Dallara begins IR-28 IndyCar production run

Dallara has started production on the Dallara IR-28 chassis that will supersede the current DW12 race car after the following IndyCar season.

Satisfied with the performance and robustness of the major component that forms its new 2028 car, RACER has learned the Italian race car constructor’s production efforts have ramped up during the offseason to where six IR-28 tubs – the primary structural component that carries the driver and all drivetrain and suspension – have been manufactured so far and more are in the pipeline.

The positive progress should allow Chevrolet and Honda to take receipt of their first cars at some point in November, and while some of the smaller items on the IR-28 remain open for small redesign work, most of the car has been validated through track testing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and oval, and at Sebring International Raceway during a two-day run earlier this week.

More testing is under way with straight-line runs in Florida at a two-mile runway, but overall, the IR-28 is well down the road to receiving full signoff and approval to manufacture complete cars.

“I’m not meaning to let the cat out of the bag too much, but Honda and Chevy will be getting cars soon,” Mike O’Gara, IndyCar’s VP of Competition, Race Engineering, told RACER. “They won’t they won't hit the track until next spring, but when you get the car, you know they’re going to start looking at it and body fitting and assembling it and twist testing it, and they’ll probably go rig testing, seven-post, and things like that with it. There’s a lot you can do before you even hit the track with a race car.

“So they'll see cars soon that they can start working on, and I'm sure they’ll lean on a lot of the mechanics and folks that have helped us here on this to assemble their cars, and then it's more validation testing.”

As Chevy and Honda start to track test and validate their new 2028-spec 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 engines, the 2022-era 2.4-liter testing mule supplied by Ilmor Engineering (Ilmor builds Chevy’s IndyCar engines) will fall silent and drivers and fans should get a better feel for the power and performance those motors can bring to the IR-28.

“Like we’ve talked about, this engine is nowhere close to what these guys will be running,” O’Gara noted. “So I think [manufacturers] are anxious to get their engines in the car and start doing their own development. But we want to be right there alongside them when they do it, in case there is a problem. IndyCar, Dallara, Firestone will all be right there while they’re doing it.”