whitegoods racing

[Fatboy]

Have you actually been to see a Nascar race in real life ??

[kwottro]

No. Oh, I'm sure the atmosphere is great. But where are the corners ?

[floody]

But where are the corners ?

At each end of the track.

[08ESE]

i have a friend who has worked with a nascar team, and actually has had a few races. he also showed me his nascar licence..... needless to say i called shennanigans until he showed me...

[PerformanceCar]

after seeing that i am going to buy a camry !..




not

[Paddington]

Meh. Oval-track racing makes about as much sense to me as drifting. ie, not much. How they can get Eleventy billion spectators to watch it is beyond me, but there you go.

they're americans, its simple.

[jmac]

In terms of their shape, before the season starts (if there are changes from the previous year at all) basically nascar will come up with / specify various dimensions, and actually have pieces of (wood, plastic, metal whatever) material that fit on top of the roof, or drape over the bonnet, some front to back, some side to side. basically the car must be a snug fit to the outline of these shapes to qualify.

That does, believe it or not leave _some_ room for tweaking, but for the most part they all end up the same as r & d will generally steer things toward the same final shape for any given car of that make/model in nascar.

Kwottro, at a guess the 'lure' is that it's a longer duration race (compared to dragging) with probably _the_ closest racing of any competition, and if it's an oval track, you can see the _whole_ race and any spectacular stuff (i.e. crashes) can be seen by all. Rather than having to be in a 'lucky' spot. You also (well a good deal of the crowd) get to see the pitstops. Due to having limitations to number of people over the wall, trolley jack, and air ratchet numbers, and 'stock' 5 lug wheel retention, the pitstop work, tyre changes in particular are fairly hardcore.

One might also argue that practically nothing sounds better than a largish V8 at modest high rpms (by the standards of any road going car, and in a sense, they are limited what with mandatory 2 valves per cylinder, pushrod etc etc) Hell people started to work out how to get exceptionally quick and complete combustion out of them, and run one less fuel stop, to the extent that nascar even put a limit on the max static compression ratio.. The power they make, whilst running extremely lean from a carbed setup is impressive.

Interestingly (or not) they also run 'proper' circuits (not sure how many, two that I can think of, but I haven't followed it closely in many years). As much as I like circuit racing, I actually think they are more interesting to watch on some ovals. If I was driving I dare say I'd enjoy 'road' circuits more.

Perhaps a reasonable parallel to watching footage vs being there is top fuel dragsters. They look 'ok' on film and can sound ok too. But being closer to them, hearing, feeling (literally), smelling and seeing them, and just how far they get in how short a time is something else. A bunch of drag racers have said from time to time that they weren't all that into drag racing, from watching it on tv, but after their first visit to a dragstrip, they were hooked for life.

The limited footage of Nascar I've seen on commercial tv tends to be limited to local demo stuff (gold coast a few years back from memory) or the big high speed ovals (i.e. daytona). Some of the shorter tracks can be far more exciting (for spectators) as they are on and off the acclerator a lot, and the brakes, stagger, etc have to be chosen as a series of compromises for the least overall drawback. Arguably the 'setup' on the big tracks is more about the 'optimal' setup, as you don't need the same sort of braking etc.

I think the news that Toyota will soon compete in Nascar is fantastic. I'm not sure the current rules, but generally they had to be based around a pushrod engine made by the same manufacturer. I don't recall any recent (or at all) toyota V8s with around 5-5.7 litres capacity and pushrod 2 valve at that. So are they going to cast/design a block just for this application (not all that hard to believe), or are they looking toward running an already competing engine (gm, ford, mopar or what?) that they get as bare block etc and modify from there on. 'technically' the blocks (to say nothing of the heads) in nascar are based on the original production blocks, but have more rigidity, flow better (with the same amt of porting work)

John McKenzie

[TonyJZX]

I don't even think the headlights and tail lights are real?
don't mind me, I know SFA about Nascars.

They are decals.

At each end of the track.

There are FOUR corners. More than enough for everyone with THREE teeth left.

[jampac]

America has the Camry SOLARA a 2 door camry, that we dont get.,

I saw a few of them when i was over there late last year, bloody weird looking things.

Hell people started to work out how to get exceptionally quick and complete combustion out of them, and run one less fuel stop, to the extent that nascar even put a limit on the max static compression ratio.. The power they make, whilst running extremely lean from a carbed setup is impressive.

In the late 80's they ran around 212miles/h average around Talladega raceway. That means top speed could have been in the 240 miles/h range. Yeah they use to be very quick, not as quick anymore.

Some of the shorter tracks can be far more exciting (for spectators) as

You'd be thinking of a track like bristol, highly banked i think thats the one thats banked at 40 odd degrees and is only 0.5 or so miles long, yet they fit 40 odd cars on it. Can you imagine what thats like for the spectators, fuck it would be awesome.

http://www.bristolmotorspeedway.com/

Banked at 36 degrees. Appears Bristol is number one short track in nascar, very hard to get a ticket for.

as they are on and off the accelerator a lot, and the brakes, stagger, etc have to be chosen

I thought use of stagger was outlawed, like a couple of years ago?

There are FOUR corners. More than enough for everyone with THREE teeth left.

Some are 2 corners, some are 3, some are 4, depends, there not all exact oval shape, some are like flat triangles.

[TonyJZX]

To be fair, the ovals are pretty different from each other...

Super-speedways in the 2.6mile range, short ovals, tri-ovals.

I tried Nascar on PC since year dot but could never get into it.

On the road circuits, the things have absolutely not brakes!

[jampac]

I agree they suck on circuits. I saw the nascars when they raced before F1 in melbourne a few years ago and it was a disgrace watching them go around, so slow, and so unrelieable. Half the field broke down and the rest drove slower than a regular road car around some of the tight corners. Short tracks are were they shine.

[TonyJZX]

yeah i remember that

every corner, no matter how gentle had their saucer sized disc rotors glowing brighter than an F1 car.

[maddy]

i recall that even our local legend ambrose cant get a NASCAR licence straight up. not enough experience.... going in circles.

the track is very punishing and unforgiving. i aliken it to speedway racing on tarmac. bob jane proved it was a loser in oz

[jampac]

Bob jane was building the wrong tracks for it. High banked short tracks were everyone can see the action, and lots of cars and smash ups, is a winner. Get enough of those rednecks who go to parramatta speedway into it, i'm sure it coulld survive.

[lumpy]

I think the news that Toyota will soon compete in Nascar is fantastic. I'm not sure the current rules, but generally they had to be based around a pushrod engine made by the same manufacturer. I don't recall any recent (or at all) toyota V8s with around 5-5.7 litres capacity and pushrod 2 valve at that. So are they going to cast/design a block just for this application (not all that hard to believe), or are they looking toward running an already competing engine (gm, ford, mopar or what?) that they get as bare block etc and modify from there on. 'technically' the blocks (to say nothing of the heads) in nascar are based on the original production blocks, but have more rigidity, flow better (with the same amt of porting work)

John McKenzie

I'm sure toyota had some pushrod V8s (even with hemispherical combustion cambers :w: )in the 70's/early 80's centurys and clowns. So they just have to raid their old parts bins!