2018 IndyCar a result of reverse engineering, says Frye

He told media at the NAIAS Show at Detroit: “For the '18 car, what we're working on now and which we will unveil completely in the next couple weeks, we looked at the cars over the last 20 years, and what different parts and pieces that we liked and especially that our fans were asking for.

“So that's really where the car started, and it's kind of a reverse engineering exercise. Usually you work on a performance piece first, whereas this car we worked on the aesthetics of it first, hoping that we can create a performance package around it. And besides the performance piece, it also will have a lot of safety initiatives that are very cool, I think.”

Referring to the concept drawings that were revealed on Thursday, Frye added: “You look at the one in the middle, it kind of shows a lower engine cover. You'll notice there's something that's not in the rear wheels [the so-called bumpers that have been on the DW12/IR12 since its debut in 2012]. That's the baseline of where this program started.

“We today announced a multiyear extension with Dallara. Dallara will still build the cars, chassis, we're still working through who's going to manufacture the aerokits.

“We were very enthused and surprised the amount of people that wanted to participate in that process. So because of all of the enthusiasm and participation, we are able to take a lot of different ideas and kind of piece them together to come up with what we hope is the final product.”

Altering where downforce is generated

One of IndyCar's goals has been to shift the downforce away from the top surfaces, which have proliferated during the aerokit era of 2015-present day.

All experienced IndyCar drivers have concurred that these extra top planes have hurt the racing on road/street/short ovals by creating too much turbulence so that drivers can’t follow closely behind in each other in medium- and high-speed corners. They have also created so much downforce that braking distances have shortened, and also negated the need for throttle control on corner exits.

Frye says the 2018 car will address these concerns quite radically.

“We tested at Mid-Ohio, we tested at Phoenix [with the current car], and basically took parts off to see what they would do,” he explained. “Most of the downforce comes from the top. The new car, almost all the downforce will be generated from the bottom of the car, so I think [drivers] will like that.

“When we did the tests, one of the things the drivers mentioned and commented on was how we have a great racing product right now, we don't want to affect that negatively in any way, but with this new car, the universal car… We don't run into that [dirty] air that they currently do. So that's some things that we're looking at.

“Performance-wise it should be better because we don't want to go backwards, and the safety elements to it, there's some stuff on the side impact that should be much better.

"We are looking at a windscreen or a halo type application. Will that be on the car in '18? I'm not sure, but we're full speed ahead designing and developing as soon as possible.

“But again, because of our schedule being so diverse, maybe there's two different applications. It would be difficult to run a halo at an oval, but what's to say you couldn't run a halo at road courses? We're looking at all different scenarios.”

Despite the car’s design commencing with its look as the primary concern, Frye said he had no worries over the car’s performance.

“We have had this car configuration in a scale model wind tunnel, and we're very pleased with the initial numbers that it came back with,” he stated.

“We feel like we're on the right direction aesthetically. We feel like we're in the right direction performance wise, and then again, the safety piece of this car will be much further ahead than where we are now.”

Frye said that IndyCar hopes to reveal the final drawings of the car “mid-February,” likely at the Phoenix open test.