The Indy 500...

[Lizking]

The strawman I am building.

[DiabloTX]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
The funny thing is that David Richards has also greatly "dumbed down" WRC to get more market share.  Hell I don't care, all I know is 5 years ago I couldn't get it on any channel, and now I get 4 or 5 hours of coverage for each rally.  They also lucked out on the technical rules.  Subaru, Peugeot, Citroen, and Ford are almost dead even right now.  I think the rules are great, but considering how liberal they are, they are lucky to have four teams that close.  I just hope Hyundai and Skoda come back and Mitsubishi will continue to develop their car.

Agreed.  But some WRC is better than none.  And it's still the most exciting in terms of what those drivers can do with those cars.  I sweat just watching them!

[FUNKED1]

Originally posted by Lizking
The strawman I am building.

That's the spirit!!!!
I think F-1 is f'ed up.  What I'd like to see the FIA do is put them in cars with spec bodywork with no wings.  Just enough downforce to keep them on the track at 220+.  That would bring back passing in corners.  Make them use spec fuel and put a cap on fuel consumption.  That keeps power and speed under control.  Skinny tires, to make the braking zones longer, again making passing easier to judge. Make every single other aspect of the formula completely free.

Or they could have a similar formula with identical (spec) cars, and call that the Driver's Championship.

For the Manufacturer's Championship, have the cars be autonomous robots.  Then you can toss out all the stupid safety rules and have a totally free formula.  And as a side benefit you get a lot of guidance and control and AI research that transfers directly to road cars.  Can you imagine 3000 hp cars weighing about 750 lb, with ground effects, huge sticky tires, active suspension, active aerodynamics, active diffs, abs, traction control, etc.  It would be totally badass.  Then you would have a true Mfrs. Championship.  Engineer vs. Engineer.

[Bodhi]

YAWN....

I lived in NC for a few years, not too far from a major Nascar owner's engine shop... and I must say.... damn, they had som einteresting things going on in there, so interesting that when I left, they were being certified to work on Rolls-Royce Merlins...

Nascar to me is boring (except the non-lethal crashes), but the technology they work with and create is amazing.

FYI, I am an aero engineer and am certified with the FAA.

[rpm]

The Indy 500 was killed by greed. The current owners of the track (who's name escapes me) decided they wanted more money so they formed the Indy Racing League. This forced drivers to make a decision. To race in the Indy 500 they MUST be members of IRL. At the time most of the top drivers stayed with CART which was a bigger circuit with larger purses. Non IRL drivers were banned from running Indy for several years.

After a time some big name drivers started to migrate from CART to IRL. This only hurt both. Indy had already been struggling and became a full blown sham after the Texas race in 2000 when they named the wrong driver the winner of the race. IRL lost it's engine provider (Oldsmobile), CART went thru major financial problems and now both circuits are a shadow of the former unified sanctioning body.

While all this was going on NASCAR expanded with a new TV deal, new tracks, new sponsors and became the most attractive venue for drivers... Tony Stewart, Kasey Kane and Jeff Gordon among them.

It's sad that the need for greed outweighed the need for speed.

[Lizking]

I thought the split was about saving money, not making it.  The IRL was formed to reduce expenses?

Not Robots, but remotely controlled vehicles, Funked.

Have you ever done slot cars?  They have carried the aero design, if not the suspension engineering, to the endpoint.  They will stick better than the best motor can make them run.

[FUNKED1]

I'm pretty sure an autonomous vehicle would be faster than with a human operator.

[Lizking]

Shhheeit, they couldn't get slow ones to run a course, how you gonna do it with fast ones?

[FUNKED1]

The slow ones were going cross country, different ball game.  On a closed circuit with painted kerbs and lines, they should dominate humans.  Traffic might be hard for them though.

[Lizking]

It would be for time, anyway, traffic isn't  a problem.

[FUNKED1]

Naaa, get them out there together and let them deal with it.  With no drivers, the more crashes the better.  FIRE!!!!

[rpm]

Originally posted by Lizking
I thought the split was about saving money, not making it.  The IRL was formed to reduce expenses?

That was a PR campaign to attract car owners and a fan base. Tony George formed the IRL in 1994 after becoming CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1990. He had publicly stated that CART was making too much money from the Indy 500 and wanted a bigger cut. CART said no, so he formed the IRL with a whopping 5 race schedule based around the Indy 500.

Another move to make money was to invite NASCAR to Indy  in '94. Smart move. Many speculated that The Brickyard 400 was what kept the fledgling IRL alive, giving George much needed funds to operate for several years.

HERE is a copy of a 1995 press release from George. You can see from it he took quite a bit of heat for his actions. Personally I think the guy is scum. He gutted the Indy 500.

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
Joe Sixpack

LOL

Slack Jawed Yokel

[mora]

Originally posted by Bodhi
the technology they work with and create is amazing.

Pushrod V8's with carburetors... I wouldn't call that amazing.

[Pooh21]

Originally posted by DiabloTX


 Warsteiner drinking, .

hey I drink Warsteiner, and I hate F1. Stick Schuemacher in a Minardi and see how good he is.