kit cars now all the same

one of best thing about indy was the innovation
now it has been ruled out

yes the racing is closer
but the interesting designs are gone

NASCAR started this trend and now the racecar is just a tool. It's all supposed to be about the drivers and the profile they project. For car guys like us this have been a turn off.

Unfortunately, cost control is another driver for chassis spec control. One benefit is that an outstanding driver on a small team has more potential to shine.

The teams can tweak selected aero bits and shocks are a significant area of development.

We can't go back to the days of Asteroids and Pac Man. Technology moves forward at a lightening speed. If more 'innovative' design were allowed, the costs would rise in unison. At some point it becomes impossible for anyone but corporations (Yes, Penske, Andretti, Ganassi et al to field a car.

It's already difficult for NHRA to fill out a 16 car field in Top Fuel. IDK for sure, but I think NHRA has come to an arrangement with some teams that likens to F1 where the sanctioning body and promoter make sure money gets spread around so they can have a full bracket.

If you have an affinity for WWII fighter aircraft, I respect that. But don't expect any of that sort of thing to be used as purposed. Same with 2 year old race car design.

When it goes all electric I'll stop watching. I actually dislike Formula E. But technically it's good series.

Good: As best as I can tell, Indy doesn't have team orders like F1.
Bad: Both Indy and F1 have more politics in them than a dozen PARF threads put together.

In F1 they made huge testing bans to cut cost, now there is an entire computerized testing industry that even bigger in terms of cost than physical testing.

It isn't so much the rules package as what you mention about the NHRA, the funding.

I worked for a True Value distribution warehouse in college. 1985-1986-1987. Roberto Guerrero was the driver for the TV car. We had the car show up before the Portland race for a promotional thing.

Always rooted for Roberto. I think he had two bad crashes? Certainly one very bad crash. A shame.