Can Champ Car adopt new F1 engine rules?
Dear JN and Budde, Recall the rumor we posted not too long ago that said Ford Cosworth was pretty far along on the design of a 2.4 L V8 Formula One engine (as was Ferrari). The useful life of the existing Champ Car engines are just one more year anyway because new engines are rumored to be coming in 2006 to go along with a new Champ Car. If Bernie is indeed working closely with OWRS as continued rumors suggest, Kalkhoven buying Cosworth (both the UK and USA operations) makes perfect sense. The new F1 engine rules won't reward manufacturers who want to spend infinite amounts of money on their engine program, meaning Cosworth's customer engines would be much more competitive with Ferrari, BMW, Honda and Mercedes under the new rules than they are today. Kalkhoven is a shrewd and sly fox and it would not surprise us one bit if he knows exactly what the grand plan is – recall the articles, CART, Like the Phoenix, about to rise up from the ashes and Why Bernie could and should buy Champ Car. Intuition tells us that Bernie will someday own part of Champ Car and strengthen road racings position against the onslaught of the Oval Track Cartel. Mark C..
10/23/04 Assuming that Max Mosley wins his battle with engine manufacturers and pushes through the new 2.4 L V8 F1 engines for 2006 and beyond, is it inconceivable to think that Champ Car could adopt the same exact engine specs lock, stock and barrel? Initially one might think so, however, the new rules are very IRL-like in that they limit what an engine designer can do in terms of exotic materials, bore, stroke, weight, etc. and hence significantly reduces the cost of the engines. There is nothing stopping Champ Car from doing this and moving to petrol instead of Methanol. If they do that then they open up the entire series to all the F1 engine manufacturers to supply identical engines in both F1 and Champ Car. It may make a lot of sense, but Bernie Ecclestone would have to approve of the idea. Pure speculation of course, but food for thought. Mark C.