USA Racing Summary anyone?

[Go-Pakistan]

Can anyone give a heads up on American single seater Racing

whats the difference between champ cars and Indy racing league? are the cars the same? what are the engine sizes/bhp.

also what are the details of the feeder formulae, i.e.

engine size, bhp, european equivalent if applicable of:

Formula Barber Dodge
Formula Atlantic
Indy lights
IRL pro series

I hope this would be useful for other fans aswell.

[astinus4]

Originally Posted by Go-Pakistan

Can anyone give a heads up on American single seater Racing

whats the difference between champ cars and Indy racing league? are the cars the same? what are the engine sizes/bhp.

also what are the details of the feeder formulae, i.e.

engine size, bhp, european equivalent if applicable of:

Formula Barber Dodge
Formula Atlantic
Indy lights
IRL pro series

I hope this would be useful for other fans aswell.

Here's how ten-tenths briefly describes both series. I don't necessarily agree with everything but it's pretty close I think:

Champcar World Series

An American-based open-wheel racing series that has expanded its horizons world-wide.
Racing on road and street courses as well as ovals, superspeedways and airports, the CCWS is the most diverse open-wheel series in the world.



Indy Racing League

The Indy Racing League IndyCar Series is based on traditional American oval racing, and features a flyaway race to Japan as well as road and street races. But the jewel in its crown is the greatest race of all - The Indianapolis 500.


The web page below provides a car spec comparison not only between the 2 American series but F1 as well: http://www.champcarworldseries.com/T...omparisons.asp

[rustyfan]

The description of Champ Car should be changed to remove superspeedways though, since that traditionally is ovals 2 miles and longer.

[Amar7605]

Champ Cars run with turbocharged engines, while the IRL has normally-aspirated engines.

You can tell the difference between the two because IRL cars has the air inlets over the driver's head, much like the Formula 1 cars. Champ Cars do not have that.

[Snrub]

Champ Cars also use venturi tunnels underneath the car to produce most of their downforce. IRL cars are more aero dependant on their wings. Champ Cars are decendant from CART which once had a lot of money spent on speed whereas the IRL started out with the concept of cost containment and used simplier solutions. Today there probably isn't much of a performance difference between the chasis used in each series.

IRL engines were 3.5L until fairly recently when they reduced the stroke and made them 3.0L. They make around 650hp and are rev limited to 10,700rpm. The 2.65L Champ Car engines are decendant from the old CART monsters which made in excess of 1000hp (a fair bit in excess too) and back in 2002 were reving to about 16k without the use of pnumatic valve actuation (less boost and around 850hp). Today they're at 750hp (700hp at ovals) and 800hp when they use their "push to pass." They're rev limited to 12,000rpm, but run more boost than was present in years such as 2002. They last a couple of race distances before they're rebuilt. Both engines run on methanol.

The IRL is primarly an oval series, but expanded to two road courses and one street course this year. They race in the US, which the exception of one in Japan. A few years ago Champ Car was about 50% ovals, but today is down to only two - both in trouble too. They race primarly on temporary circuits (street and airport) and some road courses. About 3 races in Canada, 2 Mexico, 1 Australia, the rest in the US.

[macdaddy]

Next year, the IRL engines will be running on ethanol (which is made from corn).

[Snrub]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

Next year, the IRL engines will be running on ethanol (which is made from corn).

Intersting, that's confirmed 100%?

[macdaddy]

I was mistaken, at least to a degree. They will be running a 10% ethanol mixture next year, and pure ethanol in 2007.

Here's a thread from 2003.
And here's one from last March.

[Tenoch]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

Next year, the IRL engines will be running on ethanol (which is made from corn).

Which you can drink, its basically 100 proof vodka aka grain alcohol aka moonshine. But dont let the ATF know cause come on were all pro ethanol because its North American fuel not dependant on foreign oil right people.

[Hazza]

Problem is they put something in it to stop "One for me, one for the car."