Pe7e wrote:
Judging by fan interest, IndyCar made a big mistake by not choosing the 'Wing.
Pete
As a member of the IndyCar media circus, I have to respectfully disagree.
That car, when proposed, had never even been built in prototype form. Had the thing actually been built, crash tested, and run on various Indy venues (ie, uh, "Indy") then at least the review board would've know what they were voting on. It's one thing to build a mock up, still another to scrape up the money for one prototype and take it to one race, but it is quite another to sign up for 50+ cars in the first year and run it at 16 venues, from Texas Motor Speedway (high banked ovals) to Indy (flat ro-val) to road and street courses.
Second, even if built, the manufacturers had to show they could keep up with demand under the costs specified. A few weeks ago, following Indy, there was an owner's meeting where they discussed the high costs of spares, and the scarcity of some parts. The previous car could be had for $300k or so new, but this car was going for $550k plus another $200k for spare parts. A one-car team really needs to budget $1 million to get its car on the road w/ spare parts. Where would this car come in, who would make it, etc?
Third, yeah, the techie gear head community loves the thing. IndyCar, to be successful, has to have a much much larger audience than that. If the public response had been different, a multi-year commitment to a car that, in the end, people though was "Silly" could've been disastrous.
And God help us all if a driver had been killed in that radical new thing....
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