A few manufacturer questions

[Andrew Longman]

I read a piece over at CW that made a few "statements of facts" that got me thinking

Can a series ever survive without manufacturer involvement? Some say its impossible. F1 and NASCAR have set the bar for manufacturer involvement

-- But why not, for auguably its best period nearly every car and certainly every competitive car on the F1 grid had a Cosworth. Today F1 and to a lesser extent NASCAR have grumpy manufacturers threatening to leave. And NASCAR is really a different marketing propostion. NASCAR provide bodies to put Ford, Chevy Dodge (or Dupont, Miller, Viagra) logos on and the assurance that all will win about the same. F1 provides a playground for the manufacturers to demonstrate their expertise

Will Ford put their badge on next year's CCWS Cosworth? Will anyone else? Some say certainly not.

-- But why not? One Cosworth is already badged a Chevy. Ilmore had a Chevy and then a Mercedes badge on essentially the same engine. Its not much different than NASCAR providing a quarterpanel to put a Dodge logo on.

Would CCWS ever have more than one engine? Some say never as it would drive up costs and create a conflict of interest for KK and GF.

-- But why not? So long as they were carefully matched through rules and specs. Again, not much different that providing the quarterpanel. But then why is this important. Having a single supplier also lowers costs and reduces the need for manufacturer dollars. Profits can be raised by increasing revenue or lowering costs. Doing both is best. And revenues go up most if the entire product is valued by fans, sponsors, and television companies, not just manufacturers looking to put their logo out there.

[DaveL]

Can a series ever survive without manufacturer involvement? Some say its impossible. F1 and NASCAR have set the bar for manufacturer involvement

-- But why not, for auguably its best period nearly every car and certainly every competitive car on the F1 grid had a Cosworth.

Don't leave CART out of this. CART experienced great growth and competitiveness when basically every car had a DFX under the cowl. Marchs and Lolas were avaibable off the shelf and anyone could get buy a Cosworth and go racing. Manufacturer involvement is relatively new model beginning in 1986 when Penske got Chevy to fund the Illmore project. The sport was fine for decades without auto manufacturers and would frankly be better off without them.

[Ziggy]

Correct DaveL

Cosworth is a cottage industry, which is now owned by a guy who.......

Not much different than Dale Drake and Fred Offenhauser fielding a house car, while they sold their engines to EVERYBODY else. They did quit this after a few years however...

[Forza Lancia]

Although having the big manufacturers involved in the sport adds glamor (and a lot of money for development, etc), I'm coming to the conclusion that maybe it's not such a good thing in the long run. Right now the World Rally Championship is scrambling to find manufacturers to fill Peugeot-Citroen's shoes in 2006, after just having dodged Ford's bullet (which hit Formula One instead). In this day and age of big racing teams like (for example) ProDrive, Newman Haas, Arden, and (one has to admit) Penske, not to mention the big Formula One teams with their multi-million dollar facilities (eg McLaren's Paragon), it should be possible for these outfits either to build their own engines or obtain them from other private operations like Cosworth. The results probably wouldn't be as ultra-high-tech as what we see now (especially in Formula One), but, considering the unending efforts to try to rein in speeds, maybe that's not so bad, either. At least the sport would be populated by teams that have a long term desire to stay in the sport and make it succeed, rather than leave after certain marketing objectives have been met. So ChampCar, now in possession (effectively) of its own engine supplier, may be showing the entire sport what its future looks like.

[gjc2]

The most competitive racing in Formula One was the era of the Cosworth DFV. In those days you could plunk down your money and buy an engine capable of winning the next Grand Prix.

Now that Cosworth is in the OWRS fold, I would like to see engines be available as ready to race units and available in component form and sold to teams and engine builders. Leave some of the engine specifications open for modification. With this system companies other the automobile manufactures could become involved in engine programs. The large national auto part chains, power equipment manufactures, or any company could commission an engine builder to produce engines and put the companies name on the cam covers. Think of the all the advertising and promotions companies like NAPA Auto Parts or Briggs & Stratton could develop with a Champ Car engine program. With this system large companies could become involved in Champ Car racing, but wouldn’t be able to control it.

It would be interesting to see how the “off the shelf” engines compared to custom build engines.

George

[dando]

So ChampCar, now in possession (effectively) of its own engine supplier, may be showing the entire sport what its future looks like.

Precisely what David Phillips eluded to in this piece (http://speedtv.com/commentary/13959/) last month. Me thinks the next couple of years could be very, very interesting what with TG grovelling @ the feet of Tonda, and the F1 manufacturers trying to gain control from BE in F1. KK, et al. may be more dominant than anyone in the motor racing landscape today.

-Kevin

[cart7]

TG has definitely F'd things up in his series even faster than Cart did with the manufacturers. If CCWS stays with a spec Cosworth engine I'm fine with it. The manufacturers seem to have a way of getting into series, running up the costs and then running away leaving the sanctioning bodies with a mess trying to come up with replacements.

[Mike Kellner]

As was said up string, the Cosworth erae were golden ages for F1 and CART. With a manditory Corworth era, and Cosworth effectivly owned by the series, we have solved the engine problem. In time, we might want to look at a new lower cost motor that met the size, weight and performance requirements. I think it would be good for political/sponsor issues to not have Ford or anyone else badge the motors. Call them Cosworths, and charge what they are worth. Welfare motors are a major step down the road to ruination.

I would like to see the chassis situation addressed next. We need a new spec, and some competition. I would like to see several chassis builders involved again, and new lighter cars.

If the car companies want to be involved, they can sponsor races, provide track vehicles, and buy advertising.

mk

[Lola_B70]

Yup.
Now that Cosworth is the bag, we have engine reliability and cost control. I am happy with the current situation and would like to see it evolve upwards. Perhaps we could have a higher rev limit for some sweeter sound.
And i too would like to see more chassis enter competition.
Just a year ago worry had me overcome, this series would be no more. Now it seems the question is what is Champcar going to do with its new found gain in stability. The future appears bright.
IN SHort, engine man. will come...right now lets keep the driving talent we have and expand the chassis arsenal.