The Panoz Champ Car was everything the new IndyCar should be - faster, less expensive, turbocharged, easier to work on, locked down rules that favored no one, and a great looking car that was as happy on ovals as it was on road and street courses.  Oh and yes, it did standing starts which were a fan favorite

The new car and Milka Duno were the talk of the paddock on Saturday in Toronto.  The ex-CART team owners were happy that the new car is down to $389K plus the engine, but were not impressed because the Panoz Champ Car, which was also a spec car, was just $225K plus the gearbox, engine and wiring harnesses.  So all this talk about the new IndyCar being so inexpensive is nothing earth shattering and in fact more than what Champ Car was able to do it for. 

Randy Bernard stood behind the decision to sole-source the rolling chassis to Dallara. 

"We went to all the manufacturers and asked them to give a price for the car to be built in the USA, then we asked for it to be built in Indianapolis.  Then we asked for an exclusive contract vs. a non-exclusive contract.  On exclusive it was $385K and non-exclusive it was $680K, a major difference.  We had competition between Dallara and G-Force years ago and all that money was spent and then we ended up with a single chassis anyway (i.e. the teams all migrated to the better car eventually). On this car you can change the clothes on it and make it different for a reasonable cost ($70K for a new body kit).

"And if I am a Roger Penske I can go out and do my own aero package but I have to be able to sell it to every other competitor for $70K.  If he wants to spend a half a billion dollars on it fine, but he has to sell it for $70K to everyone else.  And Penske is, like everyone else, only allowed two different aero packages in a year, including his own.

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