Panoz/G-Force Buys Reynard Rights?

[pchall]

There's a note on another site saying Autosport is reporting that Panoz has acquired the right to develop the Reynard from Walker and aerodynamic work is underway.


Hmmmmm...

[JoeBob]

IIRC, that rumor was floating around some time late last season as well. (Maybe it was the early part of the off-season.)

I know I've heard it before.

[KobySon]

I still don't understand this... So development can still happen even though there is a chassis "freeze" in effect?

[JLMannin]

The freeze, as I understand, applies to the undertray and wings. Other parts of the chassis are open to development. And there is the 2005 season, when, presumably, new engine and chassis specs will be in force.

[JoeBob]

First off, I don't think every area is "frozen," just the major components.

And, many have taken "Frozen" to mean "Identical" which isn't really the case. From what I've read, here is how the freeze worked:
Every team and chassis manufacturer submitted each of their parts to CART for approval. If CART approved it, it became an "allowed part" and could be run by anybody that had it. After the cut-off date for the freeze, no new parts were approved.

Thus, there are still numerous aero configurations floating around. For example, Forsythe submitted a new Reynard Undertray just before the freeze. His team was the only team that had them last year. He (or somebody who he licenses the design to) could manufacture that part and sell it to whoever wanted it. I'm sure you could spend quite a bit of money sorting through all of the "approved parts" to see what works well together. (Especially if anybody was able to get the Renske parts submitted/approved.)

Also, CART has said that they may allow each manufacturer to submit periodic update kits for approval. If there's no Reynard development going on, it is doubtful that they'll let Lola release updates. However, if both manufacturers are capable of updating their chassis, I suspect that CART will allow both to submit and sell update kits.

[pchall]

It occurs to me that Panoz/G-Force is now in violation of the "IRL supplier only for openwheel cars" clause that Tony George was pushing last year when Lola was interested in the IRL.

[KobySon]

Originally posted by pchall
It occurs to me that Panoz/G-Force is now in violation of the "IRL supplier only for openwheel cars" clause that Tony George was pushing last year when Lola was interested in the IRL.

Oh! That's rich! I hope that causes some little drama over there in bricksylvania!

[nrc]

Here's a link (http://www.cart.com/News/Article.asp?ID=5600) to the story on CART.com. Walker is contracting Van Diemen for development and a place called Oxford Racing Development to actually build cars and pieces.

I believe Van Diemen is one of the companies owned by Panoz.