Up next: Bristol
Mar 23, 2007 in Racing
This week’s Nextel Cup race brings with it the much anticipated Car of Tomorrow. If you haven’t seen these things yet, they are about as boxy as that picture I drew over there.
OK, they aren’t that bad. They looked absolutely hideous in testing, but with paint on them and hauling around Bristol, they look much better. (The paint isn’t likely to last long at Bristol) The Camry’s actually look pretty good. The Fords are OK. The Chevys and Dodges, not so much.
If nothing else though, the new inspection process for these cars is pretty cool. I just saw that “claw” contraption on Speed (pic via Jayski). The idea is to put all the templates on the car at the same time to both speed up inspection and ensure the cars are all built the same way. The car either fits in the claw or it doesn’t. Before the templates were checked individually. A car could pass each tech station by itself and still be so out of square it wasn’t funny. At least Hendrick and Gibbs didn’t think it was funny when NASCAR took away their cars for doing just that.
So what should the COT be? Here you go. Front splitter? Check. Rear wing? Check. 4th grade art class body design? Eh, sorry but no. These things even have the luxury of this new fangled fuel injection thing. I look for that to replace carburetors one day.
OK, that’s enough rambling for one post. I’ll try to actually post something coherent later.