The 2012-debuting IndyCar engine formula still has a lot of life remaining in it, and it appears that this will be the series’ favorite option for many years to come.
The engines, which are produced by Honda Racing Corporation US and Chevrolet through its partners at Ilmor Engineering, have a compact displacement of 2.2 liters (134 cubic inches) and are arranged in a V6 format. Two turbos help the tiny motors to make upwards of 750hp at high boost settings. These engines are incredibly refined as they compete in their 13th IndyCar season.
Penske Entertainment, the owners of the IndyCar Series, has expressed interest in switching from the 2.2-liter TTV6 formula to a new one in 2027 on a frequent basis. RACER is aware that the effort to modify its internal combustion engine (ICE) regulations is proceeding. nevertheless, not in the manner that might have been predicted.
Though there is still plenty of opportunity for changes before anything is finalized, some reports indicate that the current consensus is to stick with the present special motors made by Chevy and Honda.
Instead of starting from scratch with a brand-new formula, the regulations would be changed to allow manufacturers to maintain their inventories of more than 60 engines. This would eliminate the need to commit significant funds to design, development, and construction in order to produce new ICE solutions by 2027, and it would also impose new limitations on the advancement of 2.2L motors.
Late in 2023, there was a lot of discussion about switching the IndyCar ICE formula to a spec engine that any manufacturer could purchase and rebrand as their own. However, that idea has since been shelved in favor of approaching the present motors with a spec-minded mindset.
If this theory is correct, modern engines will be essentially stabilized at whatever level of development that the series and its manufacturers decide upon within the next year or two. After that, a long list of R&D restrictions would be put into place to further lower the yearly cost of participating as an IndyCar engine supplier.
The main objective would be to shift the focus away from IndyCar’s internal combustion engine (ICE) and toward hybridization with energy recovery systems (ERS) in the following formula. This would be accomplished by extensive budget cuts as well as, to a lesser extent, through marketing.
As hybridization becomes a more significant topic for many automakers in their road vehicle offerings, RACER recognizes a desire among manufacturers — those in the series and those who have spoken to the series — to open up the ERS restrictions in some way with the next formula modification.
What might be included in a future IndyCar ERS package is unknown.
When used in a race, an IndyCar’s ESS will not last for extended periods of time without the drivers having to recharge the supercapacitors. Richard Dole/Images from Motorsport
The first ERS unit for IndyCar was developed jointly by Chevy and Honda for the series and is set to make its Mid-Ohio debut in July. It is unique to the Dallara DW12 chassis and comes with some acknowledged constraints.
Chevy, working with Empel on the motor generator unit (MGU), and Honda, working with Skeleton on the supercapacitor energy storage system (ESS), were left to design and fit ERS units into a chassis model that debuted in 2012. This left them with an ERS package that resides in the bellhousing, which is far from ideal.
The hollow inside the bellhousing, which connects the ICE and transmission, was the only available place in the DW12 to house the ERS because the rest of the chassis was taken up by auxiliaries for the ICE and the rest of the powertrain.
The resulting ERS units are engineering marvels capable of producing over 100 horsepower, but because to the extremely limited space inside the bellhousing, Honda was forced to develop a tiny low-voltage supercapacitor pack in order to handle the situation. This meant that using a battery was not an option.
The only disadvantage of supercapacitors, which IndyCar has decided to refer to as ultracapacitors, is that they have a finite capacity for energy storage. Supercapacitors are well known for their ability to charge and deploy energy at a quick rate. IndyCar’s ESS is unable to sustain extended power runs during a race without requiring drivers to replenish the supercapacitors.
A few years from now, the series and its producers may decide to keep the ERS units that go online this summer and let car companies tweak and enhance certain system components. Alternatively, manufacturers would be given areas within that system to concentrate the majority of their R&D spending if the discussion veers toward adopting a completely new high-voltage ERS package that uses a larger battery.
The series would need to commission a new chassis with the battery placed inside the tub in a manner akin to that of Formula 1 in order to replace the current low-voltage ERS with a new high-voltage system that depends on a battery to hold and return more energy.
The final topic of interest is how new manufacturers would be included into the series, but this could potentially alter before new rules are decided upon. Sources have told RACER that Ilmor may be chosen by IndyCar as its preferred vendor to supply new manufacturers with the majority, if not all, of the major parts required to assemble their own engines. This is because the series and current suppliers are committed to getting the ICE as close to specification as possible, and there is no guarantee Honda will continue to participate in the series after its current contract expires after the 2026 season.
Chevy and Honda want some degree of ICE independence, thus building a totally spec engine is currently out of the question.
In an effort to facilitate and hasten Toyota’s entry into IndyCar as its third manufacturer, Roger Penske, who has been courting Toyota for the past two years, has offered Ilmor, which he co-founded and co-owns, the same kind of support — most of the major components that make up Chevy’s championship-winning motors. Even though Toyota eventually declined the offer, the same idea has been kept in place to persuade other manufacturers to participate in the next formula changes.
When it came to the question of when IndyCar’s next-generation hybrid powertrain would be used in competition, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles revealed one more detail.
“I think the work is still ongoing,” Miles said to RACER. It is quite sturdy. In my mind, it may have happened as early as ’27. However, I don’t think we should commit to declaring it to be ’27 unless we are positive that it would be.
