Ducati Monster Forum

Anyone who's a fan of open wheel racing probably knows Robin Miller. I sent a letter into his mailbag column and he printed it, and liked what I had to say.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/robin-millers-mailbag-for-october-28//P2/ (http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/robin-millers-mailbag-for-october-28//P2/)

So, am I crazy? Would anyone else like to see a high tech roadster rather than a wing with wheels?

No thanks. I cannot imagine what a "roadster" of equivalent safety to the current state of the art would look like. As for the supposed cost reduction - a large scale change like that will always result in higher costs all else being the same.

If you want "better" racing (tongue firmly in cheek) first you have to get rid of the crappy cookie cutter ovals. There were no 1.5 mile nascrap ovals (draft/crash repeat) on the CART schedule circa 1995/6/7 but there were many chassis/engine/tire combos available and many different winners. We had probably four wholesale different aero packages then too (at least with the Reynards or Lolas of the day). Lots of "good" racing back then.

Since then things have gone "spec" in a big way and that hasn't fixed a single thing. In fact, it has probably made things worse at least from the "show" point of view. Full course yellows every single freakin' time and closing the pits doesn't help make anything safer, more "fair" or more exciting either, just dumbs it down ever more.

Hell, look at Indy Lights during the Tasman heyday. These were spec cars, no option anything, no push to pass sillyness, and we won 19 out of 24 races over two seasons between four drivers including two drivers championships and two ROTY. We stripped them down, built them the best we could, the drivers and their engineers worked hard to set them up for the race, and we usually won (or 1-2) by big margins.

In the end, after 15 years in the business and around 30 years of interest, I still say that the rules need to be freed up instead of tightened. One last thing, isn't it a bit of a joke to still have the Louis Scwitser Award when there has been no substantial innovation at the 500 for almost a decade?!?

Edit: this is a topic that almost requires sitting face to face with an abundance of beverages and an equal amount time. I simply cannot type through this subject.

I'll agree with that!!  [beer]

I just think that after the heyday of the mid nineties and seeing Arie and Scott Brayton turning laps at the speedway at 240 MPH or so, that anything remotely similar is going to be a letdown.  agree that rules should be opened up. I hate seeing the NASCAR influence turning everything into a spec race, fuel economy game. I still think removing the influence of aerodynamic wings would go a long way towards making it a better series with more relevance to todays marketplace. I also think you could still make the cars wider and safe, but without wings.

I guess I'll have to just watch more USAC to get my fix.  :)

I don't watch INDY/CART but watch F1 a lot.

I would suggest a variation on what you suggested which would be to retain the front & rear wing, ditch the all the flips and aero shit and go to slicks. That will encourage mechanical grip.

The issue with spec cars is that we basically have spec tracks so no car's performance give any advantage. The more tight the rules, the more it costs to excel, the more the winning teams win. Innovation goes out the window and therefore it's very difficult for anyone who isn't winning to win. They need to relax the rules back to early 90s level and cap budgets. I know it's not easy to control but I don't know of another way that you can control spending that actually works unlike the BS they're carrying on with now.

As far as I know, that's all in the new regulations for next season in F1. They've been testing slicks most of this season. Not sure how the aero will work. Like you said, I'm pretty sure they're getting rid of most of the little areo doodads, and reducing the sizes of the front and rear wings.  Hopefully it'll lead to closer racing and more passing. I just hope they don't end up looking like Indy cars...  [puke]

They're definitely on the path to very standardized cars. I'm not feeling a very strong urge to watch F1 in 2009, much less so if they standardize everything.

You're right, they're definitely going in that direction but in addition, they're looking at a lot more restrictions that will make it more boring so I don't think we're going to end up ahead on balance.