It really is ridiculous to legislate parity. The natural racing-driven innovation is then used to cheat.
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Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: Win
When did NASCAR get lame?
I know the cars still had some connection with reality in the early to mid 80's when I had my Turbo T-Bird, because Chevrolet was forced to hastily build and sell a number of ridiculous looking fastback Monte Carlo's to keep from being blown off the tracks.
It was a slow process. Up through the mid 70s, there were actual factory chassis with actual factory suspensions running in NASCAR. The last Mopars to run before the long absence (roughly 1984-2000) had torsion bar front suspension.
Then came the era of fabricated tube chassis, but the body panels had to either be factory pieces (usually the hood and trunk) and then the rest of the body had to fit templates.
Then the cars became all template-driven, and then the "Car of Tomorrow" which is truly identical between all makes, except for which headlight and grille stickers get applied.
But even at that time, the ENGINES were still somewhat manufacturer specific although it seemed that the quality of the engine shops among the teams made a bigger difference than manufacturer (evidenced by how easily Penske switched from Ford to Dodge, and how easily Gibbs went from Chevy to Toyota). I know as late as 2002, shortly after Dodge re-entered NASCAR with factory support, they got cracked down on because their block would support a bigger bore/shorter stroke combination to hit the limit of 358 cubic inches than the Chevy block at the time could. NASCAR implemented a maximum bore size limit to negate that advantage. And Ford had some advantage due to the better-breathing heads whereas Chevy and Dodge used siamesed-port heads. But now, even the engines are standardized. All makes must run very similar heads, all very similar blocks, with characteristics of all 3 original smallblock engine builders factored into the rules.
And that, in a nutshell, is why I don't waste my time watching it. There is nothing stock car about NASCAR. A bunch of cookie cutter cars going roundy-round.
Originally Posted By: Win
When did NASCAR get lame?
I know the cars still had some connection with reality in the early to mid 80's when I had my Turbo T-Bird, because Chevrolet was forced to hastily build and sell a number of ridiculous looking fastback Monte Carlo's to keep from being blown off the tracks.
It was a slow process. Up through the mid 70s, there were actual factory chassis with actual factory suspensions running in NASCAR. The last Mopars to run before the long absence (roughly 1984-2000) had torsion bar front suspension.
Then came the era of fabricated tube chassis, but the body panels had to either be factory pieces (usually the hood and trunk) and then the rest of the body had to fit templates.
Then the cars became all template-driven, and then the "Car of Tomorrow" which is truly identical between all makes, except for which headlight and grille stickers get applied.
But even at that time, the ENGINES were still somewhat manufacturer specific although it seemed that the quality of the engine shops among the teams made a bigger difference than manufacturer (evidenced by how easily Penske switched from Ford to Dodge, and how easily Gibbs went from Chevy to Toyota). I know as late as 2002, shortly after Dodge re-entered NASCAR with factory support, they got cracked down on because their block would support a bigger bore/shorter stroke combination to hit the limit of 358 cubic inches than the Chevy block at the time could. NASCAR implemented a maximum bore size limit to negate that advantage. And Ford had some advantage due to the better-breathing heads whereas Chevy and Dodge used siamesed-port heads. But now, even the engines are standardized. All makes must run very similar heads, all very similar blocks, with characteristics of all 3 original smallblock engine builders factored into the rules.
And that, in a nutshell, is why I don't waste my time watching it. There is nothing stock car about NASCAR. A bunch of cookie cutter cars going roundy-round.
For old muscle car I like The Mopar max wedge cars.
Thy help put mopar on the map as far as drag racing. There B bodies and automatic tranny helped to. The Max wedge cars changed Super stock drag racing.
You Tube OLD Super Stock Drag Channel
Anybody interested in old Super Stocker or early 60's Muscle should checkout my You Tube Channel Favorites and Playlists
Thy help put mopar on the map as far as drag racing. There B bodies and automatic tranny helped to. The Max wedge cars changed Super stock drag racing.
You Tube OLD Super Stock Drag Channel
Anybody interested in old Super Stocker or early 60's Muscle should checkout my You Tube Channel Favorites and Playlists
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