The More Things Change ...

Articles in this Topic Discussions in this Topic

Oct 2, 2001

The More Things Change ...

It was an off-week for the CART series, with most of the teams kicking back to watch the F-1 traveling carnival race on the hallowed grounds of the Brickyard. And probably wallow in a bit of envy at the same time, both because ABC Sports gushed all over the F-1 gang as the best road racers in the world. Bob Jenkins and Eddie Cheever (sidenote: Eddie has an excellent television presence and can talk intelligently off-the-cuff) appparently spent a good part of the race on their knees worshiping Bernie Ecclestone's imitation of racing.

But to a guy raised on Mario and A.J., on big Offy open wheel roadsters, on geniuses like Carroll Shelby and Jim Hall, talk of traction control and semi-automatic transmissions with shift changers mounted on steering wheels that look like video game controllers ...

Suffice it to say, it's a little too geek-like for me. Good grief, shots of the pits showed groups of engineers lined up in front of enough computer displays to provide an excellent duplication of NASA's Mission Control Center. This ain't racin'. This is mobile computing.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about, really.

I'm more intrigued with the so-called Silly Season that begins as CART winds down to the last few races of each year.

Oh, there's always talk of this driver going there -- the latest is Bruno Junquiera and Tony Kanaan being swapped by Chip Ganassi and Mo Nunn -- and talk of one driver taking over for another -- in this case, Casey Mears signing on to replace the injured Alex Zanardi for the remainder of the season. But it can get sillier yet.

Like CART firing its competition director.

Or like the engine manufacturer which has powered the dominating Team Target Chip Ganassi Racing team deciding, You people need to get your act together. We're moving to the IRL. Join us or not. We don't care.

Toyota Throws Down Engine Gauntlet To CART
Torrance, Calif., Sept. 27: Toyota announced its open-wheel future in a terse statement Thursday morning, saying that it could not wait any longer for CART to make up its mind on future engine specifications, and that it would discontinue building turbocharged engines for U.S.-based open-wheel series.
Check out the full story on Speedvision

A proposed solution to CART's engine dilemma
by Mark Cipolloni
CART has a difficult decision to make on engines. While CART tried hard to come up with an engine formula that would make Honda, Toyota, and Ford happy, at the end of the day, that was not possible. In this article, we examine the current state of affairs, and provide a recommendation for a long-term, cost effective engine formula that is still high-tech enough to challenge the best engine designers.

Go To Page: 1 2

The copyright of the article The More Things Change ... in CART Auto Racing is owned by Gary Presley. Permission to republish The More Things Change ... in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.