New look for IndyCar in 2018

It's true that motor racing obviously implies the use of mechanical propulsion and as such horse drawn racing does not fit the definition. However, I have read several books about sports in Antiquity, and a couple of ones on chariot racing and the similiraties with modern motor racing are just absolutely incredible. Roman chariot racing had categories similar to F1 and F2 for instance (depending on how many horses drew the chariots - the more horses they had, the more powerful (horse power !) and prestigious they were), it had works teams and private teams (factions) which used a colour system very close to the national colour code long used in motor racing, the competitions were numerous, the best drivers were pros who made a fortune out of it and were also popular heroes, the venues had much in common with modern autodromes, ...etc.

It really is some fascinating stuff for the motoring enthusiast. It also is the opportunity to realise that motor racing will never be as popular as chariot racing was. The most spectacular example of the political and social importance chariot racing had are the Nika riots of Constantinople which started over a feud between chariot racing factions and ended with the almost destruction of the city and a toll of around 30,000 deaths   ! Despite Bernie's best efforts I'm sure F1 will never start a comparable war any day soon !

For those interested, one book I remember on the subject is "Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire" by Fik Meijer. There was another one that went into even more details but I can't remember its title and author, sorry.

Axel Putra wrote:

I see most of you are stuck in the past huh.
Honouring the past while living at the present is my motto.

I presume you are honoring the past by driving with a keyboard?  

Touché !

LMAO Jason

Frank Verplanken wrote:

It really is some fascinating stuff for the motoring enthusiast. It also is the opportunity to realise that motor racing will never be as popular as chariot racing was. The most spectacular example of the political and social importance chariot racing had are the Nika riots of Constantinople which started over a feud between chariot racing factions and ended with the almost destruction of the city and a toll of around 30,000 deaths   ! Despite Bernie's best efforts I'm sure F1 will never start a comparable war any day soon !

For those interested, one book I remember on the subject is "Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire" by Fik Meijer. There was another one that went into even more details but I can't remember its title and author, sorry.

Don't forget the gladiators even if they disappeared sooner

As for the Nika riots some precisions are in order.
It's also an episod of the internal struggle that scourged the whole byzantian politics at that time. The massacre was just a coup d'etat from the Emperor to gain an absolute power over the Eastern Roman Empire.
He just used that opportunity of a "riot" to slaughtered his opposition who refuses to approve his policy to reclaim the lost Western Roman Empire and Rome itself.

Also beware with the number of dead. All antics numbers are to be used with extreme cautions. There's also many translations mistakes and dead are often misused for "casualties" (dead AND wounded alike).

For the record Constantinople wasn't destroyed at that time . Try to imagine Marseille or Manchester destroyed by riots....hard to do. There were some damage for sure. But very little compaired to the size of the town (the biggest at that time in Mediterranean world if I'm correct)

Also a HUGE military history mistake. The article spoke of mercenary troops. Nope...Byzantium troops at that time had no mercenary troops. They are foreign troops...something like the French Foreign Legion. They were called Comitatenses. They are enlisted troops who had sworn an oath to serve the Byzantine State. There, again, got a wrong translation from greek to latin then to french or english (a current plague for any military historian of the era).
Also note there was no such thing as police force at that time. This duty was done by military forces from the Palace Guard (named Scholae). Here again many could have been foreigners with little to none issue to slaughter civilian byzantine population.

On the subject of Formula E, incidentally I was offered today a ticket for the May 13 Monaco event. I must say I don't know much about this electric thingy other than it doesn't run on fossil fuels and exclusively (or does it ?) runs on street circuits. But I'm curious to see what it all looks like up close though. I'm a petrolhead as far as racing is concerned, but I understand racing always has to adapt to the times it lives in too, and nobody can deny fossil fuels are not the future whether it is for our daily means of transportation or for the motor racing machines, so I guess these are the first generation of the what the GP cars of tomorrow will be.

Frank Verplanken wrote:

but I understand racing always has to adapt to the times it lives in too, and nobody can deny fossil fuels are not the future whether it is for our daily means of transportation or for the motor racing machines, so I guess these are the first generation of the what the GP cars of tomorrow will be.

I really, really hope that's not the case. I know that for the city, and for most street cars electric/hybrid power is the future, but for racing and fun? I don't think so. Maybe the biggest competitions who think that they have to be at "the pinnacle of technology", which by the way I don't agree with, will go electric, but surely not all racing will become electric. Just like there still is archery or horse riding as sports. Although if that day comes when all racing is electric, I will probably just commit suicide honestly.
Nah obviously not, but for me racing is more than 50% about the beauty of the internal combustion engine and the different configurations, the smells and specially the sounds they produce, and if we lose that, for me, we lose motorsport, which is already quite bad enough nowadays.
I prefer 1000 times a boring race with great spectacular, smelly, noisy cars than a close race with electric dishwashers, I even prefer just watching a single noisy and smelly car go round an empty track.

Sorry for the rant lol.

No worries mate, I've see far worst as far as rants are concerned ^^ !

Sure I agree with you about the sounds and smells of internal combustion engine powered cars, there is no comparision possible with other forms of propulsion. But I also remember that for the first 10 years or so in the history of our sport the big story was the fight between petrol, steam and electric vehicles, or that the first car to reach 100 km/h was the Jamais Contente of the red devil Camille Jenatzy. For many years the steam and electric cars were the faster ones and it's mainly the autonomy factor and the complexity of setting up multiple resupply points along the very long courses used back then that made them lose the fight against petrol. Another crucial factor was that many of the pioneers who defended these technologies (like Jenatzy and Serpollet for instance) were terrible businessmen and went bankrupt quite fast, and also the oil lobby was already a very powerful ennemy to compete against. So I also kinda like this poetic justice that is the electric carriages eventually winning the fight against petrol ones after all those years !

I am not so young anymore, but you are and surely you will live to see the day when all our reserves of fossil fuels have been exhausted so anyway the internal combustion engine's day are counted. So we might as well save what little there is of gasoline left for some great historic racing rather than waste it on the current crapwagons !

The pinnacle of motor racing has always been and will always be tied to the technological evolution. Whether they are directly or indirectly involved in motor racing, the big manufacturers never get involved for the beauty of the sport : it's only to experiment on the technology of tomorrow, test it in the harshest conditions and compare it to their competitors' offer, and also to promote their name and products to the eye of the general public. And Renault can hardly say to its customers they should buy their latest electric everyday car because their internal combustion F1 car is the best one . PR and marketing can do wonders but they can't work miracles either.

It's a Darwinian thing and can't be helped, so we might as well accept it rather than fight it.

Yeah, it's true that progress cannot be stopped and fossil fuels will run out...
I just hope that we the biggest petrolheads can keep racing with a few combustion engines run with ethanol or some petrol substitute in minor races forever, and also use it to keep historic racing cars running.

The natural thing to happen is that taxation on new cars leads to electrics as it leaded to diesels before, and old gasoline vehicles are slowly turned into recyclable parts except those worth keeping.  And we won't run out of fuel for those classic cars, don't worry. Even coal can be liquified to produce gasoline, and there will always be a demand for it enough to sustain a production at reasonable prices, as I suspect there will still be several millions of petrol cars kept for one or the other reason, though not as main mean of transport obviously.

I had fun at the Monaco ePrix It was clearly the weirdest race meeting I ever attended - no noise, no smells, that was a bit disturbing to say the least. My friends had kids with us and at times their shouting covered the noise of the cars lol ! Also the first ever race I saw where the PA system had music playing during the race and that was clearly audible even with the cars passing by. It all felt like a bit a of a 3D arcade video game experience. The good thing is you can clearly hear the downshifts (clac/clac/clac) and the tyres squealing. The racing was rather nice (except for all the stupid modern rules such as grouped qualifying, super pole, safety car, ...etc.), the driving level very good and the all ambiance pretty relaxed. Also the spec chassis is not too ugly, especially compared to the current F1. The village, err Allianz eVillage sorry , had lots of activities, including a simracing competition but the queue was insane there so I didn't try it. It also featured the Roborace car which is an interesting piece of engineering.

Overall a nice experience, although I wouldn't exchange attending ten ePrix events against one GP Historique de Monaco !

That indy does not looks so bad, but i would give my soul for multipe chassis, mercedes engines, and a more faster look(and PERFOMANCE!)

Man, these guys lay on the propaganda thick. It's a real buzzkill for me.

Is any sim or modding team planning to make the new look cars.

The road course kit looks awesome, too. And it should be a hell of a racer, as there's a lot less turbulent air, 66% of downforce is generated by underwing. And those cars should be capable of doing 200mph on road courses. Can't wait for 2018