These are renders of an experimental IndyCar car called Blackbird 66, from a design studio run by Indy 500 racer JR Hildebrand and concept designer Patrick Faulwetter. The basic idea behind the project is that wings and downforce-producing ‘ground effects’ allow a race car to go faster through the corners, but also mask the essential humanness of motor racing.
Piloting a race car is supposed to be challenging, and the driver must use their skills to find the limits of adhesion. Vintage race cars like Can-Am, Group B rally cars, and early IMSA GTP Prototypes were exciting to watch because driver ability was a major differentiating factor, and those cars were always on the knife edge. Those racers with a better ‘feel’ simply set faster lap times, but modern technology has masked the difference between the best and the rest on the IndyCar grid.
Blackbird 66 seeks to strip away anything that would assist the driver, and return motorsports to its roots. The design includes a turbocharged V10 engine, revving at 14,000 RPM, rear-wheel drive and 20″ wide tires. The race car cannot go through the corners as quickly, but the light weight, reduced downforce, incredible power and massive tires would allow the car to accelerate out of a corner at breakneck speed. Really having to drive the car would put the spectacle back into the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’. Take off the wings, and give it an engine that sings.
A car like this would ensures that courage, driving style and the fundamental difficulty of the task at hand would always be on display. No wings means that cars could follow more closely, and attack at any speed, making the combat that defines racing’s greatest moments that much more likely. But is the modern racing fan willing to accept a reversal of 50 years of aerodynamic advancement, to return to something that looks like it could have won the Indy 500 in 1968?
For more information, check out https://blackbird66.com
Very cool!
I kinda like it.
I totally support this concept, but I don’t think the F-Indy bosses will buy it. Unfortunately.
I agree. It would look like going backwards