Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.
Q: I’ve seen video of the Alpine Hypercar/LMDh and the engine sounds properly angry — reminiscent of a Porsche 911. Off-throttle it makes that funny noise similar to the Acura GTP. Acura has been pretty tight-lipped about what that sound actually is. Any guesses? Will the new IndyCar hybrid powerplants make a like note?
Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA
MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ll answer your last question first: What’s coming to IndyCar in 2024 is the same exact engine we’ve had since 2012, so to overstate the obvious, there are no new internal combustion engines on the way next year. There were, of course, until those 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6s were scrapped almost 12 months ago so Chevy and Honda could take over the energy recovery system project, apply the big budgets to the ERS that they’d set aside for the 2.4-liter motors, and save IndyCar’s behind.
To commit those budgets to fixing and mass producing the ERS units, Chevy and Honda said it would only be possible if they kept the old 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6s, because other than their usual searches for annual performance improvements, there wouldn’t be a huge cost to build giant pools of 2.4Ls and support those new engines. So, same motors, now entering their 13th season of service, just like the Dallara DW12 chassis.
The only new items are the ERS units, the lightweight structural components to manage weight, and second-generation areoscreens, which also reduce weight. There are sundry other items that are new for 2024, but these are the main ones to know.
As for the hybrid Acura ARX-06 which makes use of HPD’s 2.4L IndyCar design, the Chewbacca impersonation it does under braking and on corner exit is a symphony of electronic systems working in unison like anti-lag to keep to turbo spooled up while the driver’s off throttle, and traction control to manage wheelspin leaving the corners, and other measures to manage oscillations that would otherwise cause driveshafts and the rest of the related “spinny bits” to break.
All of that was explained to me in January by HPD president David Salters, who I hope to catch on film in the coming months doing a recreation of his amusing answer to my, “Why does your car sound like Chewbacca” question at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Q: IndyCar has been trying to court more manufacturers into the series. With that goal, why are they sticking with this 2.2-liter twin turbo and soon-to-be hybrid system? Would it not be more beneficial to have a “bring what you have” engine formula? An engine that would of course fit in the bodywork on the current IndyCar, but would this not allow more manufacturers to move their race engines from GT3, GT2, or other racing series into IndyCar and then let a Balance of Power take over?
Second, every other open-wheel series, including Indy NXT runs the halo. Why keep this heavy and frankly unattractive aeroscreen on the IndyCars?
Third, most of the rest of the world falls under the FIA. Why does the USA not have a sanctioning body that can provide standardization, safety, marketing and access to resources?
Finally, the FIA moved the WEC to COTA, and it was mentioned that “Sebring was no longer viable.” Can you provide more context of those reasons? My speculation is the quality and consistency of the racing surface and the lack of a proper garages on the pit lane. Why do the tracks in the USA not have proper garages when this is common across the rest of the world?
Brent Logero
MP: I’m hoping the “why are they sticking with the 2.2L” question was suitably answered in the last question. I might need to write a Mailbag 101 response to the “Why don’t they let engines from GT3 and GTP and wherever else run in IndyCar?” item that we get a few times per month. Unlike a GT car or a prototype, an IndyCar chassis is narrow, and only fits motors of a certain width and length, and because of that narrow and short block, the car has a lot of room on both sides of the engines to fit large tunnels that make a ton of underbody downforce.
Sure, you can cram a bigger and much heavier motor in from a GT or GTP car, but you sacrifice aerodynamics, downforce, weight distribution, and performance in nothing but negative ways. Said another way, if it was an easy fit, it would already be happening, but it isn’t — by a mile — so it isn’t.
I’d ask why every series that runs a halo isn’t using an aeroscreen?
IndyCar sanctions itself, as does IMSA, and NASCAR. Why would any series want to give control of itself to someone other than itself? Makes no sense to me.
The WEC was not keen on being the warm-up act to IMSA in every way — location in the Sebring paddock, and billing as the Friday feature ahead of the main show, Saturday’s 12 Hours of Sebring — so it found another option where it will be the star of its own event.
Q: I got a kick out of a letter someone sent to the Mailbag about the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race where the Rebel Rock team lost the championship due to a couple cars exiting the track on the last lap. I remember a previous race (the Petit TV coverage was good about replaying it) where the Rebel Rock Camaro clearly rammed a Mercedes into another car, which resulted in the Mercedes suffering a lot of damage and forced to run off track. If I recall, it was a last-lap incident.
At the time I thought it reflected badly on IMSA, because no penalty was given, and I don’t think I’ve seen a more clear-cut case of a car ramming into another and gaining position.
Then, watching the Merc driver give the bird to the Rebel Rock driver (Liddell, I believe) was one of the best scenes I’ve seen in racing for a long time. I thought it was a great bit of schadenfreude. I cannot believe there is any infraction by the Mercedes team unless there was some pre-determined agreement, financial or otherwise, with the winning Turner Motorsport team, which doesn’t seem likely. I think it was a spur of the moment decision to pit, and a good one. I must say the whole thing was quite enjoyable to see play out. It would really be a bad look if IMSA were to alter the results.
Travis, Kansas City
MP: The results were made official last week, so no penalties — at least in public — were handed out.