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Car Forum / Chrysler Cars / January 2006Dumb question about NASCAR
I'm not into NASCAR, but this question was triggered by a radio talk show I heard part of the other day. The discussion was about NASCAR not allowing "foreign" comapnies to race in NASCAR - i.e, sticking with Ford, GM, Chrysler. My question is that with Chrysler now German-owned, what kind of rules allow that and exclude others? Is it a "grandfathering" thing? Just curious if anyone here knows the answer. Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x') > I'm not into NASCAR, but this question was triggered by a radio talk > show I heard part of the other day. The discussion was about NASCAR not [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my > address with the letter 'x') Toyota will have an entry this year or next, can't remember which. Based on the Camry, I think. >> I'm not into NASCAR, but this question was triggered by a radio talk show >> I heard part of the other day. The discussion was about NASCAR not [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Toyota will have an entry this year or next, can't remember which. Based > on the Camry, I think. Toyota_ 2007 Busch and Nextel I think the France family or their successors can pull any rules they want out of their a.s, as they always have, and the peckerwoods will go along. That's correct - The source of the rules has been identified. I'm assuming we're talking strictly Nextel and/or Busch series here. The rule in question is this: Back in the 60's, there was a horsepower war of sorts, and the expense of engines was creeping up, leading to inequities between teams and manufacturers. They decided to stop it. As a result, they outlawed the 427 overhead cam Ford. Ever since, overhead cam engines have been disallowed. The displacement limit, I guess everybody knows, is now 5.8 liters. Now - think: Who among foreign manufacters has a 700 hp pushrod engine? Rolls Royce? They're just not interested. Anybody else? Now, if a suitable engine was available, NASCAR would still have to approve a whole foreign car piece by piece. That's where the peckerwood thing comes in. They could welcome it, or they just pester it to death with inconsistent rule applications. In fact, they've always harassed individual teams running American cars, so no foreigners are required for that. A second consideration is the type of cars that you are allowed to run. Full size cars used to be required, but now the cars are just fabricated from tubing and sheets, so that's not really a problem. At least it hasn't been recently. They just make the cars bigger and smaller as they see fit. So given the engine, politics could allow a Maxima or Avalon or 929 in Nextel cup. Or, they can keep anything out simply by not providing templates for it. The toyota truck has been approved by NASCAR and is racing as far as I know, so they do see the advantages of having more manufacturers. Nothing bad can come to NASCAR from having more brands there, and they know that. So my suspicion is GM and Ford would not like it, but NASCAR would like it, because it broadens their appeal and opens up some new markets. > I think the France family or their successors can pull any rules they > want out of their a.s, as they always have, and the peckerwoods will go > along. > That's correct - The source of the rules has been identified. I'm assuming > we're talking strictly Nextel and/or Busch series here. The rule in question [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > manufacturers. They decided to stop it. As a result, they outlawed the 427 > overhead cam Ford. That's only part of the story. The real reason that the 427 Cammer (and eventually all big-blocks) were disallowed is because NASCAR was a two-manufacturer series from 1965 until they banned the big-blocks. GM never managed to field any big-block that could compete with the Ford 427 and the Chrysler 426. The NASCAR series overlords realized that this was costing a whole lot of audience- the most popular (sales wise) manufacturer was a constant field filler and also-ran in their series. When the smallblock limit was imposed, the rules were carefully tailored to favor the small-block Chevy, and its remained so ever since. Oh, yeah, the current Ford uses a whiff of the 351 engine architecture, and the current Dodge uses a whiff of the 340 (nothing much more than the bore-center spacing!) but the engines are all essentially limited to what can be done with the small Chevy architecture. Dodge isn't even allowed to run anywhere near the bore size that the block will support, simply because the Chevy block cannot begin to support it and it was allowing a big reliability advantage at high horsepower because of the shorter stroke and more manageable piston speeds. > Now - think: Who among foreign manufacters has a 700 hp pushrod engine? > Rolls Royce? They're just not interested. Anybody else? Chrysler, but its a V10 :-) > Now, if a suitable engine was available, NASCAR would still have to approve > a whole foreign car piece by piece. Already done. The Toyota "Camry" will be competing in NASCAR in 2007 (I put it in quotes because there's not a stock part on any NASCAR 'branded' vehicle- they're all tube chassis with custom panels, non-production engines, and Tremec or Jericho transmissions, and aftermarket rear-ends based loosely on the Ford 9" design.) The Toyota "Tundra" has been competing in NASCAR CTS for the past 2 seasons (and ran very well toward the end of last year, too). Of course Toyota had to develop an iron-block pusrhod v8 to compete, but what's so bad about that? Every major racing series today is a "spec" series where you have to follow a set of rules. Nothing that actually roams the street competes at the level of IRL, Champ Car, F1, or NASCAR. To compete, any manufacturer is going to have to put something together that's a pretty far cry from production engines that they already have. IRL, Champ, and the others have gone ultra-high-tech. NASCAR has gone retro (no computers, no EFI). So what? Rules is rules. And its proven quite a bit easier for NASCAR to enforce its anti-cheating policies than it has for Champ, IRL, and the others where illegal algorithms can easily be buried in the computer code. The end result is that most series have given up and allowed things like traction control. And the proof is in the ratings- NASCAR wins and its not simply the promotion of the races. With drivers still in the loop more than in the other series, the racing remains a bit more unpredictable and interesting than the "follow-the-leader" show that F1 has turned into, for example. Of all the major series, only IRL puts on races that are as driver-centric as NASCAR does. |
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