These have got to be the ugliest Indycars ever, they don't even look like a Indycar anymore with that awful block hanging off the back now, yes, I know it's a bumper, but they could have made it smaller, or at least a little more stylish, aerodynamic maybe ?
Nah. I'd say this one is uglier:
I mean, most of those people didn't even know how to drive, with 80,000 fans arriving by horse and buggy. Although, I'd have to agree, the lack of "fenders" was excellent!
The cars are faster than they've been for years, but they're not nearly as fast as they were back in the glory days of C.A.R.T. They're about as safe as it's possible to make them.
Actually, the trap speeds going into turn one were up to 242 mph vs. 247 mph in the glory days of C.A.R.T. (which they are fixing to relive soon). Hinchcliffe's pole was 230.760 mph this year, but that was a four lap average, and they were turning laps around 232 mph, which compares to Arie Luyendyk's 237.498 mph back in 1996. They are not far off...and that's with a V6 Turbo producing 700 bhp as opposed to Arie's 1000 bhp monster. Most people also forget that they changed the inner radius/diameter (whatever) of the track after the 1990s. About 10-20 ft. of the apron was grassed over and a full length "pit" access lane now encircles the track. If you watch the 90s races, you can see drivers blasting well inside where they can go today and, in fact, right over the white "apron" line, which, I guess, ticked officials off. (Andretti was furious in 1993 after getting a penalty for doing it).
Matt pretty much nailed it. They exceeded the limits of what the human body can endure long ago. IndyCar had to
cancel a 2001 race at Texas Motor Speedway after a NASA flight director determined that lap speeds exceeded the known levels of human tolerance of vertical
g-loads. The human body could not tolerate sustained loads of more than 4-4.5 Gs, and these drivers were well over that for much of the lap. Drivers were losing their peripheral vision and could not walk in a straight line for 3-4 minutes after laps.
2016 cars produce more down-force than an F1 car (but not at Indy) and would murder an F1 car here, but not on a road course. That's always been the case. As for interest, most "old ass" commentators like Robin Miller and Roger Penske said they have never seen interest this high since the mid 1990s. They had 100,000 for practice yesterday and expect 350,000 for the race. It's sold out for the first time in 100 years.
P.S. - Great article. Can always tell a true fan.
With the ESPN connection it would be nice if they had rights to the IMSA races as well. Although you can catch those on the web.
