Honda

[stan]

Ok now what, is the IRL going to do for Honda? Will we get to start some kind of Honda/Chrysler, thread? Any ideas? Only two cars in the top 10 and one is 10th?

[Jimmy Hendricks]

Honda and Toyota were very close horsepower-wise at Indy. The power is fine. Honda needs more teams and especially drivers that are capable of consistantly winning races. Right now, they are far behind Toyota in that category. AGR is one of the top teams in the league. But besides that, Rahal is a one car team. Fernandez is a one car team with a rookie driver. Ray is a one car team without the best Honda stuff.

Honda (I think) has learned their lesson this year and will have a much improved team/driver lineup next year.

[Grover]

Keeping the Blair/Barron team together would have done Honda a lot of good this year, IMO.

[SPM]

Brack and Herta now 5th & 6th

[IndyIRLman]

So far it looks pretty even to me. 2 of each manufacturer in the top 6.

[autoracingfan2]

Originally posted by Grover
Keeping the Blair/Barron team together would have done Honda a lot of good this year, IMO.

They were supposed to be a Chevrolet development team this year. Had the team survived, they would probably have had a Chevy, now a Cosworth.

[stan]

It is looking better now. Pretty good mix.

[Mackie]

Re: Honda

Originally posted by stan
Ok now what, is the IRL going to do for Honda? Will we get to start some kind of Honda/Chrysler, thread? Any ideas? Only two cars in the top 10 and one is 10th?

Every race, same premature carping, different teams use different practice sessions to either work on race setups or all out speed, some never do simulated "Q" runs. If after all the sessions and qualifying Honda still only has two teams in the top ten, then and only then might there be cause for concern. If you will recall, usually it is the Ganassi combination of G Force chassis and Toyota power that is at the front, so what's new, even if everyone was trying for top speed. I can assure you that Honda is working on the issue, all three AGR teams had Honda built engines at Michigan, of course they all blew up. Before the "special stuff" crap from badger starts, AGR is Honda's designated R&D team, and with that position comes a certain amount of risk. That said, at Michigan the Chord in Sam's car, was faster then every other combination other then the G Force/Toyota.

Note to BW, until you become the posting police, I choose to call it a Chord, should Chevy dislike that, too flippin bad, thay are the ones that faild us and gelded 27% of the field for nearly 75% of the season.

[Doc Austin]

My proposed multi-badged, spec, sealed engine is looking better all the time.

I see little point in having the manufacturers battle it out if the technology is just going to be wasted when the rules are turned back because the speeds are too high. That, and you are always going to face one manufacturer crying for a rules adjustment. Or someone squeeling about special treatment or special parts.

Just do away with it all. You don't see anyone.....anyone in cart crying about the engine on any level. The teams, drivers and fans have nothing to say about the engines except they are fast and reliable. No one is squeeling about special equipment or unequal breaks or any of that nonsense. They just plug the motors in and go race.

Is the racing about the motors or is the racing about the racing?

Of course, that's no good. There'de be one less thing to argue about at Track Forum.

[Mackie]

most of the time you make good points Austin, this time you are so wrong, we need all the engine manufacturers we can get, I think I may have seen 100 of the Michael Andretti "why would you want to do that" commercials, and I still laugh. Every race week I look in USA TODAY for the Toyota full-page, you miss that because you don't read the papers.

NO spec engines, EVER.

How has that helped CART, engine manufactures don't want it either, they want someone to beat.