More on the Swift designs: http://www.swiftengineering.com/images/new...ENT-FEB2010.pdf

The Swift designs are a lot more innovative/creative than the Dallara proposals, and to my eyes look a damn sight better as well. I'd much rather have them be the choice, but we'll see what Wednesday brings with "Delta Wing"...

The "Delta Wing" concept has yet to be seen...

Swift's stuff looks very good except last proposal on Swift's page looks to Batmobile. Interesting rear diffuser design to clean up air behind car. Very innovative and maybe something F1 needs to look at. LED's on roll hoop and sides of car may be hokey for "die hards" but could be real nice for casual fan

The design on page 5 raised an eyebrow.

Delta Wing is one of the companies bidding for the contract, not the name of the designs.

I like both proposals. As far as the LEDs, idk if the teams would be to crazy about letting their competitors know exactly how much fuel they have. The throttle/brake one is interesting and the position led would be nice for the ovals in which a lot of lapping happens. All and all, I like Swift > Dallara so far.

Definitely Swift over Dallara so far. Lola should be out this week and repeat for 50th time the "Delta Wing". Next week someone can start a poll.

Regarding the LED's: When i saw the Swift Nippon car i scoffed. But having seen a few highlights of Nippon races, they are really quite good. I would welcome the swift design.

Anybody seen any clips of the Nippon lights in action that they could post?

Delta Wing pictures have been on TrackForum. They are being put up and taken off at random though. No, I don't subscribe to TrackForum a co-worker does. From what I have seen and this is their proposal I am not to sure about it

hahaha, thats a joke, right? please?

The Delta Wing is definitely the most phallic design proposed for Indy 2012. Never seen anything like it in racing before, which has to be a plus point.

And it's a hell of a lot prettier than the Silver Crown car.

EDIT: It's very much a delta wing kinda shape, like one of those old fighter jets but in reverse. It certainly fits everything Bowlby and co. were saying about it. High probability of it being for realz.

I hope so.

The unveiling will happen in an hour or so: http://www.deltawingracing.com/

And by this image on the countdown page, it has nothing to do with that above pic provided by chdphd.

Yeah, I hope it doesn't. Supposedly, the 16th and Georgetown blog broke the "embargo" and published the pictures in yet another instance of Brian Barnhart trying to block anything other than the Dallara being considered. I don't know if that's the case, but if the majority of the owners (and in particular, all of the successful ones) are backing this idea, then it would be rather wise to consider it. Apparently though, Barnhart really doesn't like the idea...

I may start following Indy Car more closely purely for the spectacle of Sato on an oval!

What the hell? Is Barnhart that reliant on Dallara kickbacks? I can understand why he'd oppose the Delta Wing, as it's some kind of CARTunioncommunist plot to unseat IMS from power, but Swift and Lola are in more or less the same position as Dallara.

I remember that one. That was a horrendous episode, and actually made me stop watching CSI. Suspension of disbelief is a terrible thing to piss away.

If that's an accurate rendition of the proposal, it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. First of all, it looks like it's 30 feet long. How can the front wheels supposed to turn different directions? And if they do turn, how on earth is a driver supposed to judge the apex of a corner? I don't see how it'll ever negotiate the hairpin at Long Beach, or any other corners for that matter. If they give it conventionally-placed front wheels, I might be on board, but if this is what it's going to be, forget it.

It reminds me of some of the way-out space-age concept cars that the Detroit automakers presented as the wave of the future in the late '50s and early '60s. Hopefully this will never see the light of day in real life either.

Along with every other episode of Miami....

Four minutes to go, I'm almost thinking about getting goosebumps now.

I don't have a good feeling about this...

I predict my reaction would be "What the **** is that thing?"

I really hope the batmobile thing is a joke. I was quite impressed with some of the Swift drawings.

Yeah, good one Deltawing. Good way to win the hearts and minds of the fans by duping them.

'Sorry you are too late' wth? Another bad omen

Seems like a succinct way to describe the future of Indycar racing.

Holy $%^&* ...
those concept pics are the real thing...

I feel ill...

Ok, something seems to try to load on my computer. Hopefully the car will work better than the website.

What kind of F'd up way is that to show the car. If this was April Fools I would get it. Speed is saying that is THE car with interview of designer on why he did it that way. Explanation is good but i am still firmly in the Swift camp. I don't see how that could be decent on a road course. Designer is much smarter than me when it comes to racecars but not aesthetics.

What the **** is that thing?

http://www.youtube.com/user/DeltaWingRacing

Site is now up! And our worst fears have been realised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rah0RSIEVC8

I want to support DeltaWing's cause, but this is terrible......

Though, perhaps, this is all a smoke-screen? Some form of political mind-game between Bowlby and IMS?

Well, that was interesting. I thought maybe it was my system not refreshing or some other glitch. Thanks for confirming the "Sorry, you're too late" message for me.

Edit: I've been trying to keep an open mind. I remember my Dad digging his heels in over the rear engined cars versus the roadsters, but I just do not see this design as a viable option upon my first impression.

WTH?! It was really the real deal!

Wow. Who ever thought it would come to pass that I'd back Brian Barnhart...?
The delta wing is just... a mini challenger for a land speed record, but unless they're proposing to now hold every race at drag strip, I can't see how it could work in the real world... Tis the Swift ideas for me, at least they're radical and can cope with a hairpin...

Prototype:

Stuff up on Delta Wing site http://deltawingracing.com/

Interesting. The goals behind the design are good, but some of the conclusions just don't make aesthetic sense to me. That said, it WILL get everyone talking about IndyCar again, and if it performed as advertised it would get attention. Is it the way to go? I don't know, and I'm not sure about the crash safety of the design (as there don't seem to be much in the way of side impact structures).

I like Swift's ideas the most, but a lot of this points made in the Robin Miller interview are valid. Perhaps it would be better to create a regulatory window around these principles, and then let teams build their own cars within that (I don't know how you accomplish cost containment with that though)?

Surely the distance between the front wheels would make the front incredibly unstable in the corners. I know the Venturis'll produce a downforce to suck it down but that thin a track is never going to be ideal.

batmobile

It looks like a 60's speed record car... or something from a Sci-fi racing game ..

Maybe it's me beïng narrow minded .. but I bursted in a big laugh when I saw that picture...

Is the future of the looks of a racing car???

We haven't seen it on a track yet, so it's not clear that it can't cope with a hairpin. At this point, we really just don't know...

You read my mind. Even that bodywork but with more familiar wheels sticking out on wishbones at the front would probably look better.

I thought of the model in Craig Breedlove's hands

http://www.bluebird-electric.net/craig_breedlove.htm

I am not at all convinced that this is even real tbh. Those renders, CFD's and rfactor models could have been knocked up in a few days. I think this is in response to the turn of events that has been happening recently. People like Chip Gannasi and Roger Penske would'nt happily associate themselves with something as hilarious as that...

Well, they say they plan to test in August. I'll be very interested to see that. Maybe invite Swift, Lola, and Dallara so you could compare all 3?

btw, I'm also in the Swift camp for now.

that's the one I was thinking about,


Curious how such a car would act in the corkscrew at Laguna Seca