The long evolution of Dallara's Indy 500 winner

Originally known as the Dallara DW12, IndyCar’s single-make chassis is virtually unrecognisable over a decade on from its 2012 introduction. Those close to the project explain why its enduring spec racer has no end in sight...

David Malsher-Lopez May 28, 2023, 3:19 PM

Engineering

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IndyCar looked stale at the start of 2010, barely staggering through the economic recession and dwarfed by NASCAR. The excitement surrounding the 2008 unification of the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, to form the new IndyCar Series, had dissipated. The schedule comprised nine road/street courses, eight ovals, and spectator numbers at most venues were falling.

The cars reflected this stasis. The Indy Racing League’s spec Dallara IR-05 was never accused of elegance even when it emerged in 2003, but it had been developed for a largely oval series, whereas the Panoz DP01 used by Champ Car in 2007 had never seen an oval. Thus when the series merged, the attractive turbocharged Panoz-Cosworth was rendered obsolete after just a year of competition, and the obsolete-looking Dallara complete with raucous 3.5-litre normally aspirated V8 Honda became ‘the IndyCar’.

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Author David Malsher-Lopez

David Malsher-Lopez is Motorsport.com’s U.S. editor, covering the NTT IndyCar Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Since completing journalism college in 1994, he has worked for Autosport, TRMG, Motor Sport, Autosport (again) and Racer, before joining Motorsport.com in 2015… where he has found himself enjoying a third spell writing for Autosport. Over the course of those 27 years, he has served as a journalist, sub-editor, features editor, deputy editor and editor. In 2015, he also wrote Will Power’s biography. David lives with his wife Sophia in California and when not writing about racing, he will be found reading about planes and classic cars, attending airshows, listening to a wide variety of music or watching cop shows from the ’70s. He intends to one day own a grand piano, an Airedale terrier and a vintage Pontiac. He doesn’t do Facebook and doesn’t understand Instagram but can be found @DavidMalsher on Twitter.