INDYCAR: Honda 2012 Q&A

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Honda 2012 Q&A

On the heels of Honda's confirmation of a twin-turbo V-6 for 2012, Marshall Pruett learns more details from HPD President Erik Berkman.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 07, 2010

In June, Honda unveiled a new 2.8L twin-turbo V6 sportscar engine for 2011, and has now confirmed a new, different and more expensive 2.4L twin-turbo V6 IndyCar engine for 2012. With different 2012 rules, they could have used the same motor. (HPD)

With Honda finally confirming the worst-kept secret in IndyCar racing, the Japanese manufacturer will officially supply 2400cc twin-turbo V6 engines for the new-look 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series.

Tasked with heavily reducing the cost for an annual engine lease – a $935,000 expense in 2010 – Honda, through their southern California competition arm, Honda Performance Development, has committed to reducing the V6’s annual lease by “up to 40 percent.”

Knowing how skeptical some of the current IndyCar team owners are about the true costs they will face to field a car in 2012, the “up to” verbiage used by Honda hasn’t settled the fears held by some in the paddock.

“That could mean anything from one percent to 40 percent,” said the owner of one of the healthier teams who preferred to speak off the record. “Until they come out and say exactly what that percentage figure is, it sure leaves a lot of wiggle room and I don’t like wiggle room on big ticket items like engines. Come out and say what it is.”

For those who are less skeptical, and at the full 40 percent reduction, teams would have a significant savings with an engine lease of $561,000, or $374,000 less than they are paying now.

Provided Honda leans closer to the 40 percent price reduction figure, that $374,000 savings could be used to purchase the $349,000 rolling 2012 Dallara chassis.

HPD president Erik Berkman, speaking with SPEED.com on the costs involved to produce a new engine, says that a shift from the current design specification – one derived while they faced stiff financial and engineering competition from Toyota and Chevrolet – will change to better suit America’s softer economical climate.

“We wanted to be in the IRL back when CART went away for us, but we hooked up with Ilmor Engineering and created a program that was like the good old days, meaning sparing no expense, building a ‘Swiss watch’ type engine, and we’ve done that for a long time now. The components have changed, with cost control being at the heart of that change, we’ve been thinking about how we might do it differently. And how to do it differently would include how to take costs out of the fundamental design. The bill of materials would have to be targeted at a lower cost. And then the notion of longer life to reduce the number of rebuilds would allow for a lower total season cost.”

The initial costs for the 2012 engine will still be high, but with the costs spread over a few years, and with engine development kept to a reasonable pace, Berkman believes they have the right formula to deliver a less expensive product.

“It's true. Now, that's not to say that every development cost is going to get amortized. In fact, I've been quoted correctly having said that the manufacturer's job is to develop [a new engine], and once you start running it, then you have to decide if you are going to amortize the ongoing development into the lease pricing. But the initial cost, just to get the first new design engine onto the track, that's a big chunk of money. That's the big chunk. And then we've talked at those [2012] roundtables with other manufacturers saying that most of [the engine development costs] should be the manufacturer’s gift, basically. We’re not trying to lose more money in this whole deal, we're trying to strengthen the show through a lower cost to the teams. But we’re not going to subsidize more to do that.”

Reducing costs is paramount to Honda’s 2012 IndyCar engine plans, and that philosophy has also made its way to their new sportscar motor. HPD announced at Le Mans in June that they would offer a 2800cc twin-turbo V6, based on their Honda Accord road car engine that will comply with the ACO’s low-cost, production-based 2011 LMP2 engine plans.

While HPD appears committed to keeping costs down with their engine offerings, the fact that they will be producing two new, yet completely different twin-turbo V6 motors seems to contradict their stated goals.

Berkman and Honda remain committed to IndyCar racing, signing up as the first (and only) 2012 supplier so far. (LAT)

Using a de-stroked version of their Accord-based V6 for the 2012 IndyCar engine would appear to be the most efficient use of funding and resources, but Berkman says that after careful evaluation, building a production-based LMP2 engine and a purpose-built IndyCar engine will be necessary.

“The cheapest way to provide an engine for the [IndyCar] teams and also for the manufacturer would be to take a production engine, like our mass production V6 engine, but honestly, that would be a better proposal for an Indy Lights kind of a deal. So we’re trying to find the best of both worlds. It also depends on how much power you have to produce. Running wide open throttle at Indy, for example, and being able to run at that high specific power output for long runs and doing it with a production-based engine is a real challenge.

“Now, to do it with a [production-based] V6, okay, it’s possible if you're only looking for the kind of power like what [DeltaWing designer] Ben Bowlby was asking for in the 300’s. If you're looking to do the 500 to 700 kind of range, like we’ve been asked for by the League, it’s another proposition. Indy Lights, down there at about 425 horsepower or so, and the LMP2 class at that 450 power range for next year, it’s appropriate for our production engines. And that’s why we did it for P2 next year. But moving up as far as we've done with the current design, my answer with IndyCar car engine is that we need to take a different approach.”

For the sake of comparison, the ACO has set a cost cap on a rolling 2011 LMP2 chassis of €325,000 ($431,500), and engines at €75,000, which at the current Euro exchange rate, would cost $99,500. The IndyCar Series has done a good job to set their 2012 chassis costs below the ACO’s second-tier prototype chassis next year, but the disparity in engine costs weighs heavily in the ACO’s favor.

It’s now a moot point to argue, but had IndyCar chosen to go with a lighter and more aerodynamically friendly design for 2012, and as Berkman mentioned above, engine manufacturers would have needed far less power to produce the speeds and performance desired by the series, opening up the option to use production-based engines.

In a perfect world, blending IndyCar’s 2012 chassis rules/costs with the ACO’s 2011 LMP2 engine rules/costs would have delivered unprecedented cost savings for cash-strapped open-wheel entrants. It also would have made it much easier and far less expensive for potential engine suppliers to join the IndyCar Series, but we will have to wait until 2016 to see if engine rules/costs are revised.

In the meantime, and to meet the sub-$100,000 P2 engine price limit, using the Accord-based V6 was the only option Berkman and HPD had to comply with the new sportscar rules.

To make hundreds of more horsepower and to offer the kind of reliability and durability required for the 2012 IndyCar, Honda has been forced to build a purebred racing engine, and the annual lease price of more than $500,000 clearly reflects that decision.

That Honda’s 2012 IndyCar engine will cost five times more than their 2011 prototype engine is still alarming, but until a second 2012 engine manufacturer steps up to offer a cheaper or more competitive open-wheel alternative, Berkman and HPD will likely maintain their monopoly on the IZOD IndyCar Series.

With a little bit of clarity on the “up to 40 percent” statement, there’s little I can find about Honda’s 2012 IndyCar engine plans that should prevent the paddock from signing up to use their twin-turbo V6 a year-and-a-half from now.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com’s Auto Racing Editor, and also covers IndyCar and sportscar racing for the site. Pruett grew up at ‘Pruett's Olde English Garage,’ his father's shelter for abused foreign cars, and spent his childhood being dragged across the West Coast to help with his dad's amateur racing exploits.

Pruett spent 20 years working in the IRL, CART, IMSA, and most of the known open-wheel feeder series before retiring from active duty in 2001. And in case you were wondering, he isn’t related to Scott Pruett.

Marshall lives in Northern California with his wife Shabral, and can be emailed . He can also be harassed on Twitter .