Penske PC23 - Restoration of a Legend

[@sandymacdonald2838]

One of the most beautifully designed and engineerd race cars in the world.

[@typhoon-7]

I worked in IndyCar. Mid 90s to early 2000s was peak Indy/CART And I have always said that the PC23 is still, to this day, the best looking open wheel race car I've ever seen.

[@AlistairMaxwell77]

12 wins out of 16 races ,10 pole positions and 28 podium finishes . Greatest ever American open wheel racing car .

[@roxychiovlog]

Except for the fact that it's ENGLISH... 😅

[@ryanyoder2694]

@@roxychiovlog IndyCar is an American open wheel series, I think that’s what he’s implying.

[@typhoon-7]

I worked in IndyCar. 94 was a brilliant season. Those days were peak IndyCar/CART. And yes whilst it's a US based series the car was designed and built in Poole, Dorset, England and the engine was designed and built in Northamptonshire, England.

[@tbhausen]

Wow, absolutely fantastic to see that the last IndyCar our Dad, Gary, drove in the last race of his career has been restored and is in such talented and caring hands.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thank you Todd, very good of you to comment. We're were really thrilled to discover Gary drove this car, he is such a part of Indycar history. It's great to hear from you!

[@tbhausen]

DawnTreaderPerfom thanks. As I recall, the car had some sort of development engine in it that day. I remember Tony being a bit pissed about the crash, as well. I think our Dad just got up in the marbles trying to give plenty of room as someone was overtaking.

[@tbhausen]

@@DawnTreaderPerfom Hello again, Patrick... revisiting this video is like seeing an old friend. I'm passionate about sim racing, and iRacing in particular. They occasionally develop (scan and model) historically-significant racecars of the past. These include the Lotus 49, Lotus 79, Audi 90 GTO, and Nissan GTP ZX-T. There's a particular hole in their open wheel portfolio that the PC23 would fill very nicely, should they be interested. How would you feel about allowing their team build a virtual version of the PC23 for simulation enthusiasts around the world to enjoy? I can put you in touch with the right people to explore if you don't know them already. All the best to you!

[@simrigpc27b12]

@@DawnTreaderPerfom As the owner of a PC27b (1999) AND as Todd is, a very dedicated sim racer (iRacing) we (iRacing members) would DIE for this car to come to the service! I will also aid in any way i can, as Todd, to help this along if at all possible! Please take these requests seriously ~ John

[@The412P]

SimRig PC27b to have this car in iRacing, would be truly amazing. :)

[@kieferclarkf1674]

If anyone watching this hasn't read the book Beast, about the 94 Penske Mercedes, please do. The car is legendary. I know this is the ilmor v8 and not the beast, but still legendary. The livery is iconic just like the car. It's in my opinion the best Indy car ever created. As a 9 year old who went to qualifying and the race in 94, I'm so glad I grew up in that era. It was unlike anything I'll ever experience again in the racing world.

[@Skreezilla]

I use to work down in Upton at the Factory in the early 00's we had a 23 sitting down in the lock up down the road for a bit... It was just a shed with a padlock and inside was about 10-20 odd cars and all their parts. big old nostalgia hit seeing the bits and bobs of this car again haha, takes me back to stock take we still had a heap of the Mercedes stuff in the shop. It is great to see these coming back to life.

[@lightningmcqueen181]

FEW RACE CAR DESIGNS THAT TRANSEND ITS OWN ERA..That embodies Open wheel racing at its finest!

[@SN-nh6pq]

This just brings me back to my youth. I miss these cars, I miss Greg Moore. Amazing and kinda sad how time just whips by. Great video. Today’s drivers (w/ the exception of a very few) have no clue what driving these beautiful beasts was like.

[@glynndraper437]

Loved Greg Moore , he'd be 45 now same as me .

[@alainbelanger4547]

I was at the Indy that year the Penske was a powerhouse

[@Tim4706]

My Cousin Fran Antosy worked on Penske's Racecars in the paint shop on Riverfront Drive in Reading,Pa The race shop was immaculate so much history made there as a boy I would ride my bicycle from my house and sit at the fence and watch them working on the racecars I'm a proud Penske Fan 4 life🏁

[@CSpray]

Proud to have worked with this car in it's day, and to have owned it for some years afterwards. Patrick Morgan's restoration is both accurate and breathtaking. Kudos.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thank you Chuck, that means a lot.

[@mojoanniebert]

We provided the drive line components on that car (Metalore-the brown half shafts) Please feel free to give us a call if you need anything.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thank you!

[@vinewood8295]

CSpray? Former Penske Team Manager Chuck Sprague if so buddy you were one of my idols growing up...

[@brucecriss7670]

would love to restore something like that. Painted for over 50 different indy car drivers.

[@devilmaster73]

Saw the new video of the 1997 Penske you restored lately. And congrats youtube for your algorithm figuring it out and sending me here.

[@vinewood8295]

This car is an absolute masterpiece. The pairing of this chassis with the Mercedes pushrod engine IMHO made this the most iconic racer of the CART PPG era... Mansell was just salty, he's lucky Paul was such an impatient driver & Emmo was pretty much towards the end of his driving career else he'd have not won the 93 PPG Cup, as it was he missed out on Indy. He let his frustrations be known a plenty in 94 when he could do nothing to counter the Penske 3 car attack of Fittipaldi, Unser Jr & Tracy. Had his car not broken at Michigan, perhaps he could've won that race, oh well... I'm glad I got to see this car in action at Laguna Seca that year, race dominated from pole by Paul Tracy

[@PreyingMantisRanch]

Back in that era we attended Indy, Detroit, Cleveland, Mid-Ohio and Michigan 500. Indy on Memorial Wknd, IMSA Camel GT @ Mid-Ohio the next week, Detroit GP a week later (starting when it was F-1), NASCAR @ Michigan Father's Day wknd, a week off? then Cleveland GP around July 4th... a real whirlwind to start the summer back then!

[@Hiiwiii]

Most beautiful car I've ever seen, and I love the color.

[@FOH3663]

I absolutely love the visual aesthetic of this car ... the proportions, in each direction, just possesses a symbiosis that is beautiful. Form follows function

[@amjan]

Yes, it is so much more balanced than almost any F1 car ever. The nose is perfect. And the design around the cockpit, OMG, the way it integrates the driver, amazing.

[@DavidLand91]

Beautiful video.

[@TotoDG]

Well, well, well. Look who we have here.

[@jhock2781]

What a great project. You could have made an entire documentary out of this.

[@theeaselrider4032]

Back when Indy Cars still looked like proper race cars. Greg Moore would have been Indy Car Champion at some point in his career, possibly even moving on to F1. I was standing on the inside of corner one in Toronto, almost within touching distance, when Greg completely stuffed Paul Tracey up the inside in the closing stages of that horrible weekend in 1996. Greg would have been not just a great champion, but a great ambassador for the sport.

[@brucecriss7670]

was sad to get to the end could of listen for hrs. great job.

[@florianwolf9380]

What a wonderful car ! What is good for the eye is good for the track; kudos to this great restoration of an iconic Indy racer.

[@ianhawkins7387]

Great video, great car I would expect no less Mr. Morgan and team

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thanks Ian, it means a lot. I was fortunate to learn the ropes from some great people such as yourself. And we had a great team to bring this car back to life. It was very much a team effort.

[@everythingman987]

Penske had a shark fin in CART in 1994, 14 years before the first Formula 1 teams started using the concept.

[@huntersmith4079]

Everythingman it was to hide the engine. Since it was a push rod

[@vinewood8295]

Negative, they 1st used the sharkfin at Phoenix 2 races before the Indy 500 & the introduction of the Mercedes Pushrod engine.

[@amjan]

There have been many inventions that came from IndyCar to Formula 1.

[@FOH3663]

@@amjan ... the rear view mirror, for one

[@amjan]

@@FOH3663 I've once seen a comprehensive list of those, and there were like 40 items.

[@RedPetrol76]

This is so unreal! What a masterpiece!

[@Addicted2OILau]

Glorious just beautiful it's indescribable.

[@albertsunshine]

This is beyond cool.

[@helciocorrea9999]

Emerson Fittipaldi vs Al Unser Jr. Greats moments!

[@StarFox85]

best indy car era

[@ConorKelly]

Beautiful car

[@Skynet151]

This is the beautiful racing car ever built. 25 years later, it is still looking amazing especially if compared to the actual ugly and close-to-horrible F1 and Indycar ones.

[@hekinho1]

Great car, great story, great dude. Epic

[@alexanderwooldridgesmith6629]

Nice one Patrick.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thank you Alex.

[@castrotroy6622]

RIP to driver Gonzalo Rodriguez who perished in this car back in '99.

[@WadeOz]

Incorrect

[@castrotroy6622]

@@WadeOz yes look it up

[@WadeOz]

@@castrotroy6622 Rodriguez died in 99, so it would have been the PC-27B chassis he was killed in.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@WadeOzWorse than that. It was the Lola B99 that Penske was using to see where the PC27B was going wrong. That was easily the worst Champ Car on the grid that year with the worst tires.

[@cirian75]

20+ years since we the saw last Marlboro single seat race car in a race, this still better looking than the Mclaren's, the Yamaha yzr500 owj1 is a Marlboro looker as well

[@IndyCastBrasil]

It is a quite video... just amazing... do you agree to share this video for the brazilian fans with portuguese legends at Indycast Brasil Channel ?

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Yes, that's fine.

[@fabrizioviscardi40]

Fantastic job, I subscribed your interesting channel, greetings from Italy Fabrizio

[@AudioJellyfish]

Back when Indycars looked like race cars. The new shape with the weirs spats over the wheels and stuff look utterly ridiculous.

[@manuelrdz.2246]

I remember the debacle in Texas in 2001. The race was cancelled because of the massive lateral downforce.

[@antoniotaveira6522]

And the resulting gforces, wich drivers couldn't sustain

[@karimeloukbani1778]

Loved that video.

[@robminmonaca]

Shame tony George screwed with the Indy 500 and we couldn't see more great drivers and cars in the late 90s.

[@Gordanovich02]

Especially as everything he hated about the CART sanctioned IndyCar series - mostly road courses and street circuits, complex turbocharged engines, foreign manufacturers, foreign drivers - is exactly what we ended up with.

[@penskepc2374]

He could of made a more efficient ladder system in USAC or an american driving program that groomed Americas finest from a young age, but no he made a cut rate embarassment of a series that had no business being the support race let alone the actual 500. All he wanted was power.

[@FOH3663]

@@penskepc2374 "All he wanted was power" Granted, he wanted to control the direction. As screwed up as things got, I believe he thought he was doing the right thing, initially, as a steward of the sport. I distinctly remember thinking ... in the beginning; "two leagues, awesome ... hell yeah, just more racing!..." Until I realized I was wrong, then ; "two leagues, hell".

[@MarkMorris-y6n]

My favorite car is the maclaren mp/4 and it happens to be best of f1. The penske pc23 is my favorite indy car. Happens to be the best. Malboro icon livery for both.

[@MomedicsChannel]

Power was actually over 1000, depending on engine, may have been near 1200hp in some forms.

[@Djangles_LeVaughn]

You're thinking of the 500I engine used for the Indy 500.

[@MomedicsChannel]

I'm not. These cars made far more power than most realize.

[@proro1974]

in 1996 when Honda found it's feet the power levels were around the 900bhp mark. By 2001 when Gil De Ferran set the closed course record at Fontana power was over 1000bhp. Miss those days. I tried watching the last Indycar race last week. They're too slow and sound like trucks.

[@AlistairMaxwell77]

@@proro1974 2022 engine spec will be 900-950hp . given many on many tracks they are faster with the current 700hp engines than they were in the 90s and 00s it should be pretty impressive . they will never sound as sweet though....

[@alainbelanger6666]

I WAS THERE INDY 1994

[@Gordanovich02]

One of the all time great racing cars. And simply a better car than the 9400 Lola. I liked Mansell as a racer but he was guilty of over-driving at times. If he'd settled for solid points finishes, and but for bad luck at Indy and Michigan, he'd have been best of the rest at least.

[@ericstewart1770]

happy thanksgiving mr penske. eric stewart monroe city in.world records can be reset for the record. many blessings

[@markstedman8186]

Mansel was right Paul Tracey admitted that they were running traction control years later and was told not to talk about it

[@lameduck3630]

@@erichorsfield8959 It's impossible to tell if a car has traction control as it's hidden away deep in the electronics - the same thing was going on at Benetton in F1 also.

[@MadMaxBLD]

Felt like a presentation of a new GT Sport car. Polyphony... pretty please?

[@ElectoneGuy]

Ilmor never gets any credit for the engines they produce because they are always badged by a manufacturer. Their current IndyCar engine is a "Chevy". They also produced engines for Honda during the IRL years. No one would know that because all they see is the valve cover.

[@vinewood8295]

That's not completely correct, Ilmor Engineering got a lot of props for the construction of their IndyCar engines starting with the Chevy's they built in the late 80's. Well they weren't really Chevy's they were Ilmor engines built to CART engine rule specifics & badged with Chevy valve covers as per their deal with Roger Penske & General Motors at the time. (Accuracy) I remember when Chevy made the announcement at the end of the 93 season that they were pulling their support thinking what is Roger gonna use next season are they gonna switch to the Ford Cosworth XB which seeing as how Rusty Wallace was in a Ford on the NASCAR circuit woulda made sense, or is he gonna try building his own engine, nope they used an updated version of the 93 Chevy badged engine which now was simply just the Ilmor Indy V8. I was pretty skeptical in the beginning but holy cow & then to show up at Indy with that massive Mercedes powerplant all of a sudden was vintage Roger Penske I mean the man is a modern day Andy Granatelli with the only difference being that HIS cars finish the race in victorylane. Andy never had near the success at Indy as the Captain has had over the course of his career there like honestly the Speedway somewhere on the grounds should construct a building & call it Penske Hall...

[@X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X]

@@vinewood8295 The "Mercedes" powerplant at Indianapolis was another Ilmor masterpiece. Penske offered Mercedes the opportunity to brand it in exchange for many financial goodies.

[@StanceSantos]

Ilmor are the same company who made F1 engines badged Mercedes in the 90s and now make Mercedes’ F1 power units full time after Mercedes bought the company and renamed it “Mercedes high performance powertrains LTD”

[@Broncos4life]

The beast!!

[@MrRjnr]

Wish Mears had stuck around to race this car

[@benshakespeare268]

… and then there's the sound of these things 🤪 I mean V10 F1 is nice, but a '90 turbocharged V8 indycar, the wine the gearbox makes, it sounds like it really means business. Oh and of course these things ran methanol, steel brakes, the sights, the sounds, the smells people!😍

[@hueyseale4253]

♥️

[@erockcooper746]

Tony George and IRL ruined Indy Car Series

[@teemumyyrylainen9247]

For him to say , that there was no tracktion control on that penske back in 1991 / 2 -3 is hopeful at its best. That was allready an era where there was computer controlled ride height, and if Mansel thought there was one used, i bet he had some first hand info about how it sounds under acceleration. After all, he drove active car with traction control on test for season 1991 /92 with williams f1 car. Im 100 percent sure, that Mansel would know difference of heave spring and traction controll on ecu chip . Haven driven and seen driven both by him self with data logs to add on that. What im saying , is that there is an reason why he thought they had something clever going on engine managment.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thanks for commenting - we have the period software from 1994 and a good number of the calibrations from actual races. TC is not in the software at all, it's not an option and there is no system that mimics its effect. TC was tried in Indycar back before it was banned but for 1994 it wasn't an option the team could use. There were a lot of new things on the PC23 that helped make it tractable but TC was not one of them. Mansell did a hell of job in the two years he was in Indycar no question.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

Thanks for the compliments, really appreciated. We know the software inside out, although it's a Delco system the control stuff was written by Assent Technology in Michigan who did a great job. It's a really great system.

[@teemusummanen7961]

@@DawnTreaderPerfom Was there a spec ECU used in 1994 season? TC would be easily traceable in form of ignition & fuel cut vs. tyre slip and speed.

[@DawnTreaderPerfom]

@@teemusummanen7961 No, it was a Delco Gen IV system bespoke to Ilmor. TC is not in the software or evident in any of the period data.

[@isaiasst2533]

Belo carr

[@akula444]

not 'The Beast' though

[@StarFox85]

Lola?

[@Ryeblue]

Nope , Team Penske very owm Chassis

[@ericstewart1770]

thanks roger penske. i am dreaming of riding in the american nfr swimming in the senior olympic and making a run at nascarin 8 to 10 years. i am 51. lost 45lb on my way to competition weight of 145lb. i would like to kareokeconcert around the world. best wishes eric stewart american trucker singer biker swimmer hope to see you at the rodeo. hope to sing the national anthem at the rodeo or indycar events .