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INDYCAR: Series Trying To Solve 2012 Car’s Speedway Issues
Will Phillips, IndyCar's VP of Technology tells SPEED.com, “The car isn’t going as fast as we wanted or expected and we’re trying to identify why."
Robin Miller  |  Posted November 10, 2011  
In Speedway trim, the 2012 Dallara suffers from a few different issues that the series is working to resolve before the mid-December delivery date. (LAT)
It was way too cold to do any running Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but Tony Kanaan still spent a few hours driving the new Indy car at the world’s most famous race track.

Of course TK was at the Dallara factory in Italy on the IndyCar simulator – trying to help the longtime manufacturer work out some problems with the DW12 chassis.

The immediate concern is the disappointing performance of the Dallara at the Speedway last week, where Dario Franchitti and Kanaan tested for two days.

And, while the top speeds were only between 208-216 mph for either the Honda or Chevy-powered drivers, it was more a product of the car’s handling than a question of power.

“The focus of concern is with weight distribution,” said Will Phillips, vice president of technology for the IZOD IndyCar Series and the midwife of the first new car in a decade for this series.

“The car is too good on entry and suffers understeer on [corner] exit and it’s the same complaint from Dario and Tony that Dan [Wheldon] gave us after the first test.

“So the car isn’t going as fast as we wanted or expected and we’re trying to identify why the theoretical world doesn’t match real world at the race track. At very high speeds, we have disparity in the data.”

INDYCAR: Lotus Pushes First Track Test Back To January

Although Franchitti and Kanaan politely requested not to be asked any questions at the moment, prior to his fatal accident at Las Vegas Wheldon had admitted the car was wicked loose entering Turn 1 at Indy and pushing badly exiting.
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