[D.O.]

Yes it is

Thanks

:dologob:

What would be nice is if the new Gold Crown cars could run the same day as the Firestone Indy Lights cars. That could give them 12-14 races (including road courses) If there was a way to pay the guys a set amount for making the feature maybe a bonus for finishing the feature and then pay the top 5 a bonus they could make it more affordable. Surely these cars will be way cheaper than an Indy lights car. Why do the Gold Crown cars have to be carbon moconoque? When did fiberglass go out of style? I would pay to see the Lights and the Gold Crown cars on the same day. Both would only be hour long races but the IRL would be the next day and make the trip worth it. If the Gold Crown cars could run the mile dirt tracks and drop the side pods and the nose for bumpers and have other classes worth the trip.

I love your passion guys. Thank you for the input and ideas. Yes you’re right we do need to carry over the current Gold Crown chassis frame and so the new body has to fit that design. The frame is actually a very good design and a lot of time went into developing the layout. There are also 25 cars out there built and ready to race and without these cars we wouldn’t even be able to contemplate racing a premier USAC series in today’s economy let alone launch a new series. A lot of people don't realize the amount of testing that went on at the GM labs with Riley Technologies to develop the crushable crash zones on the sides, front and back of the frame. We have also practically tested them a few times during the races in the two years the cars ran as the “New Generation Silver Crown” series. The crash that sticks out in my mind is when Jerry Coons was trying for the pole in his RW Motorsport number 27 car in Kansas 07 after he ran 3rd quick in practice. In qualifying, he over did it a little and started crashing at around 190 MPH and slid backwards up into the 3rd turn wall. The rear crush zone did its job and the frame did twist a little. We straightened out the frame after the car was brought back to the paddock on the hook, we fitted a new rear bumper and tail, and started the race from the back. In the race Jerry worked his way up and finished 4th. That same car started from the pole in the next race in Phoenix and finished 2nd in that race. That is why we don't want to stray too far from the design. It works. The tire size was another question you guys had. The 10" front and 14" rear on 15" dia rims are IndyCar size. This size was chosen originally because a tire company can develop for Gold Crown and later could supply to IndyCar or Indy Lights or if one of the past or current Indy tire suppliers wanted to carry over into USAC then we have a wheel size that suites them. This has to help the business and allows tire companies and race organizations multiple directions as the business develops as we won’t always be in this crippling recession. Yes they are radials, we raced exclusively on radials in 2007 and Hoosier did a good job of developing them during 2006 for the 07 season.

The open wheel vs non-open wheel discussion intrigues me. Having the wheels exposed on the outside of the race car is insane. I have been campaigning for years in IndyCar and ChampCar (CART) to run the body out to the same width as the outside surface of the tires. This is so that two cars racing can get close to each other and rub tires and bodywork without the tire treads touching. Every time this happens, the cars crash. You see it in IndyCar all the time. Two drivers having a fantastic battle and then the cars get too close and the tire treads touch. These two surfaces are traveling in opposite directions. The car in front, rear wheel tries to climb over the front tire of the rear car and so instantly looses rear grip, snaps sideways and all in the path of the car behind and for both their race comes to a sudden end by sliding and smashing into the wall. This doesn’t happen in NASCAR very often or for the most part in USAC, the only time it does is when the nurf bars are made too narrow. The number of times I read that people want to see good close racing is amazing; this is what the majority of us want to see. So if you want to see that then you need to design the car or the shape of the side pod to allow close racing. This why the Gold Crown body was designed this way and it works. I have also heard the argument that pure racing is open wheel and the drivers should respect each other’s space. This is crazy. To prove a point you end up with two cars crashing. There are no cheap racing cars these days, actually there never have been. We all know that. And besides the show stops. Why not keep it going for lap after lap.

So that leaves us with the looks, really the only thing wrong with the Gold Crown cars. So we concentrated on that and devised a plan that would allow you guys to contribute, and I thank you for all the positive and negative comments because it was by reading all of that which led to the design we put on show in Orlando. It was amazing to see the number of people that came into the USAC area and said “WOW That looks great”. All the journalists loved it. We had fans come in and liked what they saw. Plus several team owners and drivers came by. We have received a few comments from people about what we should do different and the great thing about how we went about the process is that we get another chance to make a few more changes when we build the full size body before we go into production in the New Year. So Happy New Year everyone and thanks again for all your comments.

[Roger Hughes]

You can cook a pig lots of different ways, when you are done, it's still a pig! USAC is looking for the crumbs from another series like Grand-AM. I say why not tie it to the new USAC super series....make it a prelim for the .25 midgets.:thumb

[randyrad]

Originally Posted by ashmoredesign So that leaves us with the looks, really the only thing wrong with the Gold Crown cars. So we concentrated on that and devised a plan that would allow you guys to contribute, and I thank you for all the positive and negative comments because it was by reading all of that which led to the design we put on show in Orlando. ...We have received a few comments from people about what we should do different and the great thing about how we went about the process is that we get another chance to make a few more changes when we build the full size body before we go into production...

:thumb Thanks for listening & expaining. Agree that asthetics were the only drawback. Looks enough like a Roadster to get me to the track. Hope we see some testing videos of the final design on the USAC website. :usacfan

[sc96]

Bruce thanks for the info it really helps keep people on the outside informed.You would be surprised at how many people ask on a weekly basis what is going on with the Goldcrown cars and when they are going to be back racing.Make sure to let us know when we can start getting the new bodies.

[Ovalmeister]

Originally Posted by sc96 Bruce thanks for the info it really helps keep people on the outside informed.You would be surprised at how many people ask on a weekly basis what is going on with the Goldcrown cars and when they are going to be back racing.Make sure to let us know when we can start getting the new bodies.

Ahhh, can't wait to get my paws on one of these. This is gonna be fun! :thumb
David.

[racephoto1]

I'm glad you appreciate our input , but don't like the attitude. Call me crazy, but if I want fenders, I'll watch nascrap.A lot of things made sense except your comment about open wheels being insane. Next thing I'll hear is that you want fenders on sprints and midgets.

As for the success with fenders, nascrap is now on the downside of the bell curve. You can't give people what YOU think they want, you have to give them what they want. New Coke ring a bell. Driven an Edsel lately.

You can say what you want, but the proof is in the pudding.I guess we'll see. I'll stick with our dirt car.

As for time spent in design, remember the Titanic. They spent a lot of time designing it. It didn't even finish its first voyage.

Originally Posted by sc96 Bruce thanks for the info it really helps keep people on the outside informed.You would be surprised at how many people ask on a weekly basis what is going on with the Goldcrown cars and when they are going to be back racing.Make sure to let us know when we can start getting the new bodies.

I am hoping we can get the first bodies out in May and running a track test in June. We will run four tests in 2009 with one being on a road course. If all goes to plan we would like up to ten races in 2010. There is still a lot of work to get done between now and the first race but so far we have achieved the targets we set ourselves.

[mac miller]

Originally Posted by ashmoredesign I love your passion guys. Thank you for the input and ideas. Yes you’re right we do need to carry over the current Gold Crown chassis frame and so the new body has to fit that design. The frame is actually a very good design and a lot of time went into developing the layout. There are also 25 cars out there built and ready to race and without these cars we wouldn’t even be able to contemplate racing a premier USAC series in today’s economy let alone launch a new series. A lot of people don't realize the amount of testing that went on at the GM labs with Riley Technologies to develop the crushable crash zones on the sides, front and back of the frame. We have also practically tested them a few times during the races in the two years the cars ran as the “New Generation Silver Crown” series. The crash that sticks out in my mind is when Jerry Coons was trying for the pole in his RW Motorsport number 27 car in Kansas 07 after he ran 3rd quick in practice. In qualifying, he over did it a little and started crashing at around 190 MPH and slid backwards up into the 3rd turn wall. The rear crush zone did its job and the frame did twist a little. We straightened out the frame after the car was brought back to the paddock on the hook, we fitted a new rear bumper and tail, and started the race from the back. In the race Jerry worked his way up and finished 4th. That same car started from the pole in the next race in Phoenix and finished 2nd in that race. That is why we don't want to stray too far from the design. It works. The tire size was another question you guys had. The 10" front and 14" rear on 15" dia rims are IndyCar size. This size was chosen originally because a tire company can develop for Gold Crown and later could supply to IndyCar or Indy Lights or if one of the past or current Indy tire suppliers wanted to carry over into USAC then we have a wheel size that suites them. This has to help the business and allows tire companies and race organizations multiple directions as the business develops as we won’t always be in this crippling recession. Yes they are radials, we raced exclusively on radials in 2007 and Hoosier did a good job of developing them during 2006 for the 07 season. The open wheel vs non-open wheel discussion intrigues me. Having the wheels exposed on the outside of the race car is insane. I have been campaigning for years in IndyCar and ChampCar (CART) to run the body out to the same width as the outside surface of the tires. This is so that two cars racing can get close to each other and rub tires and bodywork without the tire treads touching. Every time this happens, the cars crash. You see it in IndyCar all the time. Two drivers having a fantastic battle and then the cars get too close and the tire treads touch. These two surfaces are traveling in opposite directions. The car in front, rear wheel tries to climb over the front tire of the rear car and so instantly looses rear grip, snaps sideways and all in the path of the car behind and for both their race comes to a sudden end by sliding and smashing into the wall. This doesn’t happen in NASCAR very often or for the most part in USAC, the only time it does is when the nurf bars are made too narrow. The number of times I read that people want to see good close racing is amazing; this is what the majority of us want to see. So if you want to see that then you need to design the car or the shape of the side pod to allow close racing. This why the Gold Crown body was designed this way and it works. I have also heard the argument that pure racing is open wheel and the drivers should respect each other’s space. This is crazy. To prove a point you end up with two cars crashing. There are no cheap racing cars these days, actually there never have been. We all know that. And besides the show stops. Why not keep it going for lap after lap. So that leaves us with the looks, really the only thing wrong with the Gold Crown cars. So we concentrated on that and devised a plan that would allow you guys to contribute, and I thank you for all the positive and negative comments because it was by reading all of that which led to the design we put on show in Orlando. It was amazing to see the number of people that came into the USAC area and said “WOW That looks great”. All the journalists loved it. We had fans come in and liked what they saw. Plus several team owners and drivers came by. We have received a few comments from people about what we should do different and the great thing about how we went about the process is that we get another chance to make a few more changes when we build the full size body before we go into production in the New Year. So Happy New Year everyone and thanks again for all your comments.

Well, after reading about how great this car really is and how brilliant it is of GM to weld "armco guard rails" to the sides of the frame rather than on posts by the side of the road, I finally get to a something worth commenting on.

Originally Posted by ashmoredesign Having the wheels exposed on the outside of the race car is insane...........the drivers should respect each other’s space. This is crazy.

This is one of the most arrogant statements I've read in a while. You people try to attach yourselves as close as possible to the incredible heritage and history of open wheel racing and, then, diss 100 years of real open wheel racing and insult decades of real open wheel fans, who you, badly, need to impress, by claiming that everything that happened before you showed up was "insane" :eek:

Actually, you are correct about one thing. It is crazy to expect the current crop of drivers to show "respect"...... Who needs respect when you have fenders and bumpers???


One question. Bruce! If you had a clean sheet of paper, is this, really, the best car you could come up with????...... How about a few "napkin sketches" to show us what you can really do!

mac miller in INDY