There wasn't a dandelion in sight and I was not chauffeured by Mario Andretti, but in every other respect my two laps around Belle Isle in the back seat of an IndyCar was one of the better thrills I've experienced sitting down.
Six of these $500,000–$750,000 Honda Dallara open-wheel two-seaters exist to provide joyrides at various IndyCar tracks. Anyone can purchase this encounter for $499 via the Indy Racing Experience. Martin Plowman, the 2013 LMP2 winner at Le Mans and 23rd-place finisher at this year's Indy 500 did an exemplary job of racing me around the 2.3-mile, 14-turn Belle Isle course a few hours before the second Dual in Detroit race began. (That's not me waving in the above photo, nor is it at Belle Isle—photos for the Detroit event were shockingly hard to come by. But it shows one of the cars, so there's that.)
Dropping down into the car's tight confines is like slipping into carbon-fiber pantyhose. There's minimal foot space, no hint of under-butt padding, and a rigid molded partition between your legs. Your knees are kinked at less than 90 degrees and you've got two rubber handholds pirated from some production car to hang onto. A removable part of the car surrounds the passenger's helmet. A regulation five-point harness locks you in place, although your body is such a plug-in-a-socket that the restraints aren't that necessary. Comfort is no priority here, but that's not an issue because other sensations keep any pain from registering.
Your forward view is dominated by the back of the driver's helmet—as this shot of Mario's noggin during a two-seat sprint at Texas Motor Speedway illustrates—as well as the high sides of the cockpit, but you can see the front tires and mirrors. Waving to fans is not discouraged.
While the current IndyCar engine spec is a turbocharged 2.2-liter V-6 that revs to 12,000 rpm and delivers about 600 horsepower, the powerplant in my car was a naturally aspirated V-8 of unspecified vintage (probably a decade or so old). It was undoubtedly detuned for improved reliability, but that didn't soften its shriek to any significant extent. On the second lap, after the engine was fully warmed, my eardrums felt as if they were stuck by needles at what I'd estimate to be an 8000-rpm resonant point.
Instead of attempting to resist the inevitable head slosh as the driver swings through tight bends at a couple of g's, it's wiser to simply keep your helmet in firm contact with the surrounding bodywork. Brake action trumps lateral grip, but the best sensation is hammering into a bend while slowing to enjoy the diagonal vector of combined cornering and braking gs. While there's no real sense of spectacular speed, the ride around the island supposedly tops out at 150 mph on the long straight paralleling the Detroit River.
Belle Isle is a street course maintained with major assistance from Roger Penske's global enterprise. In other words, the civilian roads converted to a race circuit once per year may look nice, but there are rough spots. In many instances, the bad patch is exactly at a corner's apex, which heaves any race car venturing there, dramatically unsettling its grip. What's worse, the driver gets a serious two-hour beating at Belle Isle. I had a short taste of those bumps through the tub and into my tail bone, which felt just like riding a nuclear pogo stick.
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Much to my surprise, the Indy Racing Experience organization offers something much better than two laps in the back seat. For only $1000, you can rent your way into the real cockpit of a retired IndyCar at select tracks. You won't get many laps and the power is surely turned down from racing spec, but such a drive has got to be the ultimate birthday present. Or, for those truly deserving, package deals are available: the IndyCar drive AND a backseat ride with a pro handling the wheel for $1200. Be the first to brag about these experiences with your best bar buds.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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