Last year was the last season for that hopefully someone out there will take the time and dedication to upload full races on there channel I enjoy going back and watching races from the late 90s all the way to present because that's when I started watching
These were absolutely the best IndyCar years (they will always be Indycars for me, as in my opinion IRL doesn't count). I'm from Germany and we had Eurosport showing every race and sometimes even NASCAR. And I've always loved this track. Almost like a small Nürburgring. Would have liked to see F1 or MotoGP there
I attended this race and these cars were amazing on this track. Seeing these cars waved through on the green flag on a hot summer day is a sight and sound and smell that cannot be explained.
This track (Elkhart Lake) & Watkins Glen are some of the greatest and most loved tracks in the world. F1 has tried to race at those places before but money is the biggest issue. Not enough crowds being middle America and not in a major city, so can't market it enough. Sad because tracks like this would be spectacular for F1.
The IRL cars looked better. The CART engines were better than IRL engines though. Both used V8's; IRL sounded like NASCAR, and they made a few hundred less HP. the CART engines were 2.65L, 15,000rpm turbocharged flat plane V8's, producing 900hp, that absolutely screamed!
I think I'd cry if I were watching a Grand Prix of any kind and the sports provider's channel I was watching it on decided to switch its coverage to golf instead...
One thing to note is that TV makes this all look calm and controlled. This is VERY different in real life. The speed, the noise, the tear gas produced from the methanol burning engines all make this to be a beautiful symphony of chaos.
Something Emptybox would appreciate. It's hard to see any modern-day motor racing series achieve the quality of racing and amount of overtaking that CART managed that year.
So many world class drivers on that grid and in that season, A good 15-20 guys who could be at the top of the time sheets on their day in the right car. The grid now, while good, isn't the same. Castoneves, Montoya, De Ferran (and even Gonzalo Rodriguez may he rest in peace) all joined straight from F3000 (basically F2 now) success and then Blundell, Moreno, Gugelmin, Papis, Fittipaldi from F1. Kanaan, Herta, Tracy, Moore, Da Matta all indy lights champions when it meant something (and 3 of those were champions in IRL or Champ Car). Talented American stalwarts in Pruett, Vasser and Gordon. The big nsmes of Andretti and Unser Jr. Fernandez and Carpentier were also great drivers and there were a whole stack more of solid midfield drivers. Of course there were bad drivers ( The Hattoris, Garcia Jr, PJ Jones) but not many of them in good cars
I'm inclined to believe that those front nose and rear wings make all the difference in the appearance of the cars. I think nowadays' indycars have nice bodies but not so good looking wings and noses.
Honda, Toyota, Mercedes, Ford-Cosworth, Reynard, Lola, Swift, Goodyear, Firestone: just to name a few. What do we have today? Dallara, Honda, Ilmor (Chev) and Firestone.
woo hoo a real throwback CART baby. 2 more years the racing will get back to this with the hp upgrades. avg lap speeds above 140mph wow only monza would be faster than this on current f1 calender.
The pole last year for this race was 140.02 mph. Still slower than cars from 20 years ago. The cars looked better, sounded better, and were faster, and the drivers had to actually shift gears themselves with one hand off the wheel. Still sad to see Greg Moore.
They were pretty close in power to F1 at the time, but with way more torque. They got similar horsepower (900) with less revs (sub 15,000 for CART vs. 18,000 for F1) thanks to turbocharging, albeit with fairly small amount of boost (maybe 7 pounds by the 99 season?). Weight was definitely a big difference. F1 cars could be 1350 lbs WITH driver. ChampCars were 1550 without driver!
It’s awesome to see an old race where a driver took his first career win! I really want to see the 1998 Visionaire 500K (still not back on RU-vid yet) which was Kenny Bräck’s first career win, and the 1998 Pep Boys 400K (which is not still not back on RU-vid either)!
I remember that this race was transmitted by Inravision Canal A and RTI Televisión in afternoon hours in Colombia 20 years ago. The comments was for Ricardo Soler and Jorge Leal from the studio and the analysis was for Pablo Montoya, father of Juan Pablo that was pending of the details of each race. Good remembers for us that we lived all 1999 Fedex CART Season in the colombian television
The CART Senna driver! A proud for Brazil, really. I'm from Venezuela and i was looking a Colombian driver as Montoya against the other South American. Just great to see a international competition like this. Beyond to be a national one.
Consider how absolutely stacked this series was in 1999. Every row of this starting grid contained a champion or race winner except for the very last row.
On average, Monza is still slower. Even with DRS, 1000 bhp, in 2022 the highest speed in a speed trap was about 210 mph. Considering in 1999 CART cars had more power and speed then Formula 1 of 1999, Paul Page is correct. Road America is. The fastest road circuit in the world.
@@Dan-fx7qy you are completely wrong. Top speed is not what matter average speed over a lap is a better way to show it Pole average speed in 1999 at Elkart Lake :145 Miles/hour (233 km/h) Monza f1 1999 : pole average speed 157 miles per hour (252 km/h) Hockenheim f1 1999 : pole average speed 148 miles per hour (239 km/h) Look at the layout of the 3 tracks in 1999. Both Monza and Hockenheim were known as temple of speed. Top speed isn't what matter. Talking about top speed Alesi in 2001 (close enough to 1999) did 363 km/h which is 225 miles/h So f1 in the 90s and in the 00s allways have been faster. And Monza and Hockenheim were faster track and Elkart Lake . However Hockenheim is not anymore since 2002 when they butchered the layout In 1999 CART had more power. But it was heavier. Way heavier
What a race. What cars. What a championship. Obviously people then set out to destroy a good thing they had going....for stupid reasons But yeah, you really had something good going on for a while, America. Well done.
Man the sheet utter rawness of those engines. 900+ hp, manual shifting, breaking, and steering. No anti anything, just a dude , two petals, and balls made out steel. Dear Indycar you want views back, make this happen again. You want it cheap eliminate the custom m shock program, make those spec, easy cheap HP get rid of the ethanol, and you want excitement make them shift.
What can you say about Michael Andretti. Great Driver and A Successful Car Owner. Only to never win the Indianapolis 500. It’s like A great NFL Quarterback never winning the Super Bowl. All In All One Of The Best to drive INDYCAR.
I thought turbocharger failure is a good thing because it will never affect the engine. I thought that it was unnecessary. Are all the race cars turbocharged? Do some of them run on gasoline?
Well I have some news for you 1_ Nascar already has ten times more ratings than you, 4+ millions vs 350k. And we are just the half season. 2_No third manufacture, BMW says No!!! The Germans says, "for what I want to be in a b class series" 3_and Pocono will be out of the calendar next year.
