2000 Through 2006 Lola ChampCar Chassis

To say the 2000 and on Lola ChampCar chassis are beautiful is an understatement.  Especially interesting to me are the changes made for the XFe including the side pod air filter arrangement and the snorkel feeding cool air to the toilet seat (and the turbo area between the engine and gearbox).

I have been approached by several teams about buying their chassis once they have the Panoz chassis and are done with testing.  It sounds like a great idea until you realize that engine options are very limited for mere mortals.  Honda will not even accept calls on the subject.  Toyota will politely tell you that they crush all of their engine related bits at the end of each year and thus there is nothing at TRD to sell.  I have been told that Ilmore has engines but no bits to refresh them and no interest in selling the engines.  Every now and then I hear a story about someone with connections who can get Ilmore engines but I have yet to see anyone show up at the track with a modern Ilmore powered ChampCar let alone run a full season with one.  This brings me full circle to a point I have made many times in different places on this site; In my opinion, Cosworth is the only viable engine option and now that option is very real.

If you accept that Cosworth is the engine to use, the next question is when will Cosworth release the XF to the Historic crowd.  The rule of thumb in the past is four years after it last competed.  Well, the XF became the XFe.  There was some talk within Cosworth in 05 that there would be an XG.  However, I have confirmed with Ian Bisco that there are now no plans to use anything but the XFe with normal development in the Panoz chassis.  There simply will be no Cosworth engines to put in those pretty post 99 Lola chassis. 

With the demise of ChampCar, we have opportunity.  I've been told that Cosworth will offer the XFe with prices ranging from $45,000 for a timed out engine all the way through $85,000 for a fresh engine although they are not yet available.  I suspect they will become available after the last race at Long Beach.  Doing the math on costs to run the engine yields $40,000 divided by 1200 miles or $33.33/mile.  Given that the average lap time for most of the faster tracks is 125 mph, this equates to $4167 per hour of run time.  That is a bit much by most people's standards.

The nice thing is that all those post 1999 chassis will now be useable.  The downside is that they may be cost prohibitive to run.  I think I would prefer to stay with the XD with its additional 100 to 150 horsepower and know running costs.  You do not get the newer chassis but you should still go just as fast.

Again, these are only my opinions......................