I admit I'm not a huge NASCAR fan, but I watch occassionally. I'm a race fan in general and I like to think of myself as an auto afficionado.
But....what has become of NASCAR? I watched the race Sunday and I couldn't help but be annoyed.
This "Car of Tomorrow" thing is so lame! It was bad enough before to call these things "stock cars" but now they are all the same car? They are essentially spec cars now, apart from different engines. The Ford is no different from the Chevy, Dodge, or Toyota??? What the.....
toyota CoT nascar:

Chevy Cot nascar:

Dodge CoT nascar:


why bother painting them.....*yawn*


Once upon a time the car you watched racing on Sunday could be bought on Monday, or at least one that looked like it. Of course there isn't one single component on a Nascar that is shared with the factory car, but now the "car of tomorrow" isn't even a real car in any sense of the word. It's a generic car!!!! What the heck?
I know it's been years since NASCAR cars were based on production cars, but this is just rediculous. At least before the roof line, rear deck, and hood shape was supposed to be the same dimensions, right? And we could at least pretend there was some corporate auto-maker involvement, that the chevy or ford decal stood for something, that you could at least root for your fav manufacturer if your driver was out of the race. But now?

To top it off, the driver now sits almost in the middle of the car, and the car has a big wing, and a more upright windshield to make the car less areodynamic, thus keeping speeds on super speedways slower.
What???
I though racing was supposed to be fast, and danger came with the territory. I'm all for more competition....but who wants to watch a bunch of same boring looking cars going slower. More interesting to watch cars speed down I-4.

I like racing, because I like cars....I guess that's what seperates me from most NASCAR fans, most of them are in it for the drama and soap opera-ness of it all. Like wrestling.

Whatever....I guess if I want to watch stock car racing like it used to be, I should watch Touring Car Racing, Rally Car, or GT2/GT3 cars...at least those cars look somewhat like a REAL production cars.
Sorry to offend you diehard NASCAR fans, but you've got to admit, the Car of Tomorrow thing is just plain 'ole goofy. I suggest we call it....
NASCAR = North American Same CAR racing.

 

Those cars are totally different. Don't you see the stickers that vaguely resemble the headlights and grill of the production cars those cars are so obviously derived from? Why I just went out and fired up my Camry and as I was listening to the carbureted, pushrod V8 rumble away I couldn't help but think of how far NASCAR has advanced the state of automotive technology that will transfer down to the cars we drive and justify the millions spent.

 

I particularly like how Toyota was able to cast an engine block that was 60 pounds lighter than the competition while staying within the rules and NASCAR forced them to add dead weight into the casting to make it the same weight as the domestic engine blocks currently in use. I hear they're going to transfer the knowledge they gained in this process into heavier and lower-quality castings across the the entire Toyota lineup.

*ps I know I focused on Toyota a bit too much, but I've found the whole process of building a Toyota stock car to be just slightly ridiculous. The most successful car company in the world building a dinosaur engine from the ground up to race in a series stuck in the past. At least the domestic guys had the excuse that they'd been doing it for a long time already.

 

why does anyone watch nascar?

F1 season has started!

 

NASCAR has never been on the leading edge of beauty. Look at those ugly-ass Grand Am cars.

But what do you expect? They get unjustly ridiculed for not doing enough for safety so one of the options is to build a cockpit with a tall roofline to provide more protection for the driver.

 

i dont find it too bad...its about the engine and driver not the look of the car....

but yes...

Rally and F1 > Nascar

 

Don't you find it a but irronic that the first year Toyota buys their way into NASCAR is the same year the decide hey let's out a really big ricer wing on the back of the car. Coincedence? You tell me.

 

Dosn't make too much of a difference to me. Infact I think it was used to help the other companies to keep getting stomped by Chevy lol

 

i guess you didnt notice the huge space shuttle wings on the ram trucks at the dodge dealership?

 

they kind of look like btcc cars to me ..

i heard that the other reason was that the car companys wanted a more sedan looking car then the flat wedge they were