The Reynard 94I is an

open-wheel racing car An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

designed and built by

Reynard Racing Cars Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ag ...

that competed in the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

and 1995 IndyCar seasons, notable for winning the first CART race it entered. The car continued to be raced in the

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

and 1996-97 Indy Racing League seasons, and holds the unofficial and official lap records at the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United St ...

Development

The 94I project began in November 1992 with designer

Malcolm Oastler Malcolm Oastler (born 24 April 1959) is the former technical director of Formula One team BAR, former chief engineer for Jaguar Racing, and designer of many race cars. Oastler was born in Sydney, Australia. A keen motorsport enthusiast and dri ...

. The car was intended to be "simple but soundly engineered, easy to tune and maintain, and with a highly developed aerodynamic package." An unused design for the

Galmer Galmer was an American racecar manufacturer that built cars used from 1992 through 1993 in CART competition and the Indianapolis 500. The cars were commissioned by the Galles Racing team. Although they were an American-based effort, spearheaded by ...

G93 had been sold to Reynard and used as a basis for the 94I. Bruce Ashmore, a former designer at

Lola Cars Lola Cars International Ltd. was a British race car engineering company in operation from 1958 to 2012. The company was founded by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England (then in Kent, now part of Greater London), before moving to new premises in Sl ...

, arrived late in the design process as the technical director, and provided input based on his experience with Indy cars. The car featured elements from the company's

F3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championships ...

cars, such as dynamic suspension shocks and a longitudinal gearbox (as opposed to the transverse gearbox seen on the rival Lola and Penske cars). Reynard also differentiated themselves by opening a technical base in Indianapolis and making its office and service staff accessible to customers, whereas the other manufacturers were still predominately located in England. A total of 14 cars were built for the 1994 season at the company's location in Bicester, England.

Racing history

During the 1994 season, the 94I was raced by

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship ...

, Hayhoe Racing, Hall Racing,

Galles Racing Galles Racing is a former auto racing team owned by Rick Galles that competed in the CART series, Can-Am and the Indy Racing League. The team won the 1990 CART championship as well as the 1992 Indianapolis 500 with driver Al Unser Jr. The tea ...

and Forsythe-Green Racing, and powered by the Ford-Cosworth XB and Ilmor/D engines. An additional 94I was raced at the 1994 Indianapolis 500 by

Hemelgarn Racing Hemelgarn Racing is an American auto racing team owned by Ron Hemelgarn. The team debuted in 1985, and competed in the CART and Indy Racing League ranks until the team originally shut down in 2010. The team returned to competition in 2015, and cur ...

. The car proved immediately competitive as Ganassi driver

Michael Andretti Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962) is an American semi-retired auto racing driver and current team owner. Statistically one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, Andretti won the 1991 CART PP ...

won the first race of the season, held at

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

, having started from 2nd place on the grid. Andretti would win again at Toronto later that year.

Jacques Villeneuve Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve ( born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian professional racing driver and amateur musician who won the 1997 Formula One World Championship with Williams. In addition to Formula One (F1) he has competed in various o ...

, in his rookie season, also took his first win for Forsythe-Green at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Ch ...

. Despite these results, the teams noted that the 94I was too pitch-sensitive, which would be rectified in the following year's 95I. The 94I continued to be used by smaller teams in 1995, one of its appeal being that the tub is the same as the 95I and the chassis could be updated to 1995 specifications. During the 1995 season, the 94I were used by

Project Indy Project Indy was a car racing team owned by Andreas Leberle that competed in the CART Championship Car series and the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. Leberle was a former chief mechanic for Euromotorsport, and like Euromotorsport, Project Ind ...

, Arciero-Wells,

Pagan Racing Pagan Racing was a racing team owned by Texas businessmen Jack and Allan Pagan. CART Indy 500 entries The team was founded in 1993 when the team purchased the CART IndyCar equipment of Kenny Bernstein's King Racing.

and occasionally by Ganassi Racing. The 94I was also used by

Stefan Johansson Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson (born 8 September 1956) is a Swedish racing driver who drove in Formula One for both Ferrari and McLaren, among other teams. Since leaving Formula One he has won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced in a number of ...

to qualify for the

1995 Indianapolis 500 The 79th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 28, 1995. Sanctioned by USAC, it was part of the 1995 CART PPG Indy Car World Series season. Jacques Villeneuve won in his second start. Af ...

, when it became evident that his primary Penske chassis had trouble getting up to speed. For 1996, the car saw competition in the first year of the Indy Racing League (comprising the 1996 season and the first portion of the 1996-97 season) as the league allowed all Indy cars that complied with the 1995 technical regulations. Hence, the grid featured multiple examples of the 94I chassis, mostly from Hemelgarn, Pagan and Treadway Racing (which was formed in conjunction with Project Indy). With engineer Tim Wardrop,

Treadway Racing Treadway Racing is a former auto racing team that competed in the early seasons of the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. The team was owned by Indianapolis business man Fred Treadway. Prior to the IRL's inaugural season in 1996, Treadway was abl ...

set up

Arie Luyendyk Arie Luijendijk (anglicised as Arie Luyendyk; born 21 September 1953), nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman," is a Dutch former auto racing driver, and winner of the 1990 and 1997 Indianapolis 500 races. He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Sp ...

's 94I to great effect; Luyendyk went on to set an all-time unofficial lap record of 239.260 mph at Indianapolis, a 1-lap record of 237.498 mph and a 4-lap record of 236.986 mph, all of which still stand as of the present day. The 94I ended the year with a pole and win at Phoenix and pole position at Las Vegas, both achieved by Luyendyk.

Complete Indy Car World Series results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (ma ...

) (Results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) 2 points were scored with the Reynard 94I. The remaining points were scored with a Reynard 95I.
No points were scored with the Reynard 94I, which only ran at Indy. All points were scored with a Penske PC23
No points were scored with the Reynard 94I. All points were scored with a Reynard 95I.
No points were scored with the Reynard 94I. Danner scored 6 points with a Lola T93/00.

Complete Indy Racing League results

(

) (Results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) Points include results scored with another chassis.

References

{{IndyCar vehicles Indianapolis 500 American Championship racing cars Reynard Motorsport vehicles