CART's engine dilemma

Autosport.com took a look at what direction CART may take and the likelihood of falling into line with the rival Indy Racing League series with Ford Racing technology director Dan Davis.

Davis commented on a number of engine-related issues at Long Beach on Saturday morning and key to discussions is whether CART is likely to adopt the same regulations as IRL. Ford's fundamental reservations about building an IRL engine stem from the fact that aside from the Indianapolis 500, the series attracts very little fan and media interest.

"Would we like to be at Indianapolis?" he said. "We'd love to be there, but we'll only do it when we can do it at an affordable price, and I don't see that right now. If I have to design an all from scratch engine and I'm basically doing it for one race, that's not affordable for us.

"If you compare the interest and customer loyalty we would gain from Indianapolis and the rest of the IRL to what we get from Champ Car, we feel Champ Car right now is better value for us in terms of attracting customers and moving products. We're there to sell goods and services, and we feel Champ Car is a better value for helping us get that accomplished.

"We've had the opportunity to be in the IRL since day one, and we have chosen not to," Davis added. "We evaluate these things every year, but I still don't see any reason to be in the IRL instead of CART at this point. Right now, we're in CART and we're going to stay in CART. We just need to make it more interesting for the fans, I think the racing is great, the presentation and the sponsors are great. We just have to build more excitement for it."

Davis noted that from a technical standpoint, it would be possible to create a higher-tech version of the 2003 IRL engine. But he stressed that to keep the design basics similar, the maximum rev limit must be kept close. And he advocated the use of a sharp-edged orifice air restrictor as opposed to the IRL's electronic rev limiter.

"The real problem is the rpm of the two engines needs to be the same," Davis remarked. "If you take into account the fundamental laws of physics, the rpm has to be the same, or extremely similar. Then you have a chance for one powerplant to be multi-purpose.

"But if you're there to win, you're still going to have to do a purpose-built motor. That's the thing that we don't agree with. We're not prepared to go with two purpose-built engines. Others see the value in that, but we don't."

The bottom line according to Davis is that a single open-wheel series would benefit the sport and everyone involved. Despite recent remarks to the contrary from his Ford colleague and CEO of the Jaguar Formula 1 team, Bobby Rahal, Davis believes the onus is on CART and IRL to work out their differences.

"It's a little bit like a marriage," he said. "You have to have two partners that are willing to compromise, and I don't think we have that. If there's no compromise possible, then there's no marriage. I'm talking about the management, the leadership and the structure of CART, and the management, leadership and structure of the IRL.

"Ford doesn't determine the rules - we abide by them. We suggest and comment regularly and with conviction, and we'll keep doing that. What the Ford Motor Company wants to see is the two series coming together or using a common engine formula. Our motivation is and always has been to get one series turned back in a positive direction. We're going to keep pushing for that. From what I've heard so far, that isn't going to happen in the near future. But I would rather see this thing well thought through than just done quickly..."