IndyCar: Honda and Chevy complete initial test of next generation Indy car engine (Update)

Chevy

Chevrolet completed a successful three-day test at the Indianapolis Road Course with its new 2.4-liter engine for the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES on Wednesday.

Despite weather too cold to get a full day of testing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Monday, March 28, the Team Penske Chevrolet with driver Josef Newgarden was able to get successful laps in during the afternoon. Then, Tuesday morning, after a late start because of cold ambient and track temperatures, teammate Will Power laid down lap after lap to add to the data collected the previous day.

Because of the weather issues, the test was extended to Wednesday, and Team Chevy engineers were able to work with Power to gain a tremendous amount of data to continue the development of the 2.4-liter engine in preparation for the addition of the required INDYCAR component.

The three-day test, during which Chevrolet logged more than 600 miles, was valuable for Chevrolet despite missing the energy recovery system, delayed due to supply chain issues, because the time allowed testing of components of the 2.4-liter engine that are different from those being successfully run in the current 2.2-liter V6 engine.

While a lot of work lies ahead for all Chevy INDYCAR teams as the development of the 2.4-liter engine continues, the success of the first test is an important step in building the 2024 package to begin a new era.

Since Chevrolet returned to NTT INDYCAR Series competition in 2012, the Bowtie brand has won 97 of 167 races, four Indianapolis 500 races, six driver championships and six coveted manufacturer championships.

Chevrolet-powered drivers Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, both from Team Penske, have won the first two races of the 2022 season.

QUOTES FOLLOWING THREE-DAY TEST

ROB BUCKNER, CHEVROLET ENGINEERING PROGRAM MANAGER FOR INDYCAR: “We’ve had a very successful and productive three days with the new Chevrolet 2.4L IndyCar engine. This was a big milestone as we have progressed from initial concept of the 2.4L design a few years ago and running extensively on the dyno to installing the engine into a car and now the landmark event of turning our first laps at the Indianapolis Road Course.

“We are incredibly appreciative of the all the men and women at Chevrolet Performance and our partners at Ilmor for their commitment to a highly successful on-track debut for the 2.4L engine platform. We could race this engine tomorrow, which is the highest praise possible for a new engine. Special thanks to Team Penske for quickly building a reliable and safe test car along with Josef Newgarden and Will Power for looking after our prototype engine with first-rate feedback.

“We now turn our focus back to the Chevrolet 2.2L and a high workload of team testing ahead of the Long Beach Grand Prix next weekend. It is the most challenging time of the year for everyone involved in IndyCar and I’m looking forward to watching the Chevrolet Competition group and our race teams execute. All our goals for 2022 are right in front of us and we are ready.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  “It was a thrill to get to work with the Team Chevy engineering group and get to drive the new 2024 engine package. It was a great collaborative effort to get the new engine on track to start testing for all the components needed in our Chevy — power, durability and logging miles on the track. I always enjoy getting to work with everyone at Team Chevy and the cohesive unit we develop as partners with the same goals. For us, getting started early really emphasizes the importance of everything we are going to need in the future — durability, power, fuel mileage. These are the things we are always working on and I’m excited to see what the future is going to hold for Chevy in INDYCAR.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “Today was a great step in getting the 2.4-liter engine package ready to go for the 2024 season. It was clear immediately that Chevy has put a lot of work into this already. It will obviously continue to get better and better. The Verizon 5G Chevy team did 150 laps, and I was impressed with the power of the engine throughout the day. I’m very excited about this addition to the series and can’t wait to continue to help develop it.”

Honda

Honda Performance Development today completed it’s initial test of the 2.4-liter Internal Combustion Engine, which will be part of the Hybrid IndyCar power plant to be introduced for the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

The quote below is from David Salters, HPD President and Technical Director.  We realize it is long, so feel free to edit as necessary for your needs:

“A big shout out to the inspiring Honda men and women at HPD back in California, where the Honda Indy car engine is designed, simulated, manufactured, assembled and dyno-tested.  The engine ran well throughout the three days, and we completed all planned test items, thanks to Chip Ganassi racing and Scott Dixon. The car ran flawlessly with great collaboration and feedback and we learned a lot.  It’s great to get our new powerplant on track, we set ourselves these challenges to develop our people and technology here at HPD.  Very proud of the amazing team at HPD and our Honda “challenging spirit”.  It’s great to see all this hard work roaring round the legendary Indy track, very special and certainly emotional for all of us.”

“Props to the extremely well-informed fans out there in social media land who noticed a deeper gnarly tone from our new HPD IndyCar racing engine.  It is an entirely new design from HPD and it certainly grabs your attention, not bad for a bio-fueled, super-efficient racing engine.  Well done to those HPD racing magicians.”

“Fun fact – our Californian designed and made racing engine braved the freezing conditions at Indy, we are proud of you, it even ventured out in the rain! ‘The Power of Dreams’ realized on the race track.”

“We had a great test at Indy these past three days.  Despite the chilly temperatures our HPD racing engine is warm and ready for its hybrid friend to join the party.  We can’t wait to integrate the hybrid technology, boost the powertrain performance and further enhance the great racing that is INDYCAR.”