Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The current 2012 Dudlara timeline as outlined by Cotman

May 2011: Two completely different mock ups of the car will be on display at IMS to show the range of its possibilities (read extremes).

Would-be aero kit manufacturers are “open” to announce their “intention” to become aero kit manufacturers.

May 2011-late July 2011: The would-be aero kit manufacturers can try to sell their vaporware kits to potential customers; they better hurry because at some point Cotman threatens to impose a “hard deadline” on joining their ranks.

Somewhere in here the “brain trust” at 16th & Jonestown is supposed to announce which of three versions of the car’s specifications they are going with and hand them off (when “the time is right”) to the aero kit manufacturers.

Late June-July 2011: The Dudlara-Honda prototype takes to the track in testing to finalize the details of the production car. By necessity the prototype and its spare parts are manufactured in Italy.

Late August-September 2011: The engine manufacturers start their testing with the new car – which due to the fact that the Indianapolis Dudlara factory isn’t scheduled for completion until October-November 2011, will probably also be built in Italy.

November 1, 2011: The promised opening date for the Indianapolis Dudlara factory if there are complications (note: there are always complications).

December 2011: Each IICS team is issued ONE Dudlara safety cell and discounted aero kit. Every one of these will be manufactured in the Indianapolis Dudlara factory.

January-February 2012: The teams will receive their second and third Dudlaras; all presumably with the Dudlara aero kit (which won’t be discounted; i.e. get ready to pay 75 large).

May 2012: All the wonderful aero kits will debut at the Speedway. Hopefully, the Pagoda will have decided on the car’s final specifications by then.