Johnny Rutherford's "Yellow Submarine" Chaparral 2K took overall top-prize honors in our informal survey of favorite IndyCars of all time (Photo: Wikipedia)

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It's been a great pleasure to sift through the responses to our informal survey about IndyCar fans' all-time favorite chassis.

The nominations ran the gamut from old cars to new, from front-engined roadsters to rear-engined bullets. And yes, even the DeltaWing got a nod or two.

But in the end, the most interesting result of our survey was how the responses grouped fans into their respective generations.

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BAT Engineering, a company formed by IndyCar design veterans Bruce Ashmore, Alan Mertens and Tim Wardrop, launched their concept at their new website today, complete with render images of the new car.

In a press release, BAT leaned heavily towards the "safety" angle, mentioning that the design team met with Dr. Terry Trammell and IndyCar's safety team to help guide the design's form and function.

Renders of the new car after the jump...

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An IndyCar fan's "restyling" of the DeltaWing concept in classic Penske Racing colors.

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A bold move. The potential savior of Indy-style racing. A grand leap forward in innovation and styling for a moribund racing series.

That is how designer Ben Bowlby and the IndyCar owners behind DeltaWing, LLC look at their new creation.

Not very many IndyCar fans share their perspective - particularly after the foam model was unveiled in Chicago.

But there is one fan out there who does, and he decided that he needed to do his part to get his fellow IndyCar enthusiasts to open their eyes and join him.

Accordingly, he put pen to paper and "reimagined" the DeltaWing on his own. And judging by the results above and the buzz they're creating, he may have achieved his goal... and perhaps he has saved the DeltaWing in the process.

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Gil de Ferran joins Jay Penske as a co-owner of Luczo Dragon Racing (Photo: LAT Photo)

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Luczo Dragon/De Ferran Merger Teleconference

Seven years ago, the names de Ferran and Penske combined to deliver victory in the Indianapolis 500.

Today, the two names are linked again - only this time, Gil de Ferran will be working with Jay Penske, the son of his 2003 Indy-winning team owner Roger.

Penske, Steve Luczo, and de Ferran will all be co-owners at Luczo Dragon Racing, the team announced today, with de Ferran stepping up to assume the additional role of team president. But although for the moment the team remains a one-car operation centered around driver Raphael Matos, the new Luczo Dragon partners are looking to expand in the future.

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Eye candy for the IndyCar faithful.

Really, that's mostly what the images from Dallara Automobili, Swift Engineering, DeltaWing and Lola Group are. The proposals heading to the head honchos at the IZOD IndyCar Series are far more mundane - heavy on optimistic press releases and technical jargon.

Still, even though we here at Pop Off Valve aren't exactly the people any of these manufacturers are trying to impress, we still have opinions about these hopeful dreams for IndyCar's future - and these companies' bottom lines. So, like them or not, here they are.

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The 2012 IndyCar, as reimagined by Lola Group (via www.lolacars.com)

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IndyCar fans reeling from the major paradigm shift (and borderline pornography) of the DeltaWing concept IndyCar certainly got their warm fuzzies back with today's release of Lola Group's long-awaited concept renderings.

All things considered, the 2012 Lolas are barely evolutionary compared to the more radical offerings from Dallara, Swift, and DeltaWing. Instead, Lola's concepts focus on the idea of two aero-matched but visually different car concepts, as well as making the chassis eligible for Firestone Indy Lights competition simultaneously with the IZOD IndyCar Series.

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The DeltaWing concept IndyCar, unveiled on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at the Chicago Auto Show (Photo: DeltaWing, LLC)

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You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out.

- The Beatles, Revolution

It has been a week of unveilings and concepts and thoughts about the future. But none of the concept cars that were released by Dallara Automobili and Swift Engineering matched the audacity - and subsequent hue and cry - that the new concept from DeltaWing, LLC did today.

In a masterpiece of understatement, DeltaWing's CEO Dan Partel said in the company's press release, "Today marks a fundamental shift in how race fans and the general public will view all racing cars in the future; this is a game changer."

What he left unsaid - but what erupted all over the Internet after the unveiling - was that IndyCar fans might not react well to a game-changer of this magnitude.

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Swift "mushroom buster" concept, designed to address the aerodynamic wake issues that make passing in IndyCars difficult (Photo: Swift Engineering, Inc.)

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The 2012 IndyCar bidding war is getting interesting. In the past week, after months of no news whatsoever, no less than four companies have jumped into the ring to be the winning manufacturer for the next-generation IndyCar.

The latest to release concepts into the wild, Swift Engineering, Inc. upped the ante by including not only images of concept cars, but also representations of potential innovative features designed to mitigate aerodynamic issues which complicate the kind of close racing the IndyCar series boasts as well as a unique idea for improving the viewing experience for fans.

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