Andretti Autosports from the Inside

"Oran J Sands III" (merlyyn) 09/18/2014 at 10:19 • Filed to: Andretti Autosport VW GRC IndyCar

8

7

I live in Indy. That means it's not uncommon to find out your neighbor is a mechanic for a race team, or is the driver, or maybe the owner. It's hard to go to the grocery store without tripping over an IndyCar on display in the lobby. Heck, we keep a few in the airport for tourists to ogle while waiting for their triple-decaf mocha latte, skim, no sugar.

And this is why earlier this year I found myself in the lobby of Andretti Motorsports, one of the largest racing teams in Indianapolis. Seems one of my bike riding friends is also the head of the machine shop there. And that led to an invitation to stop in and drool on the cars (actually drooling was frowned upon, this is the cleanest place I've ever been in and I worked in surgery for 20 years.)

Housed in an industrial park it has the floor space of maybe four football fields, every inch painted in white. They've got six transporters parked in one section of it. They house several race teams in there. The Indycar teams, the GRC rallycross teams, Indy Lights, even John Andretti keeps his sprint cars in there. And maybe the Formula E cars are there by now (I'll have to ask.)

The scope of this facility is amazing. Darn near everything is done in house. Except the engines. The engines (Honda this year) are sealed units and by the rules and lease agreements are not tampered with. And to make sure they're getting every bit of 'oomph' they paid for the engines are monitored by more sensors than a fleet of NASA boosters. You'd think the cars were electric powered looking at all the wiring snaking around the car. I wish I had a picture to share but I was told no pictures of the engine or suspension. In fact I found out that most IndyCar teams zealously protect their secrets regarding the shocks which is just about the only modifiable part of the Dallara spec-car chassis. This is where races are won and lost. So no pics.

You can't help but be amazed at the cleanliness and organization of this place. You'll see in the photos no grease or dirt (except for the rally cars and sprint cars and even then not much.)

There's a second floor where the engineers and other personnel are kept. There's a machine shop where they could make a new car out of billet stock if needed. Watched them make a few parts on their 5-axis machines. Let's move on to the pictures so you can see for yourself.

Each steering wheel is customized with grips for each individual driver. Special extended flappy paddle shifters are used by the team at the request on one of the shorter fingered drivers.

Carbon fibers rotors and brake pads. Pads alone are about $600 per side. Rotors and pads are about $3000 per axle.

Torn down cleaned and ready to rebuild. There were 3 of these on stands being worked on.

All graphics are vinyl overlays. There's a team that comes in early Sunday/Monday morning and strips the car and reapplies the graphics since they change sometimes every race. Then the car is available for teardown and rebuild for the next race. And shipping out on Tuesday. These teams are in constant motion.

For the Toronto race the sponsor wanted to highlight a different brand of theirs so Snapple came off and Dr. Pepper went on. It went back to Snapple with the next race.

Here's a close-up of the wiring that's everywhere on the car.

Let's look at the GRC rally cars! Currently Andretti is running VW Polos until they get the New Beetle cars. Drivers are Tanner Foust and Scott Speed.

They're anxiously awaiting the new cars as the Polos are good but not quite at the level of awesomeness the Beetle promises. And I discovered something really strange but I'll cover that in a separate post.

Did I mention John Andretti's Sprint cars?

Ready to head out! Cars go up top, everything else below that.

Back from the dry cleaners...

Andretti Autosports is humorously referred to as a show car team that also races. They have all their old cars stored.

Inside each trailer we find a small machine shop.

Never, ever need to run to the hardware store.

Pit teams helmet and com gear.

Not only does the race team have sponsors but so does the machine shop. DMG supplies these wonderful 5-axis CMC machines to the shop.

Every winning finish since Andretti took over the team.

And my host, manager of the machine shop, Kevin Harvey, also a nationally recognized bike builder in his spare time.

EL_ULY > Oran J Sands III 09/18/2014 at 10:24

2

wunderwagen wants a longer roof > Oran J Sands III 09/18/2014 at 10:30

1

This is awesome, thanks for sharing! It really makes me want to visit sometime if they do tours!

Isgro > Oran J Sands III 09/18/2014 at 10:30

1

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Sam > Oran J Sands III 09/18/2014 at 10:32

1

My friend's dad works for the Grand Am team (the DP's to be specific). I should ask him if I could get a tour of the shop as well...

He also loaned us some of the foam that the compress into the seats for a Physics project, because it is really light but absorbs a ton of force.

Oran J Sands III > Oran J Sands III 09/18/2014 at 11:53

1

Just realized my VW has the same oil cap!! :-)

Stef Schrader > Oran J Sands III 01/07/2015 at 01:51

1

I...I want this drawer.

Stef Schrader > Oran J Sands III 01/07/2015 at 01:54

1

I'm super jealous that their dry cleaners know what to do with a race suit. Both times I've tried getting one cleaned, everyone's too afraid the colors will bleed or whatever.