Another Pook Interview

[macdaddy]

Just thought I'd throw out a few quotes that I found interesting.

"We will have one downforce package common to our short ovals, street courses and road courses. We might even look at running the same downforce package at one of our superspeedways."

Please explain, Chris. It looks to me like we've got only one more superspeedway race to run in the foreseeable future.

"The one thing we are working on pretty hard right now is to get a Briton in the series. I would be remiss if I didn't say how proud Britain should be of Darren Manning."

What's he getting at?

"The day before the Brands race is the Spanish Grand Prix. I know of at least two people that are coming back from Spain to see us, one will be Montoya and the other will be named Villeneuve. They will be there to see a lot of new blood and a lot of new team owners to our series. I think you are going to be very, very pleasantly surprised in the next 10 days by the names of some of the new team owners in our series."



"We have a European ownership contingency coming to our series in 2003 and an even larger one coming in 2004."

Pollock? Red Bull? Great news anyway!

"We will be live on television in Europe and it will be on a channel that you can easily get to."

And here's one to digest...

"As far as we are concerned the days of methanol-powered race cars are over. We will be on gasoline power in 2005, in all probability with a normally-aspirated V10 engine and we'll control the electronic boxes to make sure that traction control doesn't creep back in. You will also probably see refuelling disappear. You will see tyre rules that provide hard and soft compounds and the 750bhp engines will have to run up to 800 miles between rebuilds."

The part about refuelling is likely to make Lee smile. But alot of what he said there will be topic for debate. "Normally-aspirated" likely to cause a stir. Can't say as I agree with all that.

http://www.autosport.com/featuresitem.asp?id=21609&s=31

[indycool]

Yeah, that last one bothers me a lot. These kinds of ars went from gasoline to methanol as a safety thing in the first place because methanol has a much-higher flashpoint. And without refuelling, what are they going to do, carry 80 gallons like they used to? That'd make a huge bomb. What's the point? Why do we hafta relearn the hard way?

[MolsonBoy]

I recall reading somewhere that the cars would get better fuel mileage on gas than methanol. Almost double? Does anybody have more info on this?

[Bizzo5000]

I personally won't mind the V-10's. Hell, as long as they are still around and not running 3.5's I'll be happy.

[Lee Janotta]

Pook's vision for the series is just, dare I say, too damn European.

I'd rather have the turbos than the refueling ban!

[macdaddy]

Re: Refuelling... What would they do if/when they were to run a 500?

KEEP THE TURBOS, MISTER POOK!

[indycool]

Read some calculations elsewhere that the cars would get 4 mpg on gas. That means for a decent-length race (200 miles), it'd probably be 50-55 gallons on board to start with. Pook just announced a superspeedway at Lausitz for the schedule and I doubt, on gas, that they'd get 4 mpg on a flat-out superspeedway. That's a mixed signal. My guess is that no ovals by '05. And if no refuelling, most certainly no 500-milers.

[Jordi]

Heck, I just want to see the whole season live!

[Liz]

2005 is a long time from now. Lets get through 2003 first.

I too dislike the idea of normally aspirated sewing machine engines and hope that one goes the way of that 3.5 liter nonsense -- let's keep up the pressure as it sure worked last time!

F1 had "no refuelling" for a long time and did fine. Maybe this is a sign that we're going back to the days of decent F1 cars?

[Flatspot]

The jury is still out for me. I'd rather keep the turbo's but could live with a N/A V10 depending on the balance of the formula. They seem to do quite well with them in F1 but if they are looking at a V10 restrictor plated NASCAR engine (or reasonable facsimile), forget it.

With Germany we will have a couple of superspeedways won't we? It might work. The Hanford device did.

With Brands Hatch on the schedule a Brit would be good for sure and it's good either way.

It's a complete rebuild for CART, that's certain!

[Snrub]

The big wing on a superspeedway is stupid. Why not call it an IRL race?

Okay explain this to me; you're going to reduce costs by producing the same power out of a similar displacement engine, naturally aspirated that has more pistons? Revs will have to go up to produce the same power. The power band will be narrow. On street courses it'll be like the peak power is 600hp with the current engines. There is no way those engines can last multiple races, especially a superspeedway pulling a few hundred revs below the 15000rpm+ red line.

Did Minardi produce 750hp with the Asiatech? What about before that? How much did they spend on engine development to get it there? Is CART & Ford willing to spend big bucks?

I think they should allow privateer engine suppliers to be exempt from the precise formula rules. We can provide CART with 2L twin turbo 20B (3-rotor) peripheral ported engines with 750hp, make gobs of money and be easily win the championship and replace the engine every other race.

[f1manoz]

I think Pook is throwing these ideas out into the open to see the reaction it gets. If it comes back that people don't want to see those whiny V10s, then just maybe he'll listen to the people...

[gaines]

The turbo engine is our bread and butter. Don't take away my bread and butter Mr. Pook. Normally Aspirated engines make me ill. Give me turbos or I'll watch swamp buggies instead!

Hmmm, I wonder if Bobby Rahal's mustache is normally aspirated?

[evo]

I don't know of any other racing series in the world where the cars are all turbocharged (except World Rally). Champ Cars have always been turbocharged. Champ Cars must remain turbocharged to maintain the identity of this race series. Otherwise we're just copying F1 or IRL.

[Flatspot]

Snrub you're right. The big wing would be bad. On the first read-through I read it to mean some kind of different aero package not as the same aero package they will use on the streets and short ovals. Oops!

[DNQ]

Turbo engines are the only way to go as far as Champ Car racing is concerned. It's what CART is all about. Normally aspirated V10's belong in one place and one place only, and that is F1.

[Liz]

Write Mr. Pook and tell him so! The address of Champ Cars is under "Contact Us" at CART.com -- do it now!

[DNQ]

That I might do.

Thankfully the normally aspirated formulae is being proposed for 2005 and not any sooner. Plenty of time to work things out yet