

What did this post have to do with anything?
Nothing, now that I think about it.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

[Dov]

IMHO, the A1GP and GP2 chassis' don't look too hot, however, -IF- OWRS decided that they want to go with a NA engine in a year or two then I would like this chassis to replace the current one.... SF01

That being said, I have a good feeling that the Three Amigos are going to stick with the Turbos, therefor the current chassis won't look that much different. They will be thinner looking since KK mentioned recently that they're going to shed around 200 lbs. off the car.

[StickShift]

He also said they will be strong enough for superspeedway racing, so that pretty much rules out the Superfund chassis.

[gttouring]

i rather like the A1GP cars as well as the superfund.
how do A1GP and Superfund compare in specs? and how about GP2?
would another series running about with similar speeds really be all that interesting? or would the turbos and NOrth American Base make it so different.
I like Champcars and don't really see why the cars should take on other cars for inspirations anyway
after all they all look simlilar because they are trying to answer the same questions within similar rules.

[marcus]

when will a new generation Champcar be introduced ?

they have been using the same cars for the last few years now , is there any plans to develop new chassis in the next year or so ?

[Dov]

Originally posted by StickShift
He also said they will be strong enough for superspeedway racing, so that pretty much rules out the Superfund chassis.

From Grandprix.com:

A strong rival for GP2

THE AUSTRIAN finance company Superfund has announced plans for what will be known as Formula Superfund in 2005. This has grown out of the Euro3000 series but will have a brand new car in 2005, called the SF01. This has been designed by a British company called Force 10 Technology and will be built by Raceprep in Littlehampton.

The Superfund car has been designed to run on both road courses and ovals (and Superfund will have one oval race in 2005) and although it has been testing for only a month the performance is impressive. The cars are powered by a revamped version of John Judd's V10 3.5-litre engine which was designed in 1991 but has been increased to 4-litres and is designed to produce 700hp and be rebuilt ever 1800 miles. The cars will be run on wide slick tyres.

"There are three main objectives," says Martin Schneider, the Head of Motorsport Development at Superfund, "to have powerful cars for the drivers, reasonable budgets for the teams and exciting close racing and good entertainment for the fans. We noticed there was a big gap between Formula 3000 and Formula 1 and we felt there was a market in between and that is where Formula Superfund fits in."

The SF01 was designed to be light, fast, easy to use, hard-wearing and without electronic devices to push up costs. The intention is for the cars to have a long life cycle. The car was developed with 150 hours in the Southampton University windtunnel and will be run on wide slick tyres, which it is hoped will make overtaking easier. The test programme began a month ago with Karl Wendlinger doing the driving. Others to have tried the cars are Alex Lloyd, Jonny Reid, Vincenzo Sospiri, Bruno Spengler and Alexandre Premat. Superfund says that it will run only 20 cars and in order to keep down costs teams will only be allowed to test for five days before the start of the season. After that the only testing drivers will get be able to do is two 45 minute sessions on the Friday of each race weekend. There will be 10 events, including one oval race, scheduled for August 14 at the Lauzitzring.

The events will include a Lucky Seven qualifying shoot-out on Sunday mornings in which the top seven runner in Saturday qualifying will have a shot at pole position.

In the races there will be one mandatory pit stop with a tyre change of all four tyres. In order to make it clear to fans whether the cars have changed tyres or not there will be two different sets of wheel rims: one silver and the other black. The cars will all start on silver rims and then switch to black as the race develops.

The first batch of 10 cars will be ready in February with the second batch arriving in mid-March before the season kicjks off with a test in April. Superfund says that the new series will be broadcast in 15 countries with 500 hours of live coverage in the course of the year. There is a $1m prize fund which will mean $100,000 per race.

Perhaps the most interesting point about the launch is the emergence of Force 10 Technology Ltd, a company set up in 2000 by John Travis, a former Lola and Penske Indycar designer, and Paul Cherry, who used to run Tom Weiringa's Sigma Automotive CART team before it went out of business in 2002.

There is speculation that Force 10 Technology is the likely supplier of a new Champ Car chassis in 2006 when the current Lola package will be replaced. Kevin Kalkhoven is rumoured to be close to buying Cosworth Racing from Ford to ensure the series has engines in the future and the SF01 would be a good basis from which to design a new Champ Car.

[marcus]

Cheers Dov

[jklein6419]

or since champ car is deciding to focus on street courses maybe make them have smaller side pod yet still look aggressive and sleek. maybe a modified version of the 95 lola http://www.champcar.com/Gallery/gall...l_T5_crisp.jpg

[jklein6419]

[StickShift]

Interesting article Dov. I had not read that before.

Sorta segueing the topic, do you think Cart should go with a single manufacturer, or open the series to anyone that wants to build a chassis?

I'd imagine Cart and Lola wouldn't want to split their relationship, AND I don't think the series could afford to lose the company to the IRL.

[Kicking-back]

I think a spec chassis is the way to go for ChampCar.

If you've seen the A1GP Lola that would be an ideal one to use.

[Mackmot]

I think that the A1GP, Superfund, Nissan, Renault and GP2 cars all look wrong because they are trying too hard. The designers have tarted them up to look mean and menacing like they go really fast but it just means that more of the designers time has gone into looks than how well it works. Those cars dont need to be very good cars because they are only racing against each other, so all they do is stick lots of unecessary bodywork on and a big engine and then billies think, wow that must be good.

[Kicking-back]

I do agree that there's a trend to have silly F1 style turning vanes and miniwings all over the place on most of those you list.

[Dov]

Originally posted by StickShift
Interesting article Dov. I had not read that before.

Sorta segueing the topic, do you think Cart should go with a single manufacturer, or open the series to anyone that wants to build a chassis?

I'd imagine Cart and Lola wouldn't want to split their relationship, AND I don't think the series could afford to lose the company to the IRL.

IMO, I would like to see at least one or two more chassis manufacturers start to challenge the Lola chassis in 2006, but i'm also very happy with Lola, so if we remain a spec series then i'm okay with that too. The Champ Car is the sexiest open wheel racecar going at this time and I prefer the turbo over the NA engine, so come 2006 I hope we don't see a new chassis with an airbox above the drivers head. That being said, if OWRS chooses to go with the NA engines then the SF01 is a good basis to start from. The A1GP chassis has too many little wings on it and it's not that pleasent on the eyes, imho.

When Kevin Kalkhoven was on WT recently I remember him saying that he would like to stick with the V8 turbos......can't remember what he said about the future chassis.

[Dov]

Thanks to 'gpflepsen' from CCF/Crapwagon.

Sorry about the video quality, but if it bothers your eyes too much at least you can listen to it.

KK on WT

[Dov]

Originally posted by gttouring
i rather like the A1GP cars as well as the superfund.
how do A1GP and Superfund compare in specs? and how about GP2?
would another series running about with similar speeds really be all that interesting? or would the turbos and NOrth American Base make it so different.
I like Champcars and don't really see why the cars should take on other cars for inspirations anyway
after all they all look simlilar because they are trying to answer the same questions within similar rules.

Hey gttouring,

Here's all the info you need to know about the GP2, A1GP and Surperfund Euro3000 racing serieS.

GP2

A1GP

SuperFund Euro3000

[Kicking-back]

It's now called Formula Superfund, rather than Euro 3000.

[Dov]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
It's now called Formula Superfund, rather than Euro 3000.

Your right, K-b, it will be called Formula SuperFund starting in '05, but I believe they still call it SuperFund Euro3000.

[gttouring]

funny the 4.0 V10 in the superfund car is huge and well just about champcar levels of power...
and the A1Gp car seems a little smaller, power to weight? and downforce...
but the GP2 cars? they are so fast and so close to F1, at least as slow as minardi was a year ago, seems as if it may have wanted the WDC from the FIA if the Constructor decided to form their own championship.
shouldn't the feeder series and the next rung in the ladder be a bit more divided?
nice cars all of them, but the Superfun cars, would need the champcar 16/17 inch rims, as would A1GP...
and i echo the sentiment that it seems A1GP was designed to look more swoopy and organic, for the sake of it, if this was a better aero solution would ferrari have found it?