“Backward”, “Ugly”,
“Ridiculous” –all have been used to describe the “Car of Tomorrow” (COT).
In this world of politically
correct driver responses the reports have ranged from “It doesn’t feel all that different behind the wheel”
to “I just don’t like the way it looks”.
And some fans and sportswriters
have gone so far as to use the word “hate”. Hate is never a good thing; it ultimately is destructive primarily
for the one doing the hating—and over a car…?
Here is a different perspective—I
actually like appearance of the thing! “How can that possibly be?” you might be asking…
To begin with, beauty is obviously
in the subjective eye of the beholder. Let’s start out with what are (in this writer’s opinion, of course) some
of the all-time best looking stock cars, all of which enjoyed some degree of success on the track.
1. Smokey Yunick’s black
and gold ’66 Chevelle. Smokey knew about aero long before his time, and frequently tweaked his cars to the edge of the
rules or beyond, but boy, was that one beautiful racecar.
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2. Richard Petty’s 1970
Plymouth Superbird. AKA “The King” in Pixar’s movie “Cars” for you ultra newbie’s. The
Superbird, and the similar Dodge Daytona, had it all. A long, stable wheelbase, 426 cubic inches of stump-pulling power with
no restrictor plates, and a shovel nose and (gasp!) a huge wing on the rear.
3. Pretty much a draw between
the 1961 Pontiac Catalina “bubbletop” and the 1963 Ford Galaxie “fastback”. All of these can easily
be found with a little web searching and it is worth the effort to get a feel for the history of the sport, as well as to
simply get a look at these works of art.
There were many other beautiful
cars as well, but along about the time of the early Monte Carlo (which, by the way, was a car that Dale Earnhardt Sr. had
success in and is loved by many, but had a rear window that could have doubled for a headboard) and the Ford Thunderbird,
people started noticing that the size and shape of the car mattered almost as much as what was under the hood, and started
not only being “creative” with aerodynamics, but also started lobbying NASCAR to take away the other manufacturer’s
spoiler, on one end or the other.
And that, sports fans, was
part of the beginning of how the universal Car of Tomorrow came to be. Endless bickering, rules changes, accusations of unfairness,
trips to the wind tunnel, all became an ongoing problem, none of which added a dime to NASCAR’s bottom line, and all
of which were time consuming.
As time moved forward, the
cars on the street began to look more and more alike (that is, like jellybeans) and along about the 2nd or 3rd generation
the Monte Carlo
and Taurus became… “template” cars. Cars identically shaped except for front and rear fascias with window
and headlight caricatures being the only—and minor, differences. During testing at Daytona in January when they are
all in primer it is difficult to tell the difference between makes and impossible when they are on the backstretch.
Similarly, the COT is also
simply a template car. But, the advantages are undeniable and are to NASCAR and Gary Nelson’s credit. The car is bigger,
giving more energy dissipation capability, and it places the driver more toward the center of the chassis. These and other
advantages are huge steps forward in safety.
If we can prevent just one Jerry Nadeau type accident in the future it will all be worth it.
And a side benefit will be
better racing. Aero-push and mile and a half tracks have turned the sport into a yawner for many weekends out of the year,
and Tony Stewart decided to become a kamikaze pilot at Daytona after he “felt” that Matt Kenseth took the air
off his spoiler. That, race fans, more accurately was the fault of the dynamics of the track and the dynamics of Tony’s
spoiler.
Truck-like noses, a windshield
with less rake, and the wings on the trunk lid will absolutely lead to closer competition, and next to safety, that is what
it is all about.
With all of that being said,
I simply kind of like the way the thing looks! It sort of has more of a hobby-stock/’55 Chevy with short track attempts
at aerodynamics feel to it. The greenhouse is further back on the chassis, and pipes coming out of the passenger door have
been standard (and cool) on late-models for years. If you note the “Top 3 racecars list” above, the COT does not
look like any of them per se, but it looks more like them than what we have now.
So why is there all the near-hysterical
complaining, you may ask? Change—change is always uncomfortable, because it involves the unknown. No one likes a policy
change by an employer, and no one likes a lifestyle change, especially when invoked by another.
But change also invariably creates personal growth, and when combined with the small Voice of Reason in your head that
whispers The Truth and the course one must take, change is not only inevitable, it is necessary.
In this case, the reasons for
the Car of Tomorrow are not a small voice that can be missed if one chooses not to listen, but a clear shout of reason that
is absolutely critical and cannot come soon enough! A prediction—this is going to be almost as big as the introduction
of “The Chase” into the sport. Within one year there will be plenty of revised opinions and plenty of crow consumed.
2006 StockCar Review.
