Robert Clarke (President, Honda Performance Development) on Honda powering the entire 33-car field: "We believe this is the first time the Indianapolis 500 has been run without a single engine problem."

 

That is amazing. I knew Honda had entered the league, but was not aware that it is now powering every single racing car!

Could you add more info?

 

Last year the league used Chevrolet, Toyota and Honda. Honda dominated the field. This year the others pulled out leaving only Honda engines. I couldn't find any statistics to back up the statement from the Honda rep in the title post, but interesting anyway. I've been to 7 Indy 500 races, and there are always several cars with blown engines who slow down spouting oil and smoke. Didn't happen this time. I believe the engines were made by Honda and Ilmore.

 

Thanks for your explanation, and yet another question:

If my memory serves me right, I remember that Indy league engines had some very specific requirements.....something like no turbocharging, 2 liter max displacement, and 4 cylinders.......

Am I remebering correctly or have I got my facts all mixed up?

 

Similarly, Honda entered the F1 engine circuit in the early-mid 80s, and rapidly dominated there too. The McLaren and Williams teams used them first, and cleaned up through most of the decade. By the 90s, Honda was in most of the teams, leaving Ford/Cosworth and Ferrari engines to wither. I don't follow F1 anymore, so don't know the current state.

The old rules there were 3L/normal aspiration or 1.5Lturbo, and the fuel requirements were far stricter than Indy (CART then). But they still pumped out >1200BHP at the peak before new rules brought it down.

Guess what teams almost never ran out of fuel?

 

Honda engine info here:


http://www.indycar.com/tech/engines.php


Not sure what the options are these days as far as turbo versus normally aspirated..... but there hasn't been a turbo car at Indy for awhile. Seems that they have tightened up the requirements.

Another interesting note, the cars run on a 10% ethanol, 90% methanol fuel this year, and are looking at going to %100 ethanol by 2008.