Renaming the COT   March 20, 2008 Mickey Mills – SCR   The Car of Tomorrow.... blah, blah, blah...   I don't have the page space or the inclination to write down all the adjectives I've heard to describe the new car. From the simple, "It Sucks," to my personal favorite, "The Flying Brick," the men who drive the thing have had all sorts of colorful things to say about this machine.   Here we are a year after its debut and some people are still calling it the Car of Tomorrow (COT). Other forward thinking folks have moved into the new season being very creative and calling it the “New Car.” That does not have quite the pizzazz of COT, but it is short and easy to remember.   In actuality, you could call it the “Sprint Cup Car,” and be entirely accurate, but that is a bit of a mouthful and doesn’t carry the flavor of the flying brick to the media. So to commemorate the anniversary of the debut of the COT, here are some suggestions of what to call it moving forward.   The Money Maker Crew chiefs have been all over the technical map of this car searching for grip and speed. Some teams have challenged the boundaries of the rules and paid the price for it with hefty fines. In that sense this car has helped fill the fine coffers this year. NASCAR announced before the season that all fine monies this year is going to their foundation and the charities they support. Does that make NASCAR fines tax deductible as charitable donations?

The Loose Goose Speaking of grip… The common statement I hear from drivers and crew chiefs is this is a loose racecar and finding grip is a challenge. Defending Champion Jimmie Johnson, who was the COT champ last year with four wins, is bemoaning the loose condition of his race car. “We've been learning. We've been making improvements, if you look at Vegas and Atlanta. We still have a very loose race car, but we made up a lot of ground,” he said at Lowesracing.com. Goodyear is taking the brunt for compounded tires that makes finding grip near impossible.   The Equalizer This car has a common template. Whether you are driving a Ford, Chevy, Dodge or Toyota, other than the engine programs this is essentially the same car. NASCAR spent millions designing the car with one eye on safety and the other on cost reduction and racing parity. I think it is more the dream than the reality. Figuring out the car has required thousands of man hours and expensive wind tunnel time. For the well funded teams its meant investing nearly two million dollars for a seven post shaker and a team of engineers to run it.   Rolling Blunder In pretty much all forms of motorsports, traction is everything. Without some measure of grip, centrifugal force would throw the cars into the outside walls going through the turns. A big factor in grip is the amount of downforce across the front of the car. It seems this car has been an effort in reducing downforce for the purpose of slowing the car. This is in direct contradiction to what you want to do in racing - go faster. Did anyone other than me notice the Nationwide cars were faster than the Cup cars?   The BB (Brett Bodine) Brett Bodine was hired by NASCAR to work in the Research and Development program for the COT. He also did most of the preliminary test drives. This is a tribute to his effort. After winning one cup race across 480 starts, this is the least I could do.   The Dodo Bird Like the once prolific Dodo, in the future this beast will also be extinct and replaced by who knows what. When that day comes do you think we will be ushering in the next Car of Tomorrow?

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I hope the teams get a handle on this car very soon. I am open minded about the car and its prospects for the sport, but then I don’t have to drive or tweak the damn thing. Team engineers are earning their pay figuring out the nuances and limits of the car. From where I sit the racing seems to be improving every week, at least for the Roush Racing and the Richard Childress Racing teams. What a difference a year makes.   The Car of Tomorrow is not a new idea. In September of1951 film director Tex Avery released an animation film titled “Car of Tomorrow.” It was billed as “A humorous look at the possible future of automotive technology from the Tex Avery team of animators. Predicted developments include gadgets aimed at children, female drivers, young drivers, backseat drivers, tailgaters, road hogs (and their victims) and parking-space hunters.”   So far the Car of Today has been anything but humorous. But it has been a tailgater and a road hog, and the victims have been many.  It’s the gadgets that got the teams in trouble.   Questions, Comments: Email Mickey    The views and opinions in this article are that of the writer(s) and not necessarily that of SCR

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