in Bristol next sunday. I think its a pretty good design. I just don't see what drivers are complaining that "it's ugly" when it is much safer than the current cars

Quote :

"What's the big difference? To the casual fan, the NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow might not look radical aside from its taller windshield and bigger greenhouse. But notice that the current car has a thin steel spoiler that is bolted across the rear of the deck lid, while the COT has a huge rear wing that looks like a Pep Boys accessory. The front of the COT has a big, horizontal aerodynamic splitter that extends beneath the front bumper, and cool air for the radiator is funneled beneath the front bumper instead of through a conventional grille opening. Finally, the COT exhaust exits toward the grandstands on the passenger side of the car. Other differences are substantial but less obvious. To isolate the driver from injury and permit access by safety crews, the inside of the car is larger, some 4 inches wider and 2 inches taller. In addition, the roll cage has been shifted rearward 3 inches. The driver seat is also 4 inches closer to the center line of the cockpit to improve side-impact protection. So what's wrong with the COT? The central complaint is simple: It's ugly. And it looks even less like a street car than the current Nextel Cup racer. Team owners complain that the gradual introduction of the COT has required them to maintain what amounts to two separate fleets and engineering crews. Still other complaints center on the car itself. The twin attachment points for the rear wing suggest that even a brush with the wall will destroy it, and there appears to be no fast, easy way to attach a new one if the mounting points are damaged. The front aero splitter also appears frail. As one driver said, "About the only thing we can count on for the Bristol race is a whole bunch of caution flags for debris.""

Vs.

3/19/2007 12:09:12 AM

[old]

and ibtl

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=461096

3/19/2007 12:29:32 AM

ibtl!

3/19/2007 12:45:30 AM

If race drivers were overly concerned with safety, they'd have picked a different profession.

3/19/2007 12:47:38 AM

That's the most gawd-awful car I've ever seen... and I'm a #48 fan.

I'm gonna allow it just b/c it's about the C.O.T., but I'd suspend the shit out of that car.

Here's to the end of bump-drafting.

3/19/2007 12:50:07 AM

^^the drivers aren't but NASCAR officals are. thats what the debate is about. the drivers hate and don't want the COT, but don't have a choice.

Quote :

"Here's to the end of bump-drafting. "

agreed

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 12:53 AM. Reason : .]

3/19/2007 12:51:31 AM

That's not anything new in sports, though. See the short-lived new NBA ball, the new NHL uniforms, and our unitards.

3/19/2007 12:52:52 AM

It's such a pussy-ass car! The current car is pretty tough, a brush with the wall won't put you out of the race. They could have changed the cockpit and made the car that much safer without putting all that frail aero-shit on there.

3/19/2007 12:54:48 AM

and you know that with the new spoiler they are gonna be comming off fairly often, and more boring, random ass debris cautions. i just hope that the few races they run the COT at this year, somethings go very wrong and they decided to go a different way with it or just leave things as they are, like the old saying goes...."if it isn't broke, don't fix it"

3/19/2007 12:58:43 AM

Quote :

"horizontal aerodynamic splitter that extends beneath the front bumper"

Fragile beyond comprehension.

Quote :

"cool air for the radiator is funneled beneath the front bumper instead of through a conventional grille opening."

I don't see how the hell you're gonna keep the car cool on hot short-tracks in traffic. Also, where's the excitement in adding/removing tape?

Quote :

"COT exhaust exits toward the grandstands on the passenger side of the car."

Races weren't loud enough?

They could have made the central safety improvements without fuckin' with any of that stuff! "Rubbin's Racin'" will be a thing of the past. I just hope this project fails as miserably as Toyota's NASCAR debut did.

3/19/2007 1:15:16 AM

agreed totally

3/19/2007 1:18:37 AM

I think it will fail for the same reason the F1 and Indy racing can't hold a candle to NASCAR in popularity... the cars are fast but way too delicate. No one ever "limped" into victory lane in an Indy car, your shit better be flawless. These cars will get wrecked like Michael Jackson's ass in prison, and afterwards will be good for even less.

3/19/2007 1:23:51 AM

I think they're trying to split the difference with the COT without really thinking about what they're doing. What they've essentially got now is a sort of GTU/GT2 version of a regular Cup car. People limp GT2 cars home all the time at the end of 24-hour races, but they also don't race at Bristol or Martinsville in heavy traffic. As others have said, they could've made the car safer and more technologically modern without putting the splitter from a Panoz LMP-1 on the front.

With that said, I'm still not surprised. Every year, NASCAR takes a few more leaps and bounds from its roots. I'm not against expansion into new markets, but I am against those new markets taking away from traditional ones. The fact that there's no Busch race at Hickory is just a disgrace, for instance. I'm glad that the technological advancements in NASCAR have provided jobs for race engineers among others, but the series used to be about good ol' boys patching together a hot rod and seeing who's was fastest and who was best. It's anything but that now.

There's also somewhat of a precedent for this kind of car. About ten years ago, my dad was one of the technical directors for the Super Touring Championship. It was a support series for CART and ran at road courses and street circuits, and was similar to the ETCC or V8 Supercars: stock-looking touring car bodies, lowered, with splitters, rear wings, big motors, etc. Granted, it was a road racing series, which will never be as popular as oval track racing in this country, but there was no interest at all in this kind of race car.

BTW, did anyone see the GT2 class finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring? Bumpin' and rubbin' all the way down the back straight! It was awesome.

3/19/2007 1:43:27 AM

^agreed

i also think that its a shame that there is no more north wilksboro race, my opinion it was the best track. also rockingham.

there is really nothing else i can add, B-Dawg and vinylbandit said it better than i ever could. gg guys

3/19/2007 1:47:21 AM

[/thread]?

3/19/2007 1:48:29 AM

lol

3/19/2007 1:56:14 AM

I've always thought the COT's rear wing looks like one of those $20 rear wings you see attached aftermarket to a Mercury Cougar.

3/19/2007 7:41:32 AM

I believe it is stupid and ugly. They need to remove the Stock Car part from NASCAR, there is nothing stock about these vehicles anymore. hell you can't buy a car like that. I think Ford should race the mustang, dodge should race the Viper, chevy should race the corvette.

3/19/2007 8:34:24 AM

except these wings are actually functional.

and why would bump drafting have to end? the splitter is much too low to actually hit another car, and the bumper heights match up much better on the COT. What I wish they would get rid of is suspension design limitations that allowed/forced teams to use a coil binding setup on the front end. The COT does away with coil binding for now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see teams go back to that in a year or so on certain tracks. These cars should run full coilovers, 17" wheels (for larger brakes and better cooling which means less brake failures), and it'd be nice if it had IRS, like damn near every street car has now.

3/19/2007 8:37:28 AM

why are they going to unveil this thing at Bristol, the track that will immediately display all the flaws in the new design?

3/19/2007 9:20:38 AM

more downforce means better racing, so im a fan

3/19/2007 9:23:00 AM

Its not really Nascar Racing. Nascar racing is about taking a car and a engine and working on it to make your car better than the next guy. What they are doing now is saying here is the car you will drive it must be exactly like this paint whatever you want on it and call it a ford chevy toyota or dodge. it doesn't matter cause i doubt any part on that car can be found on a car in a sales lot. Change the name to Car of Tomorrow Racing. It isn't stock cars anymore and they are racing in places that don't have real fans. I mean NC used to have tons of races and 3 tracks because 2 of the three tracks were in the middle of no where they removed the races from there. With the addition of the Dale Track in Alabama that means another track will loose a race.

3/19/2007 9:50:12 AM

Doesn't matter what you run at Bristol...there will be lots of wrecks!

3/19/2007 9:51:54 AM

^^nascar hasnt been stock cars in a long time, this doesnt change that

3/19/2007 9:53:23 AM

no but I have had a problem with that for a while and this whole idea of having all the cars look the same is stupid. I wish some good old boys would start a new racing league All it would take is Dale Jr and a few more popular drivers and it would work.

3/19/2007 9:57:06 AM

by "for awhile" do you mean longer than you have been alive? because they havent been stock cars since before you were born

3/19/2007 9:58:52 AM

They are pretty much all the same car now, just not all issued by the same place.

3/19/2007 10:00:36 AM

Yes, ask bruton smith about the league he and cale yarborough and some others tried to start a few years back.


I personally dont mind the COT, if it makes for better racing. If the racing sucks, I guarantee you will see some changes to the car.

They are pretty hideous though, although they wouldnt look so bad without that wing that looks like it is straight out of the ricer repair shop

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 10:01 AM. Reason : .]

3/19/2007 10:00:40 AM

you mean the wing right out of ALMS, DTM, World Challenge, Rolex Series, etc.

3/19/2007 10:19:10 AM

they should start college racing where every school gets a car

3/19/2007 10:27:11 AM

http://www.wolfpackmotorsports.com/
http://clubs.ncsu.edu/motorsports/

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 10:32 AM. Reason : .]

3/19/2007 10:32:09 AM

in the long run the COT should be good for competition. hopefully soon the one car teams will be able to hang with rousch, hendrick and rcr.

3/19/2007 10:35:03 AM

Quote :

"hopefully soon the one car teams will be able to hang with rousch, hendrick and rcr."

they suck

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 10:47 AM. Reason : ]

3/19/2007 10:47:09 AM

For some g-d unknown reason, they look to F1 and IRL and say: that should be us. Except, F1 and IRL have next to 0 popularity in the US. But they feel there is money to be made and its their right to take the sport where they want to go with it. It'd take a lot more than a few disgruntled drivers / owners to start a league that has the established machinery that NASCAR has. No, the cars haven't been even remotely stock since they approved the Lumina and started racing FWD cars w/o even the option for V-8 or straight drive, but they kept the kind of racing that made it so popular.

NASCAR is dead. Find a good local short track, pay $15 to get in the gate, $8 for food and a drink and enjoy 5 classes of short track racing by people who race because they love it for 1/5 the cost of a Bristol ticket.

3/19/2007 10:58:27 AM

that sounds like such a stereotypical response from a short track racing fan

they are quicker to bash nascar than non-nascar fans who think the sport is dumb


thats why i've quiet going to racing sites like racerap.com

3/19/2007 3:00:24 PM

Could this thing help bring forth the end of restrictor plate racing?

3/19/2007 3:13:40 PM

thats hideous, I wish they would just go back to racing cars the way you get them, with an engine you built, because hell, the cars they race today dont even look anything like their civilian counterparts

3/19/2007 3:15:51 PM

yes, restrictor plates are gone with COT.


My biggest gripe about car design is that the car is hardly ever symetrical. They will flatten one fender out, hike another one up, shift the back end 3" to the left, and all sorts of other shit that really kills the look of the car. Hopefully the 8 point drop-template will cure a lot of this compared to what is in use now for non-COT cars.

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 3:39 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2007 3:37:03 PM

Let's drop the whole "there's nothing stock about stock cars" bullshit. Everyone knows that the sport obviously evolved that way b/c that's what ppl liked. The cars need to be about what style of racing ppl like to watch. NASCAR in its current incarnation has risen to the second most viewed sport behind the NFL. No other motorsport is even in the same ballpark in the US, and I think it's reasonable to say that the other racing leagues fill the demand abroad. So my question remains, why the fuck is NASCAR trying to emulate some shit that isn't even popular in the US... That makes about as much sense as trying to make the NFL more like World Cup Soccer.

3/19/2007 3:54:40 PM

Quote :

"more downforce means better racing, so im a fan"

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. I think the quality of racing in Formula 1 was much higher when the cars weren't constantly sucked to the ground (be it the pre-downforce era or the earlier winged cars with less ground effect) than it is now. The quality of competition in NASCAR may or may not benefit from more downforce, especially when a great deal of that downforce comes from a dubiously-attached rear wing.

3/19/2007 4:22:17 PM

Quote :

"Let's drop the whole "there's nothing stock about stock cars" bullshit. Everyone knows that the sport obviously evolved that way b/c that's what ppl liked. The cars need to be about what style of racing ppl like to watch. NASCAR in its current incarnation has risen to the second most viewed sport behind the NFL. No other motorsport is even in the same ballpark in the US, and I think it's reasonable to say that the other racing leagues fill the demand abroad. So my question remains, why the fuck is NASCAR trying to emulate some shit that isn't even popular in the US... That makes about as much sense as trying to make the NFL more like World Cup Soccer. "

1. NFL cries over the amount of money World Cup Soccer make compared to them. NFL makes a lot of money in the U.S., but they make close to none everywhere else. Fact: The NHL, NBA, and MLB have more coverage and make more money than NFL outside the United States. And as team owners always want more money, that is something they look at and struggle with. Back to soccer, why do you think Malcolm Glazer (owner of the Tampa Bay Bucs), Randy Lerner (owner of the Cleveland Browns), and George Gillett (owner of the Montreal Canadiens) and Tom Hicks (owner of the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers) bought English Premier League teams?

(Glazer - Manchester United, Lerner - Aston Villa, Gillett/Hicks - Liverpool)

2. I do not see how someone can think NASCAR is emulating F1 and IRL. The cars are completely secondary to the drivers and are a complete non-issue as to why NASCAR is big and F1/IRL is not in this country. No one tuned in to watch Dale Earnhardt because he was driving a Monte Carlo. That is pure bulls***. They tuned in to watch Earnhardt the driver. He could've been in a March-Ford Cosworth on the streets of Long Beach and people would've adored him simply because of his skill and technique as a driver and because of his charismatic personality. The reason interest in IndyCar fell off a cliff was cause all of the charismatic personalities in the series and the drivers people knew - Tom Sneva, Al Unser Sr., Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti - all slowed down or retired around the same time, and no likable American personality not related to the aforementioned drivers were there to take their place.

NASCAR is getting that way now. There's no driver anyone has a dying love or hatred about after Earnhardt died. Jeff Gordon is too politically correct, and he's going to retire in a couple years anyway. I wish Junior fans would realize this but they blind themselves to escape the obvious truth - JUNIOR IS NOT HIS FATHER, NEITHER IN TALENT OR IN CHARISMA. Junior has had everything given to him on a platter, he won all of 3 races out of around 80 starts at Myrtle Beach, and how does a person with that record get to driving million-dollar cars in NASCAR unless it was for his last name? Junior will never win the title, not because of politics at DEI, but because he is not good enough, regardless of what car for what team he is driving. And yet, if you took out Dale Jr. right now, what would NASCAR have as far as interest in their series? IndyCar circa 1993.

3/19/2007 5:25:36 PM

Quote :

"but I'd suspend the shit out of that car."

I loled

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 5:33 PM. Reason : .]

3/19/2007 5:32:27 PM

Quote :

"I wish Junior fans would realize this but they blind themselves to escape the obvious truth - JUNIOR IS NOT HIS FATHER, NEITHER IN TALENT OR IN CHARISMA. Junior has had everything given to him on a platter, he won all of 3 races out of around 80 starts at Myrtle Beach, and how does a person with that record get to driving million-dollar cars in NASCAR unless it was for his last name? Junior will never win the title, not because of politics at DEI, but because he is not good enough, regardless of what car for what team he is driving."

Junior is not his father.... agreed and no one will ever have the talent or charisma Dale Sr. had.

but as far as the rest of this statement, totally untrue. Junior did not have EVERYTHING given to him on a silver platter. the only thing his father gave him was his first racecar, that he had to share with his brother Kerry and sister Kelly. This is FACT, I know this because my father was a close friend of Mr. Earnhardt, and still keeps intouch with some family members.
Junior will win the title one day, he has plenty of talent. He has ups and downs just like every other driver out there. Gordon, Johnson, Stewart, Kenseth(sp?), even the King himslef in his hay day had the ups and downs. I am not saying Junior is as good as the previous mentioned(and I am a Junior fan), just pointing out the obvious.
Personally I think Junior would be better off with a different team, but, for now, it seems he will be with DEI. As far as him being in NASCAR just because of his name, total bullshit. If you go by that and if he had no talent, then tell me....how in the hell is Robby Gordon, Scott Riggs, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield (the list really goes on and on) in NASCAR?! No talent, No name (as far as before NASCAR goes, other than Robby Gordon(indy)still no talent ) drivers.

/rant

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 6:14 PM. Reason : .]

3/19/2007 6:13:25 PM

why is this thread in sports talk?

3/19/2007 6:16:48 PM

Because Racing is a sport

3/19/2007 6:17:32 PM

Quote :

"horizontal aerodynamic splitter that extends beneath the front bumper"

Quote :

"Fragile beyond comprehension."

Think again.

http://www.milliken2.com/MFT/MFThtml.nsf/page/home.htm

Quote :

"Impact Resistance MFT provides 2X to 15X improvement in impact resistance over typical thermoplastic and thermoplastics composites. Its impact performance is so good that it is being used as an armor solution against ballistic threats. MFT maintains this performance level even at low temperatures (-40°C). Stiffness MFT is suitable to applications that have traditionally turned to glass reinforcement to achieve stiffness requirements. Weight Reduction MFT, being 100% PP, allows for tremendous weight reduction compared to other, higher density, glass-filled composite structures."

[Edited on March 19, 2007 at 7:13 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2007 7:12:17 PM

3/19/2007 7:55:28 PM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA^

3/19/2007 8:00:37 PM

I've still got it.

3/19/2007 8:01:38 PM

so will that MFT material bend or shatter during a collision?

3/19/2007 8:10:31 PM