The first reaction from everyone, naturally, will be to complain about all the little problems with the thing (lookin’ at you, Marshall Pruett). However, when they showed Mike Conway’s new paint scheme during the Versus show just after the new car unveil, it made the ’03 Dallara look like the POS that it is.

Following your twittersplosion on the unveil, I absolutely agree that this only exaggerates the need for aero kits. If someone doesn’t like the rear wheel aero bits on the speedway car or the F1-style explosion of winglets on the road course car, BUILD SOMETHING DIFFERENT! It looks like some owners are going to try and ban the kits so that a one-off who’d rather spend money on trying to win the 500 than on fuel for their jet doesn’t show up at Indy with something better and slap them down…

I think they’ve done a great job with these, myself. The road course car looks very conservative, almost ChampCar like, while the oval car is way more radical, and in that sense I think they’ve covered the bases. The nose is not quite what I was hoping for, but it gets rid of that awful hump around the drivers compartment, and that in itself is an improvement. If the 2012 Dallara kits looked like these, I’d be down with it, but it also makes me very excited to see what other folks can come up with.