Ethanol, Honda Power and Panoz “No Problem”
Written by Allan Brewer · February 7, 2007
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Photo: CourtesyIRL
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Rumors of Incompatibility of Panoz Chassis Debunked on IRL Call
Remarks Open the Door for More Cars at Indy 500
by Allan Brewer
allan@fastmachines
Roger Griffiths, race team technical leader for Honda Performance Development and Ilmor Engineering, and the Indy Racing League’s Les MacTaggert indicated during an IRL teleconference on Wednesday that there are no compatibility problems between the new ethanol-powered Honda 3.5 Liter V-8 racing engine and the many used Panoz chassis already in IndyCar teams’ hands.
“We’re anticipating a number of people will run the Panoz chassis,” said MacTaggert in response to questions regarding issues with the Atlanta company’s chassis and the new hotter-running 3.5 Liter Honda.
“The teams have gone their own way in preferring the Dallara, but the Panoz car is perfectly legal to run the entire 2007 IRL season,” he said.
“We anticipate they will be at Indianapolis. We have made provisions for that by making drawings to accommodate the smaller fuel tank in the Panoz chassis. No problems whatsoever.”
Les MacTaggert oversees the day-to-day operations of the technical department for the IndyCar Series. He is primarily responsible for the design and development of the chassis, engines and transmissions. A veteran of more than two decades in motorsports, MacTaggert continued:
“One of the early challenges to adopting the fuel-grade ethanol the League will use in 2007 was the higher heat rejection into cooling and lubrication systems than experienced in the past. This in turn meant a modification of cooling systems was necessary as over thirty percent greater heat was going into the coolant.”
“Dallara looked at the cooling systems to insure sufficient reserve was in place to cover all the 2007 venues, in particular to prevent the cars from running too hot,” he said.
“Without actually changing the configurations we’ve come up with some recommendations for the teams to make sure we operate within Honda’s predetermined cooling temperatures.”
Among the technical changes for 2007 that Griffiths and MacTaggart have worked on in the off-season are the increase of the displacement of the Honda HI7R Indy V-8 engine to 3.5 liters to accommodate the League’s gradual evolution towards more road course racing (with a resultant need for greater mid-range torque) and the change to 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol which brought a reduction in onboard fuel capacity to the cars.
“The reason for the change (in engine displacement) is the more diverse demands of the schedule,” said MacTaggert.
“The 3.5 Liter is a much more adaptable engine and is a much better product to move forward with.” The series ran the Honda H16R 3.0 Liter engine for the 2006 season, and has used Honda power in tandem with other manufacturers’ products in prior seasons dating back to 2003.
“There was a reduction in size of fuel cell due to 30 percent greater fuel-efficiency in order to preserve tire integrity and pit stop strategy,” he said.
He went on to explain the implications of the improved mileage while burning the biodegradable ethanol fuel with regard to tire wear.
“There’s an optimized distance that the tire is most consistent and Firestone has a predetermined mileage (60-75 miles) they would like the tire to run. Now, obviously with the ability to increase the number of laps we could do between fuel stops, we could go beyond this range.”
“We reduced the size of the fuel tanks so we brought the pit stops back into the same duration with regards to mileage that we had in 2006. Otherwise we could have reduced the number of pit stops by one, and as they are important to race strategy, it was important to keep them the same. So we reduced the size of the fuel tanks to keep the same number of stops at each event.”
While the recent Daytona open test was the first opportunity for a full-field experience with the new power plant, the company has been testing selectively with teams and in its Santa Ana, California production facility since last September.
“Testing (at Daytona) was boringly routine–over 1700 laps with one minor transmission problem on one car,” said MacTaggert. “You couldn’t ask for more. The Honda product is so reliable, the new generations of engines so good, that it is unbelievable.”
Technology within the induction system of the engine has been simplified for sake of cost-effectiveness and to help the teams reach the engine’s 1400 mile lifetime target.
At this point the only remaining changes anticipated to the engine before racing begins in March are various control system tweaks that are currently being evaluated.
The 2007 IndyCar Series season begins under the lights with the Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 24th. The race will be telecast live by ESPN2 at 8 PM (EST) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. A Spanish-language telecast of the race will be carried by ESPN Deportes. The IMS Radio Network broadcast also is carried on XM Satellite Radio and www.indycar.com. The sixth season of Indy Pro Series competition begins with the Homestead-Miami 100 on March 24th at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It will be webcast live on www.indycar.com and will be telecast on at 5 PM (EST) on March 28th by ESPN2.
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