winders

Yes, but with a different engine since the push-rod V-8 they used to win in 1994 was made illegal for the 1995 Indy 500.

Scott

winders

Unless you figure out a way to mitigate the forces experienced by a driver in a crash, you will never see an "unlimited" race series again. Safety is the number one reason horsepower is limited in major series today.

Scott

hacker-pschorr

Yup, Penske putting all of his eggs in one basket for 94 put them behind the eight ball developing for 95.

It's a moot point, few remember Penske on the sidelines in 95 and Mercedes is in the record books with win.

djantlive

I don't watch indy car racing anymore. Drivers are not risk takers and all the talks around safety etc is really great but does little to attract fans to the sport. Sports are supposed to be dangerous and risk taking. That's where skills and talent count. If they start to design cars that are bullet proof, they might as well race street cars.

I used to watch indy cars on Sundays when growing up. It was exciting. Not anymore.

winders

What was exciting to you? The crashes? The fires?

Racing should reward skill....but it shouldn't be so dangerous that injury and death are common occurrences.

Scott

mglobe

Exactly.

Those dissing Indycar who have not watched lately should really give it a try this year. The new cars and revised rules have made a significant difference in the racing, and the road coarse races have been very good this year. A fair amount of passing, and a minimum of full coarse yellows.

J richard

Necessity is the mother of invention. Haven't yet seen a race car with any active restraint or airbags, discussions of crash cells and independent monocoque capsules. Open up the limits and see what happens. F1 has pretty high limits that they meet in an open car.

Speeds are crazy fast in other motorsports; land speed, top fuel, funny cars that see 350 with lots of crap to run into. I think the engineering will rise to the challenge. Wouldn't it be nice to see a US based series that creates new tech that is directly applicable to the road? Not that I like the delta wing but at least it's out of the box...

As far as Indy, saw the cars and got a little excited, saw them in person at Long Beach...meh...would rather had them run the Panoz...

winders

I think you know the fallacy of this argument without me having to spell it out....

Scott

winders

The problem is that the human body cannot withstand the G-forces created in some crashes. Race cars can't be made large enough to create active systems that will spread out those forces over time.

Scott

J richard

Nope, totally serious. Pick a few top fuel mid track implosions were the car crosses lanes and nineties into the opposite wall. Or a land speed car goes ballistic at just under mach 1 and tumbles for a quarter mile before it stops. A red bull racer pancakes his MXS into the bay in austrailia at full throttle...I'm just saying you'd have to think and allow the solutions to go out of the box. There are solutions, they may not be traditional, and if you limit the possibilities by your current paradigm then you limit creativity and real progress, dumb down the challenge, dumb down the solution....

TexasRider

I was up at Indy in 1992 and Roberto Guerero went 230 mph qulaifying. He also crashed before the green flag coming to the start.

But my point is I dont think there has been anything more than that in 20 years.

More than that is Indy is about SPEED. It is just how it is. Others may be lap times, or come for the race, or the party, or all of that. But Indy is " What is the Speed?" I dont know what the unofficial records are but I remeber the buzz about Roberto, and later Luyendyk etc. Where else does the build up and testing, changes, and qualifying for a single race go on for an entire month?


I dont want to see crashes and deaths. But crashes happen as you approach the limit. That is how all these cars got here today whether they are Indy, F1, Nascar, or your street Porsche. We all like "good racing " and the competitors do too. But going to the limit and then more gets them going too.

You can bet one thing too. You dont have to manage all the things in racing. You cant - no way and no how. Further if one team finds a way to go better and go faster it will quickly be absorbed and spread to the other teams and cars and drivers. That is how it works. There are no real secrets in racing, at least not for long.

From what I know of it Wheldons car was going around 165 mph, so speed wasnt the only factor in his death. Indy cars were going that fast 50 years ago ! Since then all the drivers arent maimed or dead.

I am drawn by the equipment as well as the race. The innovation. The creation. Things I could only wish to make, much less drive. And further by the drivers that can drive them.

I bet if the stands arent full and they have 10 mph lower qualifying and race speeds, then next year you will see changes.

Like many other things today The Greatest Spectacle in Motor Racing may not be.

Adam@Autometrics

A couple other things to consider with "safe" racecars. The safer the sport, the bigger the talent pool. I doubt many of the current elite drivers would be in F1 with the fatality rates of the 70's.
And HP is irrelevant to the loss of innovation. Making more HP is not really innovative, but making a car fast with limited HP is innovation. Look at the innovation in F1 over the past few seasons: Double diffusers, blown front and rear wings, WOT maps with blown diffusers. "Spec" series may not allow innovation, but a lack of HP is more likely to encourage innovation.

Jim Child

Arie Luyendyk set all of the records in 1996:

1 Lap Qualifying - 237.498
4 Lap Qualifying - 236.986
Practice (Unofficial) - 239.260

I've been following the Indy 500 since I was a kid in the 1970's, and I too miss the years where they were always going faster and setting records. However, I think it had to end at some point. Sooner or later the cars would have gotten so fast that it would be difficult to keep them from going into the stands in a bad crash.

winders

Ridiculous arguments! Your are comparing apple to oranges. Top Fuel or Funny Car dragsters do not have to negotiate turns, deal with traffic, run hundreds of miles around that traffic, etc. Same goes for land speed record attempts. Airplane races? Come on.....

Scott

pu911rsr

Interesting thread, I think the complaint lately is cars are too easy to drive flat out. I think Bobby Unser made that observation after the Weldon accident. In the old days the fields were made up of Indy specialists and "name brand" drivers from other series. There were always a few rookies but anymore it seems that the driving field does not anywhere near the depth of talent drivers and team wise as indy used to have. Hell grandstands were packed for pole qualy and bump days.
Phil