The new, 2.4-litre IndyCar engines of both Chevrolet and Honda have made their track debut ahead of their introduction to competition in 2024.
Chevrolet outfit Team Penske ran Josef Newgarden while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon accumulated mileage on Honda’s behalf on one of Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course layouts.
While IndyCar will switch to a hybrid specification in conjunction with the larger engines, both cars ran without the energy recovery systems, as planned when the test was scheduled in recent weeks.
There was precious little running during the morning, with the ambient temperature as chilly as low single digits when measured in degrees Celsius.
Activity picked up in the afternoon, although no lap times have been reported, and both were on short runs.
Honda Performance Development president and technical director, David Salters, said, “This is an important step for HPD, Honda and IndyCar as the series moves into the electrified era, and it was a successful day.
“But, there are many more steps to take before the full, hybrid power unit debuts in 2024.
“The 2.4-litre engine is an all-new design, that has been fully developed, dyno-tested and manufactured by the great men and women at HPD.
“There is still a very, very long list of things to be accomplished before the power unit is tested in competition, but this is certainly a milestone for everyone at Honda and HPD.”
His General Motors counterpart Rob Buckner remarked, “We were very happy with our first day on track with the new engine.”
Drivers ran on an alternate layout to that which IndyCar nowadays uses for its road course races at Indianapolis, so as to reduce any information which Penske and CGR might gain for races later this year.
Another day of testing is scheduled for Tuesday (local time), with Wednesday as a back-up.
The new engines are set to produce around 800 horsepower, with a total of around 900 horsepower to be available with the supplementary hybrid system.
Said systems are not expected to arrive until later in the year, hence testing only of engines and ancillaries at this point in time.
The 2022 IndyCar Series resumes on April 8-10 (local time) with the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third race of the season.
New engine. New sound. Even more power.
The all new 2.4-liter E85 bio-fueled @Honda engine has been developed fully in-house by the inspiring men and women at HPD in California to power @IndyCar into the future.#PoweredByHonda // #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/68mgyh9yjR
— HPD-North American Motorsport (@HondaRacing_HPD) March 28, 2022
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