2003 Champ Car Grand Prix of the Americas, Miami. Image by Boyd/LAT

Q: Good morning from the land of palm trees, banana daiquiris and supermodels. Looks like the folks at Liberty are going to take a chance on scheduling a round of the F1 world championship in Miami, a sunny place for shady people.

I am suspicious of the October date (remember the heat and humidity of the ill fated CART/Champ Car “GP of the Americas” circa 2002-2003? That was September, and the weather in October is pretty much the same with high heat and humidity and the potential for tropical cyclones). And also the involvement of goofball Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross, who has run the team into the ground (but did manage to secure us another Super Bowl). But Miami is connected by non-stop flights to every European capital as well as every major city in Latin America, and the cosmopolitan nature of our community will appeal to the jet set crowd and blow provincial Austin out of the water.

I predict COTA loses its GP and eventually the entire facility, which is a world-class venue located in the wrong place for auto racing, will end up as a subdivision for the exploding Austin housing market.

Neil Rubin, Miami Beach

RM: “A sunny place for shady people” is a wonderful line that I may steal some day, thanks. As for F1 succeeding in Miami, it makes sense for all the reasons you listed, and the melting pot of cultures. Had CART stayed downtown after its roaring debut in 1995, I think it would still be one of the mainstays on the IndyCar schedule. And your prediction on COTA’s fate is shared by a couple of racing people with lots of experience.

Q: NASCAR’s ratings are down more than the NFL’s ratings. It’s probably not about their embrace of the Trump administration or their embrace of gung-ho nationalism and is probably about the product on the track, but the same thing could be said for the NFL. What I can tell you is that IndyCar doesn’t need anything about our sport that makes anyone feel unwelcome, ever, as our fan base is well below either of these two sports, and I think we all know that. Let’s not let IndyCar racing be used as a prop to advance anyone’s political agenda, unless that agenda is close racing and personable drivers.

Will O’Hargan, Dallas, TX

RM: Thankfully it never has been a political platform (except when Art Pollard and the Unsers endorsed Richard Lugar for Mayor back in the early 1970s with some hilarious commercials), and probably will remain that way. IndyCar is selling competition – not agendas.

Q: Before I even finished reading the title for Marshall Pruett’s story on Keith Hylton’s turbine car, my brain was screaming “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!” As someone who lived through – both as a fan and a participant – Unlimited Hydroplane racing’s transition from piston to turbine powerplants, all I can say is run. Run away as fast as you can. Don’t do it.

During the mid-1980’s, the unlimiteds were running out of the World War II Allisons and Merlins that had defined the sport of ‘thunderboats.’ The fork in the road was to either go with automotive power, which would have preserved the noise but came at the cost of lower speeds, or go with the turbine engines which were lighter, simpler, more reliable, cheaper, and plentiful… but at the cost of the noise. The sport chose the latter, and we have been paying for it ever since.

We now have a ‘sport’ with fast racing – honestly, some of the best, most competitive racing there has ever been in the 100+ year history – but with only a handful of races, fewer boats, even fewer ‘money’ sponsors, empty shorelines, and no television package.

I’ll say it again, do not do it. There hasn’t been any thunder in the ‘thunderboats’ for 30 years, and that is reflected in the current level of interest (non-interest?) in the sport. No noise = no fans. No fans = no money, and what you have is a hobby for the racers, not a viable motorsport. When I read Mr. Hylton’s optimistic prediction that “a turbine would last 10-plus seasons before even a major overall is required” I almost laughed so hard that I squirted milk out my nose. Just like a piston engine, a turbine can be modified to make more power. 100% rpm on a turbine is simply a manufacturer-calculated number that preserves engine life. All that is required is a tiny twist on the fuel control unit, and the more fuel you flow into a turbine, the more power it makes, blowing right past 100% until it (in the voice of David Hobbs) “goes KERBLAMO!”

Racers are racers and they’re going to try to make more power than the competition, no matter what form of racing. When the hydros settled on the Lycoming T-55 powerplant, the teams were blowing them up left and right, and they were cheap and plentiful enough to just drop another one in and crank up the fuel flow. After a while, though, parts supply started getting short and more expensive, so the sanctioning body started implementing restrictions on rpm and fuel flow in the name of preserving equipment and tightening up competition.

The teams that had money spent it on finding ways to get around those restrictions, and still kept melting engines down. Blown engines are a regular part of racing, and even today with all the restrictions on the turbines, they have to be taken apart and rebuilt regularly, with lots of discarded parts. I like Mr. Hylton’s optimism, but the reality is unless you have an engine that is so severely limited and restricted that you’re not going to make any racing power, the thought of a 10-plus season engine seems pretty naive to me. Oh yeah, and it’s not loud. I applaud the out-of-the-box thinking, but the turbine option represents a long, slow, painful death for open-wheel racing. Don’t take the bait.

Brad in Seattle

RM: Thanks for the history lesson, and I remember the Madison Regatta was a HUGE deal when I covered it a couple times for the Indianapolis Star. Marshall is traveling as I write this, but I think he was as impressed by Hylton’s design as the turbine angle, and I’m with you on the noise factor. IndyCar needs more of it, and it’s what attracts a lot of people to motorsports in the first place.