Talladega Debut for “The Car of the Future”
NASCAR has been working on it’s “Car of the Future” for a while, five years in fact. Leaving aside a “stock car” is no longer a stock car, the suits of Daytona are attempting to further distance the sport from the mid-sixties and the days of Fred Lorenzen and Fireball Roberts.
In today’s age of “template racers” that produce a reasonable facsimile of what you drive everyday and rear wheel drive where there is none it’s not surprising the car of NASCAR’s future is even further away from reality.
Along with NASCAR’s “Engine of the Future,” that has received critical reviews, the testing debut scheduled for Talladega this week has drawn howls of protest from a majority of garages.
The main source of disagreement is over cost. The owners say the change could cost up to $4.3 million per team to build the new cars, which they said will have to be brand new from the ground up. The secondary question raised is what to do with the estimated 650 to 850 cars, all instantly obsolete upon the introduction of the car of the future in 2007. Other than the ARCA ReMax Series there aren’t many places that can absorb that many used race cars for the owners to sell off and recoup some of the loss.
Concerned car owners have used this week prior to the first test to rally forces by setting up a joint game plan they plan to take to NASCAR executives.
“The way we count, seven car owners put 25 of the cars on the grid each weekend, and that’s a pretty big chunk of the field,” one team boss said, pointing out the leverage. And the clear hint is that car owners are considering balking over the entire new-car issue. They’re insisting instead that NASCAR allow them to retrofit current cars with the various safety features - principally a more crushable front end, a three-inch wider roll cage “halo,” and a stronger left-side door cage.
Jack Roush currently leading the pack on the track is apparently taking lead against the “future car.”
“It hasn’t been made clear to me why we need to do this,” Roush said.“There is an understanding the driver needs to be moved over, and we can do that with the car we’ve got. There is the feeling we need more headroom clearance for the driver, and we can do that with the car we have. There is a definition of left-side crush-zone bars, and we can scab those on existing cars. I’ve heard there is a safety consideration on a crush-zone on the front of the snout, and we can put that on.
“There is nothing I’ve heard of that goes with this new car that requires us to throw our current cars away.
“There is a consequence to the teams that is being recognized by the people who spend the money and set the workload, and a lot of teams are agonizing over that right now, and there are ongoing discussions with NASCAR about it.
“NASCAR will ultimately do what it thinks best. But the team owners and financial people are being heard from right now, and what NASCAR does with that is anybodys guess.
“My conservative number for changing over my cars is $21.5 million, for all the cars. That’s just over $4 million a team.
Roush raises another interesting point related to cost. He believes the cost of shop personnel will go up. Because it takes six to nine months before 2007 to build enough cars to start the season much of the construction would happen during ‘06. Roush believes that would lead to teams poaching skilled workers - at a higher salary - from other teams to keep up with what in essence is two fab shops, one for ‘06 cars and one for the new ‘07 version.
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s competition director, held a series of meetings in the spring and the owners at that time said “they wanted to do it all at one time.” From the quotes above it looks like the CFO’s of the largest teams, and ones with the most ability to fund such a change over, are waking up the “garage rats” to the reality of the cost involved.
Expect an all out fight in the next few months.
NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports
I think the concept of the car of tomorrow is the right one. If they can make big changes to the cars they have now, then go for it but things need to be changed. The racing will be better, in my opinion, in new cars. I have a hard time believing that these teams aren’t going to spend that money anyway though, they build new cars all the time. Maybe the deadline for the COT should be moved back.
I have no doubt the timeline will be moved back. And I would agree the teams also, eventually, would build the same number of cars overall. The question is doing all in such a short time. Added to this is the question of just how far is NASCAR willing to stry from “stock.”
You can bet none of the manufactures will build street cars to match the on track versions with their wider stance and more upright A piller and resulting higher windshield.
It’s a problem, a big one. Without the car makers support NASCAR becomes a step child with huge driver contracts for the teams and zero help from the “boys up in Michigan.”
They can modify the “cars” all they want to, the boys from Detroit will always sell their brands, it’s called marketing.
And as far as safety goes, NASCAR should kick Goodyear in the butt to develop a better tire. The incidence of tires exploding in the team’s efforts to gain grip is a real tragedy. NASCAR needs to look at reducing aero grip and fattening the rubber to increase mechanical grip. Same problem that F1 has, only to a lesser degree.
I’m far from sold on the idea of a new body shell. The current roofline can be raised to a closer replica of the street version and that would slow the cars due to more drag and also give more roon in the cockpit to add safety features.
The same can be said for the front clip. Make it closer to the street version and more drag will be produced and give space to add a better crush zone for safety.
NASCAR has bitten off way more than they can chew. With a new car and a new engine online all within a couple years is asking way too much.