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With all the grief we used to take from IRL bashers that the IRL only had one engine for all practical purposes, we now have two with at least one more on the way. Things are looking up, right? Well, not to me.
It is my understanding that the intent of the IRL engine rules were to cut down on exclusivity and lack of universal availability, while holding down the costs. And if I understood the statements made, also to give the engines back to the mechanics rather than the manufacturers. All good intentions, but are they being met and what does the future hold.
My take is that they are not being fully met, although the level of parity has been pretty good for the last couple of years. But the costs have escalated far beyond the league mandated $75-80K. To me doubling the costs does not stay within the intent of the rules. I think this has become a mandated cost of $125K rather than $75K.
And the two engine makers have far different situations. GM from what I have read is actually making money supplying the "kits" to outside builders who are doing the final development. And the incremental costs of that development is quite expensive. If the first 650 horsepower is available right out of the box or for $115 each, then the next 50 or less is costing at least $1500 each or more than 10 times as much. Wouldn't it be much much smarter to "dumb" down the engines by adding displacement and having everyone run "stock" engines of the same horsepower.
The "dumbed" down engine producing the same horsepower as the top tweaked engines would probably cost not a penny more, but even if you added an extra $115 per horsepower, you would only be talking about another $7000 at the most. Which is dumber, 700 horses for $82K or for $125K?
Now back to the other engine manufacturer, Infiniti. Supplying a small number of competitors, there cost/price situation is much different. I don't think it's a stretch to say that their customers are getting substantially discounts on their engines. Free? Maybe. Free + some cash? Possible. Or perhaps just $125K engines for $75K? Can't say that I blame them for doing any or all of these things. What else can they do? Who would pay top dollar for an engine that has only won one or two races in several years? And when Toyota gets here, we are almost surely to see more of the same.
So what happens if Toyota or Infiniti get the upper hand on Chevy? They would be forced to either follow suit and subsidize their teams or pull out.
Well there are the problems as I see them and I don't know if I have clue as far as a probable solution. The only thing I can see that would work is most surely a suggestion that would be screams from several directions. That is to declare one engine, available only from the manufacturer. They would be free to develop it all they wanted or could afford to, but the mandated price would have to be maintained and the same engine would have to be available to all participants.
It is my understanding that the intent of the IRL engine rules were to cut down on exclusivity and lack of universal availability, while holding down the costs. And if I understood the statements made, also to give the engines back to the mechanics rather than the manufacturers. All good intentions, but are they being met and what does the future hold.
My take is that they are not being fully met, although the level of parity has been pretty good for the last couple of years. But the costs have escalated far beyond the league mandated $75-80K. To me doubling the costs does not stay within the intent of the rules. I think this has become a mandated cost of $125K rather than $75K.
And the two engine makers have far different situations. GM from what I have read is actually making money supplying the "kits" to outside builders who are doing the final development. And the incremental costs of that development is quite expensive. If the first 650 horsepower is available right out of the box or for $115 each, then the next 50 or less is costing at least $1500 each or more than 10 times as much. Wouldn't it be much much smarter to "dumb" down the engines by adding displacement and having everyone run "stock" engines of the same horsepower.
The "dumbed" down engine producing the same horsepower as the top tweaked engines would probably cost not a penny more, but even if you added an extra $115 per horsepower, you would only be talking about another $7000 at the most. Which is dumber, 700 horses for $82K or for $125K?
Now back to the other engine manufacturer, Infiniti. Supplying a small number of competitors, there cost/price situation is much different. I don't think it's a stretch to say that their customers are getting substantially discounts on their engines. Free? Maybe. Free + some cash? Possible. Or perhaps just $125K engines for $75K? Can't say that I blame them for doing any or all of these things. What else can they do? Who would pay top dollar for an engine that has only won one or two races in several years? And when Toyota gets here, we are almost surely to see more of the same.
So what happens if Toyota or Infiniti get the upper hand on Chevy? They would be forced to either follow suit and subsidize their teams or pull out.
Well there are the problems as I see them and I don't know if I have clue as far as a probable solution. The only thing I can see that would work is most surely a suggestion that would be screams from several directions. That is to declare one engine, available only from the manufacturer. They would be free to develop it all they wanted or could afford to, but the mandated price would have to be maintained and the same engine would have to be available to all participants.
Yes, but we don't have the fastest and most powerful now and really haven't had very often, if ever. There have always been rules and many if not most of these rules are to control, the costs, power and speed. We have already far surpassed the natural progression of speed and power brought about by competition. And the competition you are talking about is competition among manufacturers and engineers not racers for the most part.
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