1996 Honda design that never raced
One thing I have found to be true as I dabble in the world of word smithy; should people not be given the facts, they tend to make them up as they go along. Once that synergy kicks in, a rumor, yarn or outright lie begins to smell like the truth over time. This is called operating in a vacuum.
Hence, I have seen and heard more about 2015 Honda aero bits then I care to forward on to you, just to help keep down spam in your inbox. HPD aero bits are square; no, they are round; NO! They are more elliptical and so on and so on. See my point? Remember the old game of I heard that…? One person relates a story and tells it to another. That person passes it on to a third party and then the story returns to the original sender. That story in no way resembles the first tale as told. And so it is with Honda Aero Bits. Here are some of the visual suggestions I have seen on the interweb so far , and since no one is showing the actual pieces, imagination has run rampant. Interestingly, these “suggestions” are all older cars that used to run in that dying off series known as Formula One.
More Down Force? Less Down Force?
Perhaps this one is a little more streamlined which results in better air flow around the driver’s head…..We all know they need cooler heads! Could the Honda’s follow this design logic? I hope not.
Better Aero but,,,,
Some truths about Honda’s development program were posted in Racer Magazine, as written by the incomparable Marshall Pruett. This was published back on December 9, 2014. In this article Marshall wrote:
HPD vice president Steve Eriksen tells RACER the process has been meeting their targets.
“Surprisingly, I thoroughly thought we’d have [spy] shots out by now…” he said with a laugh. “The testing has gone very well, and has mainly been focused on correlation more than anything. It’s about checking the virtual world versus what we’ve seen in the wind tunnel versus what we’re seeing on track. We’ve coordinated the configurations as such so that we can prove the data across each of the three points.”
“When you’re testing, you’re ultimately trying parts or pieces that were designed a little while ago – it takes time to tool up and manufacture the parts – and seeing how those snapshots in times match what we expected. Does this predicted performance match reality? Do the forces match? Does the aero balance match what we’d expect? And then there’s the unexpected part in the real world with a driver in the car giving you feedback on how it’s performing.”
Now folks, that would be known as coming from the horses’ mouth. When one considers that HPD hooked their wagon up to just one autosport team, whereas Chevy spread the R and D over two remaining juggernauts, the time to completion is going to be a little longer for HPD. I get that and also realize that the expense of development spread over the number of engine badged machines is not an equal number between the two manufacturers. The oldest of mathematical truisms states that the lesser the number of customers, the higher the development cost per unit sold. This applies to both the new IL-15 Indy Lights car as well as the DW12 ‘Engine Manufacturer’ 2015 Aero Updates. From my personal perspective, I would like to see 20 Lights teams and 24 IndyCar teams on the grid every weekend. More cars sold lowers the unit cost and more butts in seats raises the promoter’s return so the question begs to be asked, how will the new look big cars and the new look smaller cars affect the turnstile?
Off Season Fun and Driver Engagement
During the past week, Josef Newgarden and Sage Karam received an invite to the NFL’s annual pre-draft combine held in Indianapolis. They were asked to try their hands at four NFL skills tests to see where they would rank among the years’ potential draft picks. From what the Indianapolis Star’s Curt Cavin wrote following the test, the two young shoes held their own, especially considering they did not do event specific training as part of their normal conditioning routines. The boys of IndyCar humor posted some pretty funny stuff on the IndyCar channel on youtube. Give it a look see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjoI9A21emQ
That Joe, he sure gets around a lot! At about the same time as the NFL combine’s run, Mardi Gras took place and just prior to that IndyCar conducted track testing at the new NOLA circuit. While all of this was taking place, Joe found time to hit Mardi Gras with his on camera buddy James Hinchliffe. IndyCar had the foresight to get a place on a prominent krewe’s float and loaded it up with both IndyCar and Indy Lights drivers. This is, by definition, great product placement. I mean Great.Product.Placement. The shot in the street interview video, where Hinch is given a microphone and Newgarden for a sidekick, made for some interesting comedy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzswm6lBQCM
The day and night that make up Mardi Gras is worth consideration as a candidate on your bucket list. It really is an iconic event, similar in scope to the Indianapolis 500. Just the fact that Lights and IndyCar drivers got on a highly regarded float in this year’s Mardi Gras parade was quite a coup. Some PR peeps somewhere pulled one off; Big Time and so props to them. Some of the best photos from the day were posted on the IndyCar site so I suggest you follow yet another link and rush here to spend some quality time on a cold winter’s eve. Lots of snow in Indy on the first day of March feels like it is a cold winter’s eve anyway so drop by here for the good stuff about IndyCar in New Orleans. I call it
THIS WEEK’S HOT LINK
http://www.indycar.com/Photos/Gallery?g=2682
So I usually end each week’s posting with a hot link but wanted to share something near and dear with you instead as this week’s installment draws to a close. The folks at Chippy’s shop in Indy (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) hosted a fundraiser this weekend for Honor Flight (IndyHonorFlight.org). This is an organization whose mission is to transport American Veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit memorials dedicated to honor their sacrifices. My employer got involved in this cause a few months back and Chip hosted an open house at his shop on the 28th of February. The silent auction had some unbelievable memorabilia and the event was well received. Even though the event has passed’ I wanted to share their flyer link as it references a pretty special veteran that has left quite an impression on the IndyCar racing community. Study the picture closely because that veteran is no longer with us…..
http://www.indyhonorflight.org/sites/default/files/documents/Ganassi%20Flyer%202015%282%29.pdf
As always, thanks for hitting the blog and we will talk to you next time!
GForcePaul
WideOpenWheel 
“should people not be given the facts, they tend to make them up as they go along.” Boy you nailed it there! Very nice to read about Chip and Honor Flight. Sometimes even the people you like to dislike do good things.