Indy Cars New Turbo Rules for 2011 Season...

[larryn]

They are ditching the V8 3.5l Honda motors for a 4 or 6cyl single or twin turbo motors... Is BMW leading the way????

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008...ar-to-use.html

[J Tyler]

Glad to hear that. Hope they get more engine manufacturers, spec engines are no fun. And I hope they come up with a decent chassis. And better tracks. And...

[stampchez]

F1 might be going back to turbos as well.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...nes-to-return/

[larryn]

When I read it, I immediately thought of BMW. We know they have a I4 TT in the works, and they already have the I6 version.

Dunno who else could do them by 2010.

Anybody know of marques that have them in production? Most turbo powered stock cars (for large manuafacturers make only the 4 cyl turbo).

[stampchez]

I don't think Ferrari has had turbos since the F40.
Mercedes is planning to add turbos by 2010.
I can't think of a Toyota that has had turbos since the Supra.
Renault had turbos in the 80s but has turbos with Nissan and the GT-R.
Honda released their first turbo engine in the RDX.

[atr_hugo]

Are we ruling out diesels? ; -)

[atr_hugo]

But seriously . . . the Indy/Champ car motors will most likely be bespoke units - so from what little I know, I'd round up the usual suspects. BMW might find some synergy if the two specs line up (F1 and Indy) and they probably have the capacity. Cosworth and Ilmor come to mind as do some other US players, like Ed Pink (who did the Indy Infiniti engine development program).

Would they do a 2 liter Turbo formula - I4/V6/V8 run what you brung? That'd be neat - but given how they always come back to a 'spec' series, look for a single engine manufacturer/supplier to be selected. And it may be one where the name on the cam covers doesn't match the name of the shop that built the engine. ; -)

[J Tyler]

Originally Posted by larryn

When I read it, I immediately thought of BMW. We know they have a I4 TT in the works, and they already have the I6 version.

Street car motors have nothing to do with Indycar motors... Or at least, they did not used to.

The race motors are custom designed by a small group of engineers; or the design is outsourced to a private company (Cosworth, Ilmor, etc) and the car company's logo is slapped on the cam cover.

[jrc]

The Champ car turbo engine really wasn't anything special, so I don't have high hopes for the IRL version being much different.

However, the F1 turbo era was insane, and if turbo returns to F1 again, that could be really interesting. How about a formula limiting engine size to 1200cc (maybe even 1litre), with no configuration restrictions, no boost restrictions and with driver adjustable boost allowed -- but the engine still has to last 2 qualies and 2 races and if you break it before that then you start at the back of the grid in the next race.

[aus]

For the kids who don'w remember, the F1 tubo engine use to be 1.5L but produce 1,000 HP during qualifying!!