IndyCar certain new Dallara DW12 can be quick on ovals
IndyCar officials believe that the new DW12 chassis can 'easily' reach similar speeds to its predecessor on ovals following a two-day windtunnel test last week
A full-scale test was undertaken at the Windshear facility in North Carolina to address the issues on the car in oval trim. In an on-track test at Indianapolis late last year, the fastest lap speed recorded was 12 mph shy of the pole position speed for the 2011 Indianapolis 500, and the handling of the new Dallara has been heavily criticised by several drivers.
IndyCar's vice president of technology Will Phillips said that the specification of the prototype test car differed from the car that was actually being produced for teams, and he believes that the full-spec machine will deliver a big jump in performance.
"We compared the 2012 car [to the 2011 car in the windtunnel] as it was run at its fastest during the testing at the Speedway," said Phillips. "We showed that aerodynamically the car was limited to 218.4 mph, so the drivers and teams did a good job of reaching its potential [by reaching 215 mph].
"We then compared the production car, which is slightly different from the prototype in terms of different mirrors, different wheel fairings, subtle differences in chassis construction and better integration of the side intrusion panels.
"Basically, the car is more slippery. That lifted the speed. By optimising the aero set-up, re-balancing the car and then putting on some aero development parts, it showed that using a nominal assumed horsepower of 575 the car is easily capable of 225 mph."
Phillips added that he expects the cars to get even faster when teams and manufacturers are allowed to design their own aero kits for 2013. But he also added that teams would have to set the car up well mechanically to achieve the theoretical speeds achieved in the windtunnel.
"As we look at aero kits for 2013, the car could be exceeding expectations as they reduce drag further," he said.
"But it's not always about aerodynamics. You have to mechanically set the car up to drive it. Aerodynamically, we've proven that [higher speeds] can happen but we haven't proven mechanically that we can set the car up to go that speed yet."
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