I sincerely hope the new GC series is successful. However, that remains to be seen. This thread is sort of to deflect some of the opposition on the GC thread.

At other sites I've been met with strong opposition to the suggestion that tube framed cars can be successful/safe (relatively speaking) on superspeedways. I have been convinced by macmiller and Bruce Ashmore that they can be. I used to be one of those that thought carbon fiber was a given, but no longer.

So what do you think of these ideas? Do you have other ones that you think might work?

1. An Oswego type super (no wings), but with reinforced chassis and suspension.

2. An upright super (engine in front of the driver)

3. A current SC type car with reinforced construction and whatever aero required to keep the cars from becoming airplanes.

4. An updated roadster. More body work than the #2 suggestion. Perhaps something like the Mallard?

I think any of these could be made to work and at less cost than the proposed GC car.

These is the same cars we ran 2yrs ago, all they are changing is body work to make it more sleeker.

So does that mean there are 23 total or 23 + 12 or so?

23+10 would be a good estimate based on my snooping. As is the case with any series, getting them to ALL show up at once is the variable.
Especially on the road courses.
David.

I didn't mention road courses on purpose, but I suppose it needs to be addressed too. And I guess with that comes the "getting short trackers back to Indy" idea as well. I'm all for that and I am not that opposed to road courses (within limits, like 2 at the most), but this raises some other questions.

Do we really care what the IRL and nascar thinks of this series? In my opinion, nascar is successful without it and the IRL will never be successful no matter what. I've had too many discussions with IRL fans of the road racing type to know that they will never accept short trackers. Even when you point out short trackers with road racing experience they substitute the "but they don't have rear engined experience or they don't have aero experience" excuses. That doesn't mean short trackers can never get back to Indy, only that it will never happen with road racers in charge.

Getting all the cars to the track is almost entirely related to funding. The proposed $25K to win and $2500 to start might be enough. If not, then make it $5000 to start with second and last place paying about the same. Or even better, make sure all teams have secured funding. If it takes $500K to fund a season, make sure all teams have that much funding. There are probably 100 or more companies spending over $5million on their racing programs now. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to find 30 of them that could spend just 10% of that.

BTW, I like the car you used on the other thread as another possible solution to getting short trackers back to superspeedway racing. I've researched this a little and getting a transaxle that would handle 600+hp would probably double the price of the car, but I don't think it would significantly increase the price of a season total. That transaxle deal is another one of those "road racer bias" deals in my opinion. A transaxle is nothing but a transmission and rear end in a common housing. If anything it should be a little cheaper than those two items separately. But a bulletproof transmission that will handle 3500lbs and 800+hp is less than $5000. And a quickchange is less than $3000. Yet a transaxle that would handle the same or even smaller loads is over $50K. 'splain that one to me.

Unfortunately it turns out there are just 23 total. And we're not really sure if there is still 23 or not since not all of those 23 cars have the new body. Some may be balking at a $10K upgraded body for a series that probably is dead in the water.

We may never see open wheel cars race on superspeedways again, but if we do it almost surely will not be the GC cars.

Instead I think it would be more likely to be "my" new Platinum Crown Series. Just kidding about the my part and the name too.

But let's start with something like my number 4. Mallard like clones. Tube frames. No wings other than a small rear spoiler incorporated into the body to keep the back end down. 10' of wire rule in effect. 360 SBC engines. Chassis cost $30K. Engine cost $15K. Tires that 2 sets would last for a 300 mile race including practice and qualifying.

Schedule

Fontana
Phoenix
TMS
Kansas
Kentucky
Milwaukee
Rockingham
New Hampshire
Las Vegas
Chicago
Richmond
Iowa

2 races at each track

Proposed budget

Car $40K
Engine 15
Transport 50
Fuel 50
Tires 60
Crew
4 part time
at $250 per
race 30
Driver 100
Crew chief 70

Total $415K

Purse
25K @ 20
50% of gate $500,000

Add, subtract, suggest as you wish.

The other 10-12 cars are in various states of completion but parts are on hand to complete them.

The real bottom line is how will a promoter generate the $1 million so that 50 percent of the gate is $500,000?

That was an error on my part. Should have read 50% of the gate being $250K, 25K attendance at $20 each. Hopefully it could get there, but I think 25K would be more realistic than 50K or higher ticket prices to start with.