Red Rider

Amazing that just days before the Indy 499, no one gives a crap. What used to be a national treasure has been completey gutted by Tony George.

Tons of tickets are still available, T.V. ratings are in the toilet, attendance at qualifying is a joke compared to the glory days and " Bump " day is gone forever, hell i read that the last few cars to qualify were told that speed didn't matter, just miss the walls and you're qualified

Thanks to the Shitty IRL cars that can't seem to stop going airborne, engine size has been reduced to 3.0 which has slowed the cars way down, what a boring mess. I'm glad i don't watch anymore, just sad that something i used to wait a year for is so pathetic now

Chief F1 Fan

totally agree Red. What was once THE race in the world to define all others is a worthless exercise in stupidity. I have not watched ONE lap yet of the "new" IRL-500 and never will. Excuse me but Fuck tony George and he gets what he deserves.

NSX-Tuner

I completely agree!!! Indy 500 is going or has gone to hell in a hen basket.

Last week Wind Tunnel on Speed had Rick Mears as a guest. Listening to him reminisce about the glory days of the Inday 500 reminded me how much I use to enjoy watching it.

Red Rider

I used to plan the weekend around it, it was THE best, very sad actually.

scalbert

Not to mention Indianapolis would be a big party for the month of May. I remember when living in Zionsville, IN. how everyone would be living for this month. It would be a main topic in class even and that was when I was in 3rd grade twenty plus years ago.

Both of my parents were born and grew up in Indianpolis and are sickened by what this race has become.

I know it still carries some weight there but not anywhere near the level of the former years.

astro

maybe the USGP being in June, will help bring some excitement back to the folks living in Indianapolis....

NSX-Tuner

Unfortunately, I believe the USGP is already getting tainted by the same group who ruined the Indy 500. The USGP may too suffer the same fate if these idiots have their way.

Red Rider

I hope they lose it !! Tony George uses that and the Brickyard 400 to fund his sorry ass IRL. I'd love to see F1 on a real road course in the U.S. but where ??

Red Rider

Scalbert, i went to the 92 Indy that Al Jr. beat Scott Goodyear at the stripe, man that was awesome and freezing, upper 40s at race time and i had a t-shirt on

Now, that was a great time for U.S. open wheel racing Champ Car is our only hope, the IRL is a disaster.

Racer5M3

Hey Red,
Possible F1 destinations: Long Beach? SF? New York? Can you imagine a modern F1 car on the streets of these cities. With Ecclestone wanting to move the F1 circus a bit further away from Europe (due to ban on tobacco advertising), he would probably be open to expanding the F1 calender to the Americas.

BTW, in a recent issue of F1 racing, they mentioned Laguna Seca as a possible F1 circuit.

Red Rider

New York City has been mentioned !! That would be quite the undertaking.

NSX-Tuner

* Laguna Seca has been mentioned over the years, but it would need lots of improvements. But this would be great cause it's only about 90 minutes from me. Also, could you imagine those F1 cars going through the corkscrew? I was at Seca once when they ran a Shadow F1 car against a Shadow CanAm car. It was amazing how much faster the F1 car went through the corkscrew. I think this was the same race weekend Mark Donahue ran his 917/30 in a CanAm race. Awsome car to behold.



* Road Atlanta

* Walkins Glenn

* Sears Point

scalbert

dallison

watkins glen has a nice facility

dallison

it seems like once the grandkids or relatives get a hold of something that is good it is ruined, or "has" to change b/c of sponsorships and attendance

Red Rider

Who won? Who cares !!

Red Rider

From what i've heard, it would need alot of work to bring it up to snuff. Look at the newer facilities in the last few years, Bernie isn't gonna add anyone that's not state of the art anymore.

Chief F1 Fan

And no where for peeps who attend the race and don't camp to stay. F1 at the Glen is gone forever.

And yes, the 917/30 was a helluva car. I had it as a slot car when I was a kid and absolutely idolized that car. So fast and reliable tho it killed the series b/c nothing could win against it's reported 1400 h.p.!!!

NSX-Tuner

Yeh... this is my all time favorite race car. I still have images of it in my mind doing a four-wheel power drift from the then turn 6a out of the corkscrew down to turn 7. An incredible show of driver skill and awesome power and handling that still gives me goose bumps whenever I think about it.

I've got an 1/18 scale model of the Donahue 917/30 car. I've heard various HP ratings for it over the years; from 1000 HP to 1200 HP - but never 1400 HP. I believe the official rating was 1100 HP; but I'm sure it had various mods done to it over the race season it ran; that it could have made 1400 HP. I use to have the Camel GT Laguna Seca program for the CanAm race Donahue ran the car in. It stated that the car had 1200 HP, with a weight of only 1200 LBS. It's hard to imagine a car with a 1/1 power to weight ratio.

Chief F1 Fan

I stand corrected:


The Porsche 917/30 was the ultimate evolution of the Porsche 917, with 1,200 Bhp when in qualifying trim. It was the car that dominated Can Am for Porsche until in got banned ! Anyway, this page will give you some of the main details about each of the 6 chassis ever built (with technical details like 0-60mph times on the specification page) If you know any more details or have seen a Porsche 917-30 recently e-mail me at 917_30@cknet.org.uk



Maybe I was thinking of the 4 cylinder turbocharged BMW F1 engines that made some sort of sick number. Funny tho, the newer cars have less HP but are seconds faster per lap!

NSX-Tuner

Porsche have been regulated out of several racing serious over the years every time they become dominate. Each time the racing teams opted to lobby against Porsche's advancements in automotive innovation rather than try to match them or surpass them. And each time each series died within a few years because it because sterile and boring; CanAm, TransAm and World Group 5 racing series. Some of these series have started up again but nothing the their glory days when prototype innovation was encouraged rather than thwarted.

NSX-Tuner

Was there a link you forgot to include in your post?

Starter

It's nice, but mine is the tyrell 6 wheeler. It's my favorite because.....well, just because.

Red Rider

I loved Andy Granatellis Turbine car !!