status of IRL racing cars

[henk4]

I just read the specifications of the Dallara Honda, in the news section this week.

Is IRL supposed to be the USA counterpart of Formula 1? When I look at engine specifications they appear to be at least 10 years behind, pumping only 650 BHP form a 3,5 litre V8. Do the rules not allow 10 or 12 cylinder engines? Is there a sort of limitation ot the electronics in order to maintain a conservative budget? Otherwise you might as well buy a nice Ferrari 641 and take the spoils home with you.

[Wouter Melissen]

Engines are limited at 10500 rpm.

[henk4]

a really astronomical figure, so this is basically a slightly pumped up F3000.

[piledriver]

There are several rules that limit the budget of each team in IRL. It must be aspirated V8 3,5 cc with aprox. 650 HP a bit less than last year´s Champ Cars that had aprox. 800 to 850 HP with it´s 2,65 cc V8 turbo...
The chassis are also restricted to 2 manufacturers, Dallara and G-Force, both europeans... with another one coming from america, called Falcon, if I´m not wrong...
So IRL despite running at Indy, is not more than a stupid american racing... much more boring than Champ Cars...
that´s it...

[Rob]

I think the big difference between F1 and IRL is that the starting budget of IRL is a lot lower than F1, in F1 there the only succesfull teams are the factory teams with an almost endless amount of money and the private teams are almost all in finacial problems. In IRL all teams are private teams, it's just cheaper racing. So I don't think IRL is the USA counterpart of F1.