The Indy 500 ’94 was dull if it came to dices for the lead between drivers of different teams. About the only thing that could prevent a Penske victory was unreliability of the new engines and the tradition that no engine ever won first time out at Indy. But traditions are there to be broken and so it happened. Unser won the race handsomely but he could have been second behind his teammate Fittipaldi too if fate had not stepped in.
Team Penske and Mercedes Benz couldn’t get a much better result for PR duties. The PC23-500I combination wasn’t seen after Indy anymore. The PC23-Ilmor\D however kept on winning all but three races later that year. One of the lost races was the Michigan 500 but only because Unser had a rare engine failure, otherwise that could so easily have been another victory for the PC23. In his book “Quicksilver Century” writer Karl Ludvigsen gave the title `Christmas came early” to the chapter about this Mercedes engine and its lone race. It was indeed an early Christmas for both team Penske and Mercedes. But also the only one they ever would have together at Indy….
The dream victory at Indy in 1994 was the glorious Intro to the nightmare of 1995. It is very likely that if Team Penske had not used the 500I engine their chances of victory in 1994 would have been less but also their performances in 1995 would have been better.
USAC couldn’t stop the Mercedes 500I in 1994 anymore but new rules for specially designed pushrod engines like the 500I were valid from 1995 on. The turbo-boost was initially reduced from 55 to 52 Inch initially but later on reduced even further to 48 Inches. Ilmor and Mercedes discovered at the test benches that on 52 Inch boost the 500I didn’t have the power advantage it had in ’94 but still could be competitive enough to justify its use. On 48 Inch however the engine isn’t considered competitive anymore and withdrawn from active duty. Mercedes customers had to rely on Ilmor’s latest fourvalve Quadcam racing engine, the Mercedes IC108.
Penske’s all-conquering PC23 design from last year has been mildly updated for 1995. Designer Nigel Bennett changed the engine bay in order to accommodate the new engine. There’s a longer nose section and a relocated drivers’s seat, farther back than before, which alters weight distribution and helps the car change direction more easily. The transverse transaxle and the engines’s bellhousing have been lightened and made more compact. The Penkse PC24’s cockpit sides have been raised slightly for driver protection, and Kevlar material has been added to the sides of the car.
1995 sees the debut of the Penske PC24-IC108. Fittipaldi lost the third race of the season (Phoenix) by a stroke of bad luck but Unser Jr won the next race at Long Beach. Fittipaldi got his revenge for Phoenix and won Nazareth with Stefan Johanson, driving a ’94 PC23-IC108 finishing third. During test sessions in April with the PC24 drivers Unser and Fittipaldi reached speeds of 228 mph, using the PC24-IC108. Remember that speed figure: 228 mph in April ’95.
(This test session was even written about in a Dutch newspaper, in the article Arie Luyendyk told about how Fittipaldi was irritated about the fact that what seemed to be a good speed (228) was of little value when Arie and his teammate Scott Brayton were flying around with 230 and more.)
The Indy 500 rules, set by the United States Auto Club, USAC, will be identical in most respects to the 1992 -1994 regulations. The Ford-Cosworth XB engine, the Mercedes-Ilmor IC-108 and the Honda Indy V8 engine are similar in concept: DOHC 32-valve V8 engines with single turbochargers. The 48 in. of boost is limited by pop-off valves supplied by USAC. There are differences in the engines cylinder heads, intake plenums, electronic ignitions, engine-management sstems and physical size. While USAC sets the limits on total displacement, designers can use any cylinder-bank angle, compression ratio or bore and stroke combination.
With displacement, boost, methanol fuel and steel-spring valvetrains dictated by the rules, about the only way to make more power is to spin the engine faster, which all three engine builders will do in 1995. These engines develop about 800 hp at 13.500 rpm. The Mercedes-Ilmor IC-108 engine has new cylinder heads, a new and larger plenum, a new ignition system and a new engine management system for this year. The Mercedes-Ilmor engine is essentially designed to operate as two 4-cylinders.
In the days following the 1994 edition, organizers are changing the rules and the fabulous engine is stored in the closet …. So seven cars with a Mercedes engine more “conventional” who are involved:
– Two Penske-Mercedes, initiated by Roger Penske and driven of course by Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi;
– Three Lola-Mercedes, undertaken by three different teams: Miller Genuine Draft, driver Bobby Rahal; Duracell Charger, driver Raul Boesel; and Tecate Beer / Quaker State / Wales, Adrian Fernandez pilot;
– Two Reynard-Mercedes, one initiated by Upper Deck / General Components, driver Roberto Guerrero and the other by Pennzoil Special / Hall Racing driver Gil de Ferran.
Indianapolis, May 21, 17:51 local time. Stefan Johansson qualified a hired Reynard-Ford at the last row of the starting field for the Indy 500. Doing so, he bumped Emerson Fittipaldi from the field who had narrowly qualified a Lola-IC108 backup car loaned by Bobby Rahal. Defending Race winner and champion Al Unser Jr never made it in the field at all! Never during the month of May did the Penskes manage to reach the speeds set during the April practice sessions! Whatever the race may bring, no surprise can’t be bigger or more sensational than the fact that all Penske drivers failed to qualify their cars and that not a single Penske entry made the field. The person who would have put money on that would be rich nowadays.
The powerful and most successful Penske, created in 1966, does not field a single car from the “Indy 500” since 1971! A newspaper said “Shockwaves through the racing community!”)
So it is the “small” teams who are going to shine “star”. But the performance is not at the rendezvous and Mercedes do not realize that the 13th, 19th, 21st, 22nd and 25th time … The first two times are made by Menard V6 and the third time by the amazing Honda engine … there are eight behind Ford … The race will not take place much better … From the start, a terrible “crash” in Turn 1 eliminates Stan Fox, Eddie Cheever, Carlos Guerrero, Lyn St. James and Gil de Ferran driver Reynard-Mercedes 8, it is ranked 29th … On behalf of supplies, Bobby Rahal, Lola Mercedes-9 leads the 121st lap and Raul Boesel, Lola-Mercedes # 11 méne the 122nd and 123rd 176th tour … In turn, Adrian Fernandez, # 10 Lola-Mercedes explodes his engine, he finished 21st … At the 184th lap, an oil leak ended the race Raul Boesel, Lola-Mercedes 11, is ranked 20th … At 16 laps from the end, are only two “stars” but Roberto Guerrero, Reynard-Mercedes No. 21 has two towers of delays, he finished 12th. .. Only Bobby Rahal, Lola Mercedes-9, saves the honor with a nice 3rd place, just 2 “966 winner: Jacques Villeneuve! And “shoulder to shoulder” with the second (0 “485), which is none other than the” Rookie Of The Year “Christian Fittipaldi, nephew …! With a 3rd, 12th, 20th, 21st , 29th place and two unskilled, the results are rather slim.
Milwaukee, WI, June 4th 1995, Paul Tracy, driving a Lola-Ford narrowly beats Al Unser who had been the most dominant driver at the track that day in a Penske PC24-IC108, the car that couldn’t qualify at Indy two weeks earlier in Superspeedway trim.
Brooklyn, MI, July 30th. Scott Pruett has the last laugh in the last lap of the Michigan 500. In a photo finish he beats Al Unser jr. who’s PC24-IC108 was the most dominant car after the retirements of the Honda Powered cars. Why did the Superspeedway version of the PC24 work here but fail at Indy?
The basic problem with the Penske PC24 at Indy was that the car wasn’t stable in the turns. Even more of a surprise was that last year’s winning chassis, the PC23, one of which was driven by Stefan Johansson was also way too slow. The major difference between Johansson’s car and the ones used by Team Penske in ’94 was that Johansson used the IC108 engine. Unser, Fittipaldi and Tracy ran the PC23’s in ’94 with the 500I Pushrod engine. When Team Penske hurriedly brought out a PC23-IC108 for themselves for tests it was also too slow. Penske never ran the ’94 chassis using a regular Quadcam 159 CI Ilmor\D in Indy that year.
8. The C111 design study was originally baptized , the C101 project. However, the “0 (zero)” in the middle had to disappear , since this number combination has long been protected by....
Dec 17 2014
1995 Penske-Mercedes PC24
The Indy 500 ’94 was dull if it came to dices for the lead between drivers of different teams. About the only thing that could prevent a Penske victory was unreliability of the new engines and the tradition that no engine ever won first time out at Indy. But traditions are there to be broken and so it happened. Unser won the race handsomely but he could have been second behind his teammate Fittipaldi too if fate had not stepped in.
Team Penske and Mercedes Benz couldn’t get a much better result for PR duties. The PC23-500I combination wasn’t seen after Indy anymore. The PC23-Ilmor\D however kept on winning all but three races later that year. One of the lost races was the Michigan 500 but only because Unser had a rare engine failure, otherwise that could so easily have been another victory for the PC23. In his book “Quicksilver Century” writer Karl Ludvigsen gave the title `Christmas came early” to the chapter about this Mercedes engine and its lone race. It was indeed an early Christmas for both team Penske and Mercedes. But also the only one they ever would have together at Indy….
The dream victory at Indy in 1994 was the glorious Intro to the nightmare of 1995. It is very likely that if Team Penske had not used the 500I engine their chances of victory in 1994 would have been less but also their performances in 1995 would have been better.
USAC couldn’t stop the Mercedes 500I in 1994 anymore but new rules for specially designed pushrod engines like the 500I were valid from 1995 on. The turbo-boost was initially reduced from 55 to 52 Inch initially but later on reduced even further to 48 Inches. Ilmor and Mercedes discovered at the test benches that on 52 Inch boost the 500I didn’t have the power advantage it had in ’94 but still could be competitive enough to justify its use. On 48 Inch however the engine isn’t considered competitive anymore and withdrawn from active duty. Mercedes customers had to rely on Ilmor’s latest fourvalve Quadcam racing engine, the Mercedes IC108.
Penske’s all-conquering PC23 design from last year has been mildly updated for 1995. Designer Nigel Bennett changed the engine bay in order to accommodate the new engine. There’s a longer nose section and a relocated drivers’s seat, farther back than before, which alters weight distribution and helps the car change direction more easily. The transverse transaxle and the engines’s bellhousing have been lightened and made more compact. The Penkse PC24’s cockpit sides have been raised slightly for driver protection, and Kevlar material has been added to the sides of the car.
1995 sees the debut of the Penske PC24-IC108. Fittipaldi lost the third race of the season (Phoenix) by a stroke of bad luck but Unser Jr won the next race at Long Beach. Fittipaldi got his revenge for Phoenix and won Nazareth with Stefan Johanson, driving a ’94 PC23-IC108 finishing third. During test sessions in April with the PC24 drivers Unser and Fittipaldi reached speeds of 228 mph, using the PC24-IC108. Remember that speed figure: 228 mph in April ’95.
(This test session was even written about in a Dutch newspaper, in the article Arie Luyendyk told about how Fittipaldi was irritated about the fact that what seemed to be a good speed (228) was of little value when Arie and his teammate Scott Brayton were flying around with 230 and more.)
The Indy 500 rules, set by the United States Auto Club, USAC, will be identical in most respects to the 1992 -1994 regulations. The Ford-Cosworth XB engine, the Mercedes-Ilmor IC-108 and the Honda Indy V8 engine are similar in concept: DOHC 32-valve V8 engines with single turbochargers. The 48 in. of boost is limited by pop-off valves supplied by USAC. There are differences in the engines cylinder heads, intake plenums, electronic ignitions, engine-management sstems and physical size. While USAC sets the limits on total displacement, designers can use any cylinder-bank angle, compression ratio or bore and stroke combination.
With displacement, boost, methanol fuel and steel-spring valvetrains dictated by the rules, about the only way to make more power is to spin the engine faster, which all three engine builders will do in 1995. These engines develop about 800 hp at 13.500 rpm. The Mercedes-Ilmor IC-108 engine has new cylinder heads, a new and larger plenum, a new ignition system and a new engine management system for this year. The Mercedes-Ilmor engine is essentially designed to operate as two 4-cylinders.
In the days following the 1994 edition, organizers are changing the rules and the fabulous engine is stored in the closet …. So seven cars with a Mercedes engine more “conventional” who are involved:
– Two Penske-Mercedes, initiated by Roger Penske and driven of course by Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi;
– Three Lola-Mercedes, undertaken by three different teams: Miller Genuine Draft, driver Bobby Rahal; Duracell Charger, driver Raul Boesel; and Tecate Beer / Quaker State / Wales, Adrian Fernandez pilot;
– Two Reynard-Mercedes, one initiated by Upper Deck / General Components, driver Roberto Guerrero and the other by Pennzoil Special / Hall Racing driver Gil de Ferran.
Indianapolis, May 21, 17:51 local time. Stefan Johansson qualified a hired Reynard-Ford at the last row of the starting field for the Indy 500. Doing so, he bumped Emerson Fittipaldi from the field who had narrowly qualified a Lola-IC108 backup car loaned by Bobby Rahal. Defending Race winner and champion Al Unser Jr never made it in the field at all! Never during the month of May did the Penskes manage to reach the speeds set during the April practice sessions! Whatever the race may bring, no surprise can’t be bigger or more sensational than the fact that all Penske drivers failed to qualify their cars and that not a single Penske entry made the field. The person who would have put money on that would be rich nowadays.
The powerful and most successful Penske, created in 1966, does not field a single car from the “Indy 500” since 1971! A newspaper said “Shockwaves through the racing community!”)
So it is the “small” teams who are going to shine “star”. But the performance is not at the rendezvous and Mercedes do not realize that the 13th, 19th, 21st, 22nd and 25th time … The first two times are made by Menard V6 and the third time by the amazing Honda engine … there are eight behind Ford … The race will not take place much better … From the start, a terrible “crash” in Turn 1 eliminates Stan Fox, Eddie Cheever, Carlos Guerrero, Lyn St. James and Gil de Ferran driver Reynard-Mercedes 8, it is ranked 29th … On behalf of supplies, Bobby Rahal, Lola Mercedes-9 leads the 121st lap and Raul Boesel, Lola-Mercedes # 11 méne the 122nd and 123rd 176th tour … In turn, Adrian Fernandez, # 10 Lola-Mercedes explodes his engine, he finished 21st … At the 184th lap, an oil leak ended the race Raul Boesel, Lola-Mercedes 11, is ranked 20th … At 16 laps from the end, are only two “stars” but Roberto Guerrero, Reynard-Mercedes No. 21 has two towers of delays, he finished 12th. .. Only Bobby Rahal, Lola Mercedes-9, saves the honor with a nice 3rd place, just 2 “966 winner: Jacques Villeneuve! And “shoulder to shoulder” with the second (0 “485), which is none other than the” Rookie Of The Year “Christian Fittipaldi, nephew …! With a 3rd, 12th, 20th, 21st , 29th place and two unskilled, the results are rather slim.
Milwaukee, WI, June 4th 1995, Paul Tracy, driving a Lola-Ford narrowly beats Al Unser who had been the most dominant driver at the track that day in a Penske PC24-IC108, the car that couldn’t qualify at Indy two weeks earlier in Superspeedway trim.
Brooklyn, MI, July 30th. Scott Pruett has the last laugh in the last lap of the Michigan 500. In a photo finish he beats Al Unser jr. who’s PC24-IC108 was the most dominant car after the retirements of the Honda Powered cars. Why did the Superspeedway version of the PC24 work here but fail at Indy?
The basic problem with the Penske PC24 at Indy was that the car wasn’t stable in the turns. Even more of a surprise was that last year’s winning chassis, the PC23, one of which was driven by Stefan Johansson was also way too slow. The major difference between Johansson’s car and the ones used by Team Penske in ’94 was that Johansson used the IC108 engine. Unser, Fittipaldi and Tracy ran the PC23’s in ’94 with the 500I Pushrod engine. When Team Penske hurriedly brought out a PC23-IC108 for themselves for tests it was also too slow. Penske never ran the ’94 chassis using a regular Quadcam 159 CI Ilmor\D in Indy that year.
By PaRaDoX • MB MotorSports, Penske 0 • Tags: 1994 penske, 1995 penske, mercedes-benz, penske, penske mercedes, penske pc24