UPDATE A reader writes, Ok, so, Honda leaves Champ Car for dead, tries to steal all their drivers and teams to the IRL by offering gobs of money, artificially props up the IRL with thousands of free tickets, basically tries any and every method to destroy Champ Car…..now, after Champ Car has fended off all attacks, has built a base to thrive, and FINALLY appears to have it right regarding the performance specs of the 2007 car, Honda comes back and wants Champ Car to change the engine specs so Honda can come back in and use their piece of s..t, low horsepower, low rpm, "drowning cow" sounding, IRL engine?? Uh, ok! Hahaha, isn't this how this CART judgment day era all started in the first place (Penske trying to get the owners to adopt the IRL engine specs 3-4 years ago and the engine manufacturers dictating the series)? I hope they are not that dumb again.
Derek Hughes, Cincinnati, OH. Dear Derek, Assuming this rumor is true (no guarantee there, we think it is a cover-up for something more), we think it would be better if the IRL adopts the Champ Car turbo engine – a far better sounding and far more versatile engine, rather than the other way around. Honda has built these engines before and are quite capable of doing it again. IRL fans like the Champ Car engine, as we never hear them say the IRL engine sounds better, or performs better; it does not. In other words, Robert Clarke should be making his pitch to Tony George, rather than Champ Car.
Mark C.
09/26/05 Honda's Robert Clarke told people he went to Las Vegas to talk with Kevin Kalkhoven about reunification but SPEEDTV.com has learned that his real purpose was to pitch Champ Car on using Honda engines in 2007.
Clarke passed up the first day of practice for the IRL show at Watkins Glen to meet with Kalkhoven and Tony Cotman, director of competition, to see if Champ Car had any interest in switching to normally-aspirated, 3-liter, V-8 engines for 2007.
Honda has already designed a new IRL engine for '07 based on what it believed the new rules would be. However, IRL officials recently announced there would be no changes for 2007 so now Honda has a new engine with no place to run except possibly the Grand Am sports car series.
Clarke lobbied Kalkhoven, who co-owns Champ Car and Cosworth Engineering with Gerald Forsythe, to consider changing from the current 2.65-liter, turbocharged motor to the normally-aspirated, 3-liter, V-8 engine so it could compete with Honda in the 2007 Champ Car season. More at SPEEDTV.com
