Chevy making progress with next-gen IndyCar engine

Chevrolet is making progress on its next-generation NTT IndyCar Series engines as the new season gets under way.

With its current 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 motors undergoing ongoing development, the combined powers of Chevy Racing and Ilmor Engineering have also started making significant progress for the future with the 2.4-liter TTV6s due in 2023.

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"The engine side of things is flat-out at the moment,” said Rob Buckner, Chevrolet’s IndyCar program manager. “We're very fortunate to have a lot of depth and talent and motivated people. There's things we can work on in the 2.2-liter; some areas that are always open. And we're running the 2.4-liters now; we have our first engines on the dyno. Very happy with where that program is at. We're multitasking. It's very busy times for the engine program. When you think of the 2.2-liter, we've got to race it approximately 32 to 34 more times.”

Expected to churn out a combined 900 horsepower or so on debut, with the new kinetic energy recovery system contributing 80-100hp on demand to the 2.4 TTV6s, Buckner says IndyCar fans should be pleased with a return to power output figures last seen in CART during the early 2000s.

“I think somewhat lost in the 2.4-liter transition is the fact that we're going up in base boost as well,” he said. “So the easy thing is to think we're going up roughly 10 percent in displacement. We're going to go up 10 percent in power, but we're also going to start operating at 1.6 bars (23.2psi) as the standard [turbo boost level] for road and street courses, instead of [today’s] 1.5 bar (21.8psi). You put all that together with the hybrid unit, and I think fans will be pleased with the power projections and where the engine programs are headed overall."