Ford, GM and Chrysler pulling out of nascar OMG!

[Arkaign]

Forgot to mention, Mazda has pretty good success with their 'enthusiast' racing series. They do so with either all-stock or near-stock vehicles, and it doesn't require gobs of R&D or special teams for people to participate in. SCCA is not folding anytime soon

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
0/10

 

[c3p0]

Let's see... there are approximately 75 million NASCAR fans. I guess we are all crazy, stupid, toothless, redneck hicks with nothing better to do with our time and money. :disgust:

To each his own opinion.

c3p0
:beer:

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: c3p0
Let's see... there are approximately 75 million NASCAR fans. I guess we are all crazy, stupid, toothless, redneck hicks with nothing better to do with our time and money. :disgust:

To each his own opinion.

c3p0
:beer:

I've watched a bit of Nascar.

IMHO, and this is just one man of course, I think Nascar succeeds because of :

Driver Skill
Personality
Heritage

The fact that all of the cars are basically utterly alien to anything they actually sell, along with a laundry list of other unappealing elements, means that I don't find myself all that interested in what's going on. I know enough to recognize the big talents, the Earnhardts, Jeff Gordon, the Pettys, and so on, but as for what's going on in Nascar right now means little to me.

If you grew up watching Nascar, or have a bunch of interested friends, you probably will be into it as well, but it's not that interesting to the neophyte.

 

[JDub02]

Let me add my $.02 ...


Boogity boogity boogity! Let's go racin', boys!

 

[IcePickFreak]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: c3p0
Let's see... there are approximately 75 million NASCAR fans. I guess we are all crazy, stupid, toothless, redneck hicks with nothing better to do with our time and money. :disgust:

To each his own opinion.

c3p0
:beer:

I've watched a bit of Nascar.

IMHO, and this is just one man of course, I think Nascar succeeds because of :

Driver Skill
Personality
Heritage

The fact that all of the cars are basically utterly alien to anything they actually sell, along with a laundry list of other unappealing elements, means that I don't find myself all that interested in what's going on. I know enough to recognize the big talents, the Earnhardts, Jeff Gordon, the Pettys, and so on, but as for what's going on in Nascar right now means little to me.

If you grew up watching Nascar, or have a bunch of interested friends, you probably will be into it as well, but it's not that interesting to the neophyte.

You forgot that it's also extremely easy to pick up what you missed when you were busy hammering down beers for the first 3 hours of the race(The real reason NASCAR succeeds)...

Bob: We're all out of beer! So what did I miss in the race?
Bill: They made a left turn, number 13 is in the lead.
Bob: Great! Ok, beer run time!

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Nascar would be much more exciting if they just used vehicles from the showroom floor + roll cage + safety suit.

You mean like in the very beginning of NASCAR? Oh, minus the safety suit of course.

The series has evolved into something that barely resembles what it was when it was formed.

The CoT with stickers on it doesn't even remotely resemble any car on the road today. I'm sure NASCAR would like to go to a spec motor for the series too, except that it would mean the end of manufacturer sponsorship. If we don't pull out of this recession in 2009, I believe NASCAR will evaporate. Did any other fans notice all the empty seats at some of the races this year?

I've had season tickets for nearly 30 years at MIS. They're for sale if anyone is interested. Good seats too. Covered grandstand just to the left of the start-finish line. You can see the whole track from these seats.

 

[bruceb]

I agree. Nascar should go back to what it began as. Factory stock vehicles that you can buy (and that those models they race must be offered for sale to the public to make them race sanctioned) the way it was when Nascar first began. Of course, adding stuff like a roll cage and on board fire suppression and a fuel cell for safety is fine. The way it is now, the only thing on a Nascar car is the sheetmetal / fiberglass must look like and conform to templates made from a production car. So yes, they look stock, but they are nowhere near it underneath. Except that the engine must be from the car makers engines, with some mods as to max displacement.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Actually the templates now are the all the same for each make and don't come close to any of the stock versions of the cars. They just change the headlight stickers and the brand sticker. The bodies Haven't really been close to stock since what the early 90s? They did that to keep the racing close. Back in the 90s it seemed like every week one team would bitch about the other having an advantage and Nascar would have to change something to try and even things out so they just made everything the same.

 

[Arkaign]

Yay! Some people do remember the origins of Nascar. Having all the cars be as close to identical as possible, and utterly alien to any production car, just doesn't seem interesting to me.

I think power limits are the only thing that should be in place, perhaps ~600hp or so. Other than that, make it have to be a production car of at least 1k unit production, but allow for Rcomp tires, quick change hubs, and better brakes. It would be very very interesting to see what came out of the pipe. It would be damn exciting IMHO.

And the old adage 'win on sunday, sell on monday' would be back in full swing.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: IcePickFreak
I think the "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" ideology left NASCAR (aka "stock car" racing) long ago. My guess is sometime around when they... oh, stopped racing "stock cars" or anything remotely close to it.

I'm actually kind of curious as to how much (if anything?) this costs the companies. NASCAR isn't like F1, I think the big majority of the cost is footed by the sponsors.

Now THAT'S an understatement.

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I didn't realize anyone watched nascar...

what's a nascar?