NASCAR and Japanese brands

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Help me clarify a few things regarding Toyota's recent entry into the Craftsman Truck Series and next year's Nextel Cup entry.

I was always under the impression that the race car (or truck) had to have a "production" block for its engine. I never knew Toyota had a pushrod V8 ever offered in any of its vehicles. The Tundra V8 is OHC, which to the best of my knowledge isn't allowed in NASCAR, at least not yet.

Help me figure this out.


Also, my own personal opinion is that the Japanese brands shouldn't be in NASCAR. Keep it true to its American roots. Let Toyota and Honda dominate the ridiculous sport of "drifting", which was supposedly created in Japan. Well, I guess there haven't been too many Japanese people that ever watched sprint cars or dirt late models or modifieds. Those things are never paralell to the racetrack!
 
Does Ford sell a OHV engine in any of their vehicles?
And when they did they were still using a different block of the Nascar engines. Yates heads...


Honda ISN'T dominating drifting. The AE86 had it for a second. Then the Nissan's just killed it. In the US the Viper and GTO ruled for a while.

The Japanese lay no claim to having INVENTED drifting. But they were the first to REALLY practice at it and the first to have professional competitions.

It's a sport/art akin to skateboarding. I think both are somethiing the average "roundy-round" fan doesn't appreciate.


Tosh saw the history channel show.
I like the pic of Jr at the track and he's running away from his car as it's rolling over.
 
Toyota will buy G.M. and then it's a moot point.
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P.B.

You know ... like a Daimler HEMI
 
"I was always under the impression that the race car (or truck) had to have a "production" block for its engine."

This rule went out the door in 1972. The rule was changed to "a block manufactured in the same facillity as the production block, that could accomodate production parts."

"Also, my own personal opinion is that the Japanese brands shouldn't be in NASCAR. Keep it true to its American roots."

By, perhaps, only allowing those who transport moonshine to serve as drivers?!?!

I think that anyone who can field a car that meets the rules should be allowed to run. Right now the rules are loose enough to enable almost anyone to build a competitive car (given money and time).

BTW, you are aware that the Toyota NASCAR engine is very powerful, and very reliable, possible more so that either the Ford or Chevy engines. Has something to do with the 6 bolts/cylinder heads!
 
Some of the domestic three vehicles represented by the NASCAR racing shells represent street models that may have less domestic content thant the shell that represents a Toyota. Remember that NASCAR is a silhouette series. The cars are racing shells that are painted to look like real cars, but there are no pieces in common. You won't see many front drive cars in a NASCAR race. You are not allowed to engineer anything, just race. If you get caught making your car better it's a big fine and loss of points. Toyota means more tickets sold and more promotional value. I'm surprised that NASCAR does not have a class for SUV's and motorhomes. That would sell more tickets, too.
 
Toyota is in the lead this year, in recalls that is. Nice that they are trying to catch up with Chevy by building a pushrod engine. Maybe their quality will finally improve from their "sludgy" past.
 
But they weren't banned for being European. They were banned for kicking too much ***. How they made an awd car handle well with a 5-cyl engine sticking out in front of the front axle is beyond me.
 
The Tundra engine is a special version, OHV version. Toyota negotiated with NASCAR for some time to get into the series.

Personally, with NASCAR often talking about slowing the cars(and trucks) down, I'd like to see a 5 liter(305 C.I.) limit, OHC allowed.
Dodge, Ford and Toyota all have that size engines on the street, Chevy has a 4.8L, but it's a OHV. Maybe NASCAR doesn't dare PO GM.
 
Toyota Camrys are manufactured in the U.S. Most of their parts are manufactured in the U.S. Heck, they make their engine blocks in Jackson, TN. The thousands of workers getting paid to make them are Americans.

On the other hand, the American manufacturers have sent the manufacture of the cars whose names they put on their NASCAR entries out of the country. The Ford Fusion is made in Mexico, and the Chevy Monte Carlo and the Dodge Charger are made in Canada.

Inasmuch as the Toyota Camry has been the best selling car in the U.S. for years, in spite of being pricier than much of its competition, it is appropriate for it to be represented in NASCAR.
 
quote:

Originally posted by jsharp:

quote:

Originally posted by Rickey:
Toyota is in the lead this year, in recalls that is. Nice that they are trying to catch up with Chevy by building a pushrod engine. Maybe their quality will finally improve from their "sludgy" past.

Toyota would have fewer recalls if they adopted the GM method of "customer service." Just don't bother. Compare the number of sludged Toyotas to the number of GM vehicles built with known to be bad intake manifolds and gaskets. Then notice that Toyota recalled their problem vehicles while GM did nothing for a decade.


Amen
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Goose
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quote:

Originally posted by dwendt44:
The Tundra engine is a special version, OHV version. Toyota negotiated with NASCAR for some time to get into the series.

Personally, with NASCAR often talking about slowing the cars(and trucks) down, I'd like to see a 5 liter(305 C.I.) limit, OHC allowed.
Dodge, Ford and Toyota all have that size engines on the street, Chevy has a 4.8L, but it's a OHV. Maybe NASCAR doesn't dare PO GM.


They have had a NASCAR legal pushrod engine that they have been running in the Craftsman Truck Series for the past 2 years, so this isn't going to be completely new to them.
 
Maybe they adopted a rule like CART used to have. That if your engine was a pushrod design you could have extra displacement. Cart got rid of this rule when Mercedes built some pushrod engines for Penske to run at the Indy 500. The Penske/MB pushrod engines blew the field away and the three Penske cars finished 1,2,3, and pretty much just toyed with the field the whole race. Cart then changed the rule so those engines could not be used anymore.
 
I say let them in. If they're fast, everyone will have to raise their game to compete, not a bad thing imho.

Nascar cars have nothing in common with production cars, they're pure (though old technology) spec race cars. The "headlights", etc, that differentiate them are decals. As LarryL pointed out, innovation is severely punished.

Nascar used to truly be an American series, back when the cars were actually converted production cars. For fossilized poops like me, those are known as "the good old days". Even though I wouldn't agree, I could see a credible argument that if that were still the case then it might be right to reserve it for American manufactureres only.
 
BTW, I had a friend, since passed away, who was very involved with Richard Childress Racing, and was a friend of Bill France, Sr. (He was known as Big John, truly legendary to those who knew him).


Anyway, a few years ago I asked him why he was mostly a spectator then, not getting his hands dirty like he used to. "It's no d*mn fun", he growled. "You can't cheat any more".
 
Those cars are more than just spec racers. They're spec racers where the rule differences brand to brand are adjusted constantly to try and get all 43 cars on a given day to cross the finish line at the same time.

Toyota should be as well off in this game as anyone else. If they're too fast they'll get punished, too slow and they'll get help. That's how Nascar works. The days of one car brand dominating are long gone.
 
quote:

Originally posted by gtx510:
Does Ford sell a OHV engine in any of their vehicles?

Yes. The base Mustang 4.2L V6 is a OHV pushrod design, borrowed from the F-series, and based off the block that's been around since the '80s...The 3.8L V6 that powered the old Fox body Mustangs, Thunderbirds, et al.
The first time I drove a '97+ F-series pickup with this engine, I thought for sure that it was a V6 version of the modular V8 OHC engine, but as it turns out, it's a bored out T-bird mill. Even the high-revving powerband led me to believe that it was OHC not OHV.

I was really surprised when I saw one out of the vehicle.
 
quote:

Originally posted by gtx510:
But they weren't banned for being European. They were banned for kicking too much ***. How they made an awd car handle well with a 5-cyl engine sticking out in front of the front axle is beyond me.

Possibly the engine was lowered and moved rearward, but since that bracket is all circles, the engine was definately moved toward the "innner" side of the engine bay.
 
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