TBK-Light.com

Found this at trackforum and thought its good enough to be shared here:

With the roll hoop mounted intake gone, how will these cars get air in? Routed through the side pods?

Yes, they are rerouting the air intakes through the sidepods for the 2018 car.

Looks better than current chassis but that piece of aero in front of the rears with the #15 on it is just too big...for my tastes.

I don't know if they had any direct impact on the quality of the racing but it certainly doesn't seem like they hurt it. But overall, I am very much in agreement with your post. If they are removing these, it just reeks of overconfidence and lack of foresight.

The wheel guards were a misunderstanding of the problem anyway

It's like F1 and DRS, they know they have a problem with too much downforce preventing the cars from overtaking, so they sellotape over the problem by bringing in DRS instead of working on a longer term solution: Ground effect or other measures to reduce topside aerodynamics

Same thing with INDYCAR, ever since the IRL tried to fake side by side racing by giving the cars waaaaay too much downforce for the power they had (100% flat out around even the fastest of ovals isn't racing, imo) it has caused the team engineers to find creative ways to try and reduce drag.
The main one they came up with was negative rake, which means angling the nose of the car upwards to allow air to pass over it smoothly and increase their straight line speed.
However, the side effect of this is it makes the cars massively unstable and takes so much less to get them up in the air than most other race cars, and once they're up there, the higher downforce levels keep them up there longer and further too.

The wheel guards are their way of saying "shucks guys, our aero rules set is fundemantally causing these airbourne crashes, shall we do something about it? Nahhh, fuck it, we'll just tape some wheel guards over the rear wheels and that'll make people think we've done something about it"

....Then B.S. like the Month of May 2015 happens, and it's everyone else's fault but theirs.

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

That negative rake issue certainly made it easier for the cars to take flight and fly higher, but that wall is still very short before you're in catchfencing. So even with the best aero design, you're still never far from putting people in the fence as long as the rear wheels are unprotected.

I'd say ground effect is the way to go....

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Weren't CART cars heavier?

_________________
"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

K, give them ground effect and ballast, sheesh I'm trying to save lives here!

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

They were described as about the same weight (1500 pounds) at least in articles in 2003 and 1991.

So that's probably not it. My understanding is that the tendency of IRL / Indycars to flip is largely an aero rules package question. There weren't any of those 2015 Indy 500 style flips last year, so maybe they have found some solutions already.

The '15 flips was the Chevy aero package, the rearguards were closed up iirc to help keep them down.

If that was an INDY RAZIN LEAGE race one of those cars would still be in orbit.

Zach Veach to drive for Foyt at Indy

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... 500-lineup

Jack Harvey gets the 5th Andretti car for the 500.

http://www.racer.com/indycar/item/13947 ... for-harvey

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Harding Racing to field the #88 Chevrolet for Gabby Chaves at the 500, has technical partnership with Dreyer & Reinbold
http://www.indycar.com/News/2017/04/04- ... -500-entry

up to 28 confirmed entries (30 if you count Lazier & Juncos, which is all but confirmed)

Looks like the test at the newly reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway tomorrow (4/12) will be live streamed on racecontrol.indycar.com

http://www.indycar.com/News/2017/04/04- ... st-preview
http://www.racer.com/indycar/item/13953 ... dycar-test

Fernando Alonso will be running in the Indianapolis 500. Skipping Monaco. Driving for Andretti.

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/inside- ... autosport/

_________________
If you screw up while skydiving, you have the rest of your life to figure out how to fix it.

Fernando Alonso to run an Andretti-prepared Mclaren-Honda in this years' Indy 500.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alon ... 00-892869/

(checks bottom right of screen to make sure it's not still April 1st)

_________________

That's weird considering Monaco would be the best place to get a result in that garbage Honda.