joemoia

Autoextremist.com reports that one domestic auto manufacturer is planning to end its NASCAR race programs when its current contract obligations expire:

http://www.autoextremist.com/page3.shtml#fumes

micro

Hmmm.

I wouldn't be suprised if it is Ford.

I hope Ford and Dodge return to GT and or LMP racing, though.

AU N EGL

I would not be supprised if more then One manufacture takes a hard look at NASCAR as to if this type of marketing really helps sales.

Does that mean more money for other racing?? I dought that too.

Slalom4me

Is this in response to the arrival of one of the import brands in 2007?

.

trumper Z06

NA$CAR's... Car of Tomorrow is likely the final nail in the coffin for at least one Detroit Auto Mfg'r. No longer will there be... any association with... Stock Cars... or Stock Car Racing.

NA$CAR has become a... Modified Jalopy Series... featuring the Drivers.. and feathering the France Family nest !!!

From the article... it sounds likely that either Ford or GM is pulling the plug, to concentrate on ALMS and maybe an actual stock car series.

Hopefully... a true Trans Am series with the current Mustang and the arrival of the new Camaro.

AU N EGL

Speed World Challange may be renamed the Speed World Trans Am in 2007.

IMSA will be starting a new class next year as well. It will be for the Mustangs like they IMSA GT3 for the Porsches

freefall

Can you imagine the typical Nascar cars racing in stock form? LOL Stock cars - the standards that the majority of the population drive on a daily basis - are pretty boring these days.

Down with Nascar!!!

Slalom4me

Oh, I don't know.

It would be kind of interesting to see who amongst the current
drivers would be competitive and have sufficient intestinal
fortitude to drive today's much faster & safer cars on today's
better maintained and safer tracks.

They still wouldn't face the challenges that guys like Curtis Turner,
Lee Petty, Joe Weatherly and all the other greats of the early days
faced. Maybe we could legislate the car haulers, too. Open trailers
(or tow-bars!) for everyone and no more tools than what you can pack
into the back of a Hudson.

.

AU N EGL

And they have to use E85 fuel.

MitchAlsup

Have the following rules:

A) 90% of the production body pannels are used on the race car
B) Only aerodynamic devices that are on the production car are allowed
C) engine displacement, valve count, cylinder count, throttle count, fuel injector count, location and orrentation are the same as the production car
D) transmission in same location, orrentation, and gear count as production car
E) differential in same location, orrentation, and gear ratio as production car
F) suspension, geometry, and pick up points are the same as the production car
G) race car weights the same as the production car
H) fuel comes from random gasoline station somewhere in the town surrounding the race track less than 1 week before the wekeend of ther race.
I) everything else is free game

This would improve both the racing and production cars from which the race cars are derived.

BrianCunningham

That's the way it used to be back in the 60's

But each manufacturer at one time created a special car to get around the rules. The current body rules came about because they had trouble equalizing the cars. Kinda like what SpeedGT is going through now.

I'd like to see them better emulate what's on the street. The fans want to see cars going around the track at 200mph, but the street versions 1) cant' do that 2) wouldn't be safe at that speed. Street cars work all right on a road course since you can't get up enough speed. But on a closed oval track surrounded by concrete walls, it a recipe for disaster. All the manufacturers see is a billboard going around in circles.

Lancer033

NASCAR has just gotten to big for it's britches. They had a good formula 40 years ago, but the crap they put out there now is a joke. NASCAR is to racing what the WWF is to wrestling. Little better than a soap oprah on wheels. If they had stayed w/ actual stock based cars instead of trying to equalize everything, it would still be worth watching.

Falcon

Oh well, that would eliminate the ALMS series GT1 series.

I don't understand eveyone's dislike of NASCAR. Has NASCAR done something to you guys.

It's obviously the most popular form of motorsports in the country. The races are a helluva lot closer than F1. I would wager that any driver in any series, except maybe the top 4 or 5 drivers in F1, would swap a left nut for a contract wth Rousch/Hendricks/Yates. Everyone talks about spec series, is there a series out there that doesn't have rigid specs?

And, if we don't like it, we can always change channels. Hell, I don't like the NBA, but I'm glad they have it so those who do can enjoy it. It has no effect on me.

trumper Z06

4. Well... we used to be able to turn the Televison to the Speed Channel to see Series racing other than NA$CAR...

Wait... it's now called Speed TV otherwise known as the NA$CAR CHANNEL... repeating the same Na$car shows... two or three times/day.

Sorry Jody, I just don't seem to "git the new Na$car"....

But as I recall... there was some... Stock Car Racing... years ago!!!

MitchAlsup

To the extent that customers could buy these and put them on the street is a plus! How many of us should have purchased on of the Winged Super Bees/Birds? I wish I had.

Why do they want to make the car equal? Is not the whole point of racing and race car/team development to make themelves better than the next guys car/team?

The last yellow free race at Daytona was in the early 1990s, just before resctictor plates came out. BTW Bill Eliot won in a car that actually looked like a Thunderbird of that era.

The pole position was in the 219 MPH range, and the race was completed in the 207 range. Well faster than today, and there were fewer driver deaths in the era between 1980 and the first resctictor plate races than since.

So, you first premis is incorrect, street cars, when well prepaired as real race cars can and do run this fast. Premis two is dependent upon the modern safety measures making the cars so safe that the drivers can bang up other cars and get away with it (both racing and survival).

While I am no particular fan of oval racing, I will admit it has its place, and NASCAR grew up on oval racing. However, the only two NASCAR races worth watching these days are run at Watkins Glenn and Sears Point (or whatever the modern names for these road courses are). And while we are on this topic, NASCAR ruined Sears Point by paving around the Carrosell.

But when you do get to oval racing, restrictor plates make the race less safe rather than more safe. Bunching all the drivers up in a pack is a recipie for disasters. Instead of restictors the engin builders could swap out 9 parts and end up with 302 or even 289 sized motors (from 355), and no restrictors needed.

The premis of restrictor plates and equalized cars is for the fans, not for the races or racers or the progress in automobile technology.

jmautox

Its simple

1. They offer nothing to those of us interested in automotive technology.

2. They go in circles, which offers nothing to those of us interested in the subtleties of chicanes, right hand turns, off camber turns, etc.

3. They run identical cars yet promote a facade of Chevy/Dodge/Ford competition which is insulting to the IQs in the world over 100

and yes they did something to me, they took over speedtv and made it nascar tv =)

Solofast

The thing that bugs me most about NASCAR is that, as many have mentioned, the cars just aren't in any way related to what you can buy, and now, since they don't want one car running away from all the others, they are mandating that all the bodywork be essentially the same.

So, what's the point? If they wanted to make all the cars equal, and were willing to put restrictior plates of different sizes on different models, why not let them run at least bodywork that is a little closer to what you can buy...

To my mind it is so screwed up it isn't worth watching unless I happen to channelsurf thru it and watch for the last laps of the race. The rules are so gerrymandered, that there is no interest in it for me.

Give the sports car guys some time and they will manage to screw up their rules so that they end up in the same place as NASCAR. When you get a "weight bonus" for winning a race I think you are almost in the same place as NASCAR, you just aren't as blatant as they are about it..

Solofast

Funny you should mention that, but I did see a show lately on NASCAR TV that was pretty good.

It was called (I think) "Legends of NASCAR" and they had reruns of old NASCAR races from the "golden age". Neat thing, a Chevy was a Chevy, a Ford was a (well we won't talk about that)... But the point was there was a real difference in the driving and the cars, and it was pretty amazing racing... Something that today's NASCAR really lacks...

jmautox

I think the weight idea would work great as long as you award the year end manufacturer championship to the car with the most weight.

At least you can compare cars and crew chiefs by seeing who wins the most weight.

xsiveone

It's my opinion that if the manufacturer's made a car that was anything like what is raced in CRASHCAR, they'd sell quite a few of them.

Just imagine a rwd Monte Carlo with an LSx engine in it. Paint her up with some #8's and #3's and Chevy has a sales hit.

If Toyota dominates in SMASHCAR, that's pretty sad because Toyota was pretty sad in CART, the IRL and they are really sad in F1. All that money and really nothing to show for it.