ellis wrote:
7 - Montoya - 187
10 - Bourdais - 170
I don't know how you measure things in your head, but it seems to apply to different drivers differently.
Anyway, this home coming of JPM to American Open Wheel Racing was never going to be like the old days. The old 99/00 CART cars had around 700hp with around 400lb-ft of torque , and significantly less downforce. They were turbo charged monsters. Now days, before boost, they push out 550hp, at 300lb/ft of torque. The throttle control no longer needs to be as precise as you can mash the throttle and the car will stick. Back in the 90s, the touchy throttle and lack of grip worked great for somebody like JPM.
He has a lot of adapting to do.
10 - Bourdais - 170
I don't know how you measure things in your head, but it seems to apply to different drivers differently.
Anyway, this home coming of JPM to American Open Wheel Racing was never going to be like the old days. The old 99/00 CART cars had around 700hp with around 400lb-ft of torque , and significantly less downforce. They were turbo charged monsters. Now days, before boost, they push out 550hp, at 300lb/ft of torque. The throttle control no longer needs to be as precise as you can mash the throttle and the car will stick. Back in the 90s, the touchy throttle and lack of grip worked great for somebody like JPM.
He has a lot of adapting to do.
I don't even look at points. I was only sticking to overall pace in most tracks
I guess the underlined part might reveal to be 100% correct in the future.
Just for the sake of being pedantic, I'm not sure if today's Indycars have more downforce than the Champcars of 99.
The Lola from 1999 had 85% of the downforce of the 2008 Panoz. But I don't know how the current car compares with those.
