Infiniti vs Chevy

[jmart]

From IRL Website:
Cheever recorded the first victory for the 35A engine last July at Kansas Speedway. Since then, the Infiniti Indy 35A has been through a complete design review. Infiniti teams tested more than 5,000 miles during the winter, concentrating on a new electronics package and durability of core engine components.

In addition, simulation races on the dynamometer test bed at the TWR engine facility in Kidlington, England, far exceeded the miles logged on Infiniti engines during winter testing.

As a result, new updates will be provided for Infiniti teams this season that will further reduce the engine’s center of gravity and significantly enhance horsepower and reliability.

Last year at this time, nobody had seen the 35A and there was no announced date that it would debut. Buhl got his Fri night before Sat practice. Eddie announced right before that they were going to run it, warts and all. It will be fun watching them start this year with a developed package that's competitive right away. At this point it sounds like they're way beyond basic development and now they're fine tuning little by little for more power. I still think Eddie's got a good shot at the championship, and if he picks up Scheckter, that could be one tough team. Can't wait to see them go head-to-head with Penske.

Mackie, at the TITW did you ask the question I sent you about the electronics package that Infiniti was developing? Did any Infiniti reps provide further details?

jmart

[Dreyerfan]

That InfinitI is sounding strong

wow who wouldve thought in 98 that this engine would become this competitive.

[rahalnut]

Infiniti will win because of one guy. Tom Walkinshaw. He may not be able too manage an F1 team worth a **** but he can build an engine or two.

[Mackie]

jmart, yes Infiniti is working on their electronics. Sadly, before I could do a copy and paste of all valid questions this site went down. I asked questions of everyone I saw. I have so much input that it is taking me some time to get the column together. I will post a link to it when it is up on the OWR site. I will say that there several Infiniti reps at Fontana, mostly around the Conquest team, who had an engine problem in the garage. There was no answer to what happened that caused the engine not to run. It was a shame, I was looking for that team to run well and validate what we saw of the Infiniti from Cheever, Scheckter and Buhl. Conquest had a Dallara at Fontana and had an update kit. Redon ran very well at Phoenix. It appeared that TWR/Infiniti may have raised the ante! One thing though,you have to be impressed with Team Penske, they were using 2001 spec engines and were not that far off, of all the other Ilmor customers with the new Chevys, Sharp was just a tic faster, Ray and Giaffone were at 218 and then there was Buzz, who blew one up at the end of the session.

[joe]

After the TITW is lookes like the Infinity will be very competitive in performance. It also seems that Chevy teams are having a tough time getting plenty of parts (or is that just Team Kelly). What impact will this have on other teams trying the Infiniti powerplant and when May rolls around and the CART teams show up, which engine do they use?

[jmart]

Posted by mackie:
One thing though,you have to be impressed with Team Penske, they were using 2001 spec engines and were not that far off, of all the other Ilmor customers with the new Chevys, Sharp was just a tic faster, Ray and Giaffone were at 218 and then there was Buzz, who blew one up at the end of the session.

Based on some info from other threads, I'm not so convinced that the Chevy, in its current incarnation, is any better than last year's Olds (CamKing will probably jump in and declare there's more to come ). Irregardless (or is it regardless), Penske's decision may not have been out of necessity but rather out of design. All I know is, the Infiniti looks like the motor to beat on the HP tracks and it should be able to hold its own on the short tracks -- witness last year's performance at Richmond.

jmart

[Mackie]

think that to low-rate the new Chevy would be a big mistake. There hasn't been that many changes that could screw it up. There is no doubt that what changers there were would improve the engine. This is the first full round of mass testing in cars. If I was on the design team I would want to see that what we built was spot on before committing to a major production run of parts that may have to be recalled later! Make no mistake about it, the major teams with the engine were plenty fast. My point about Penske was that if they are that fast with last year's stuff, look out when they get the new stuff. Look at the first Ilmor efforts last year, they build basic engines first, and had their problems. Then the tweaking began, by May look what they had! Look at both Lazier's at Fontana, with engines from Menard and Speedway, first in class. Look at Lazzaro's efforts with a Speedway engine, with less laps then most of the others, 6th fastest. I have said before that I feel that Hornish/Panther were sandbagging, they had plenty of test laps at Fontana, he was first out and first up to "speed," yet the numbers didn't reflect how fast he looked in the first turn, and how hooked up he was! Sam ran only 100 laps, much less then most!

No jmart, you're looking for chinks in the armor that aren't there!