“We’ve been looking at what the Indianapolis 500 has meant to the automotive industry over the last hundred years and now we’re looking at the next hundred years. As we come up to the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway [in 2009] and the first running of the Indianapolis 500 [in 2011], we thought what better way to try and incorporate a project like the car of the future with these anniversaries.”
To get a better understanding of the IRL’s hopes and plans for its 2011 car I talked at length last week with Brian Barnhart, president of the IRL’s competition and operations division. “We are funding the project and we are commissioning students to do design projects and take a look at what the Indy car of 2011 could look like,” Barnhardt explained. “We were introduced to them through Robert Clarke and Honda and we think this is an excellent time to take a fresh look at the look and feel of tomorrow’s Indy car. Tony was blown away by what he saw out there. He said they’ve got some of the most creative minds in the world and it’s a real eye-opener as to where you can go.”
Barnhart reiterated some comments made by Tony George during the formal announcement of the Car of 2011 project. “We think the best way to do it is through the minds of people who will live their entire lives in the 21st century, not the people who have spent the majority of their life in the twentieth century,” Barnhardt remarked. “We think that only makes common sense.”
He was quick to point out that making practical sense of the Art Centre’s concepts will be the key to making the new car project successful. “As you have discussed in some of your columns, the trick as always is going to be the practical implementation of concepts,” Barnhart observed. “There are always balances that will come into that and that will be the big challenge for us.”
