If you had $30 million for CART...

[Tenoch]

All of that is nice and all, but If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? Same thing with CART you may have the greatest venues and the greatest cars but if theres no influx of new American fans nothing is going to happen. So I would take those thirty million and buy superbowl commercials with it.

[indycool]

We're talking about issues that aren't important today. Today is awaiting word whether the OWRS group will be voted by the CART BoD to buy and cherry-pick the assets of the company and continue racing.

It isn't chassis. It isn't engines. It isn't what venues CART/OWRS runs.

Schedules people are throwing out are immaterial at this point. Six of CART's promoters pitched the cookies last year and told CART to promote it themselves. A seventh, St. Pete, did the same a couple weeks ago. Others are trying to get out. So where CART might run IF it gets past the current financial hurdle depends on what new bargain might be reached to have a show.

CART's teams are not in good shape. They have been stalled on sponsorship sales because they -- and potential sponsors -- have no idea what this series is going to be. A discussion of chassis and engines right now is moot. None of the teams can afford to frolic around the Christmas tree with their new Van Diemen and BMW engine.

Push-to-pass and standing starts are moot unless the current hurdle is resolved. You don't need to push-to-pass if your car is a flower pot in someone's garage. Standing starts are just standing still at this point, engine off.

CART's future for "beyond" is anyone's pipe dream at this point. In the next couple of days, we should know a wee bit of something about what that future is.

This will be regarded as D&G and I'm sure Dov will level me. But in reality, all this needs to follow in order.

[gttouring]

we are just being optimistic and hope ful here, granted what was CART maybe the new IRL world series later. CART mat die but long live CART

[Dov]

Indycool, you can say what ever you want...it's an open forum! You are entitled to your opinion no matter how much it gets on my nerves, but like gt was saying, we are just being optomistic and hopeful! While you are correct in saying that this discussion is moot until we no the future of CART/OWRS, as CART fans we can't help but look past the present to the future. If we didn't there would be a lot of sad people around here discussing the issues that you call "reality", but when you discuss it ALL the time (like yourself), I tend to call it "D&G"!

[Snrub]

I'm certainly hopefull that CART will come back to glory, but Indycool is right on certain things. The problem is the money to run stuff (teams & venues), but the core of what CART does is good even at its worst.

Judging by the amount of money Pook spent last year, $30M isn't enough to do that much. First off stability will improve the series so putting out the business plan for all to see is crutial. Sponsors need to know how things are going to happen so they can invest their money. This measure can bring money to teams/venues.

To fix the problems with the teams & venues you've got to reduce their costs. Cut to the bone and sadly amputate a few limbs. Profitable races plus one or maybe two *slightly* unprofitable races that are going to become profitable in a year or two.

Something needs to be done to reduce the costs of the equipment. Cutting out the Miamis that are likely to cause damage to cars is a start. Having Lola/Reynard develop cheaper parts for the cars is another. Adding some weight and slowing the cars slightly by using less expensive materials/design methods. The engine is probably okay. I don't know enough about the engine because I don't work for Cosworth, but I'd suggest that the costs can be reduced a bit by increasing the milage further. Another drop in revs and increase in boost might facilitate the use of cheaper materials because the engine won't need to withstand the old 16500rpm.

[Dov]

Something tells me that Snrub is going use the word "stability" a lot from now on... But KK was right, that's all that CART needs! It's too bad that the people that previously ran CART had no clue what "stability" meant!

[f1manoz]

Originally posted by indycool
blah, blah, blah, same thing ad nauseum

Way to take the fun out of things.

Indycool,

If you had $30 million to spend, how would you improve CART?

[indycool]

If I had $30 million to spend, I'd know it wasn't enough to get CART through June and I'd be looking for other partners, other money as fast as I could.

But operationally, I would:
--keep only profitable races on the '04 schedule and if it was only six or seven, so be it to start rebuilding but still keep the series out there. No one can afford losers at this point. I wouldn't care if they were road, street or oval. Bottom line is they hafta be viable.
--try to maintain some kind of viable TV deal with CBS.
--spend the money needed to have 18-19 cars and that would require a bunch of car owners dedicated to the series instead of themselves that'll only go after that pot if they really need it (like they did in '79).
--seek sponsorship (but everyone in racing does that, so that's no great revelation).
--and pray I could slick through a season that way...that is, if I had only $30 million.

[f1manoz]

Good answer.