Toyota to Announce Indy Engine

[David]

From:

http://rpm.espn.go.com/rpm/seriesIndex?series=irl

"The IRL is set to announce that Toyota will manufacture engines for the 2003 Indy 500. ESPN.com's Robin Miller reports that the IRL and Toyota, which is one of CART's three manufacturers, will make the announcement at a news conference on Tuesday."

Goodbye turbos?

David

[KC]

Toyota may be making this their move to get the engine changes off of dead center with Ford and Honda. Can either of these companies be prepared to allow their chief competitor a head-start on an Indy program? I don't think so.

[KC]

Yesterday Toyota made it official they will be supplying engines for the IRL in 2003. They asked for and received concessions from the IRL concerning engine design. The 2003 IRL package will allow for one more fuel injector per cylinder, increased main and rod bearing sizes, cam drive can now be chain or gear driven, weight is reduced, deck height (distance between bottom and top of engine block)and bore size is reduced. These changes were requested by Toyota to increase the engine's mid-range response and torque, ostensibly to provide better performance on road courses.

CART officials have not released any new regulations concerning their engine package for next year. Their self imposed deadline of march 1st has come and gone a month ago. Does Toyota know something that CART has not released yet? Mo Nunn commented that no knew regulations have been decided upon, but he could be making politically correct speak on the matter. Toyot amay be forcing CART's hand by this move also.

[SevenGrain]

I don't think that Toyota knows anything that CART hasn't released. Toyota is simlpy not content to wait and see what CART will do. They got into Champcars to race at Indy, and now they are going to be there with or without CART. The changes Toyota requested of the IRL makes the engine more suitable with racing on different types of circuits as CART does. Is Toyota trying to force CART's hand in this matter? That does seem likely! One engine program is cheaper than two. The only unfortunate thing here is that if some common ground cannot be reached with 2003 rules, CART may not be able to keep all three of it's major engine manufacturers. They run the risk of losing Honda if they choose an 3.5 liter formula, and losing Toyota if they do not.

[Liz]

To which I say "Bye, Toyota. Enjoy supplying engines to those stellar racers like Little Al and, um, whats his name and, oh, you know that guy, and, er, Eddie Cheever."

No one has ever said that the three most feared words in racing are "Powered by Toyota."

Honda can just make more engines and if everyone runs Hondas that won't bother me a bit.

Just was over at Seventh Gear and they have Champ Cars in the grave and throwing dirt on the coffin. I think I won't go back there for awhile....

[MaxSport]

I have predicted for some time that CART would adopt the IRL engine formula. As I have said before, my guess was that Tony G. could now save face and cancel the IRL in 2003 now that his formula had "won". The IRL would now have no reason to exist and he could stop losing moms money.

However, Bob Reif has done something remarkable. Using the leverage that the 500 can bring to bear, he has landed Toyota. Ford should follow soon, even -IF- CART follows IRL rules to the letter.

Honda can't supply all the cars in CART, so most teams will leave. Long Beach, Cleveland, Road America etc. all become IRL events. Game, set, match. Mr. George and Co. win. IRL doesn't suck anymore and the CART shareholders are left holding the bag left behind by Mr. Craig.

Well played, Mr. Reif.

Kurt Maxwell
MaxSport
Motorsports Marketing
Indianapolis,IN.