Rahal/Kimball Test Updated DW12

[cdh]

"With the fruits of those efforts on the cars of Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball for Ganassi’s second visit to ACS, the remedies produced by Dallara left everyone involved in feeling extremely positive about the car.

“I’m not the kind of guy to sugarcoat things,” Rahal told SPEED.com. “And as you’ve seen, that sometimes gets me in trouble, but I’ll be brutally honest here: The car was just a lot of fun to drive and I didn’t expect that. This was my first time driving the car on an oval and I’d heard everything the other drivers had said about it being evil to drive, but it just wasn’t like that. I’d feel comfortable racing the car tomorrow and I think the fans would get to watch a helluva race.” full story

Large image of Ganassi DW12

[Rosso]

I'm glad it's fun to drive, because from this angle it's butt-ugly.

[Magical Trevor]

I do think it's odd; the engine cover looks like an afterthought. I appreciate how simple and clean-looking the nose is forward of the cockpit, but then it almost looks fake (but would I rather have the bulbous previous gen or the ridiculous F1 noses? Eh... give me the ChampCar Panoz). The sidepod/rear sections that are so controversial still don't look natural, but at least they perform some function.

[Rosso]

Originally Posted by Magical Trevor

...but at least they perform some function.

Nerf bars on a sprint car serve the same function without the bulk.

[Slowhands]

It's a spec chassis. That's why it looks like a spec chassis. And while those "bumpers" might work at low closing speeds in traffic, I hope they don't have the unintended consequence of giving drivers a false sense of security, because at any closing speed over say 40-50 mph (i.e. Franchitti at Ky Speedway, Wheldon et al at Las Vegas) I think we're still going to see cars going airborne.