Uh, sure.... that looks like a Mustang....

Let me start by saying that I love NASCAR. That is, as a source of never-ending bewilderment and amusement at what passes for 'racing'.

Note how there are no shots that show what the car actually looks like. Nothing even close to being a side-on shot......

http://www.examiner.com/ExaminerSlideshow.html?entryid=652427&slide=2

And here is why: Looks nothing like a Mustang..... Then again, none of the Cup cars look like their street counterparts, so......

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v493/SeventyGTX/COT.jpg

Yah, and I'm not seeing Challenger either http://www.dodgeforum.com/articles/assets_c/2008/09/nascarchallengercompare-thumb-350x313-thumb-350x313.jpg

Bwahahaha nice try

I like it! Of course, they look nothing like their street car counterparts. It's "stock" car racing. It's a 60 year old tradition of taking a set of rules, breaking them, and then rewriting them to let the guys who break the rules race.

Seriously, though, I do think it's pretty cool.

I don't see what's wrong with the downforce bodies they use now. Can't they just put the safety stuff in the old cars? The Nextel/Sprint/T-mobile/whatever Cup COT is just awful.

wow, i really hope that juan pablo or jimmy johnson wins the championship this year so that it turns a whole bunch of fans off fromt eh sport. nascar fails and then goes back to its roots as an underground series with real stock cars.....crazy theory/dream but it could happen.

bamalama wrote: I don't see what's wrong with the downforce bodies they use now. Can't they just put the safety stuff in the old cars? The Nextel/Sprint/T-mobile/whatever Cup COT is just awful.

Yah, but if you listen to their BS the car is 'stronger' and 'safer'. Yah, right..... The car still sheds parts just the same as the old Cup/current Nationwide cars so. The COT actually seems to vomit its rear bumper bar much easier than the old car.

Kenny Irwin, Adam Petty and John Nemechek all died before today's modern 'cocoon' seats. The odds of someone being able to move far enough sideways (in a seat of the last 5 years) and impact the wall with their head is pretty damned slim.

And let's be real here- the tall greenhouse - the seats of today wrap so much around the driver's entire body, that when combined with a HANS device you are NOT going to get them out of the car without cutting it apart. I've practiced that every other year for the last 16 years as an SCCA corner worker.

And drivers have zero problem making it out of a car when on fire. What is the problem you usually see? Trying to get detached from the radio wires.

karlt_10 wrote:

bamalama wrote: I don't see what's wrong with the downforce bodies they use now. Can't they just put the safety stuff in the old cars? The Nextel/Sprint/T-mobile/whatever Cup COT is just awful.

Yah, but if you listen to their BS the car is 'stronger' and 'safer'. Yah, right..... The car still sheds parts just the same as the old Cup/current Nationwide cars so. The COT actually seems to vomit its rear bumper bar much easier than the old car.

Michael McDowell's crash at Texas last year gave France and Helton even bigger hard-on's for the COT. Now the only one of the three series I care about is getting this crap.

bamalama wrote: Michael McDowell's crash at Texas last year gave France and Helton even bigger hard-on's for the COT. Now the only one of the three series I care about is getting this crap.

I'll see McDowell's crash and raise France that car's owner at Bristol about 20 years ago...... or Mike Harmon's crash at Bristol about 2 years ago.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVlj7F8OJCY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlxnDJ1wQbI

Anyway, my brother & I have both felt that Busch and the trucks have been the place for racing in NASCAR for years. Cup has turned into Entertainment Tonight meets WWE for people who wouldn't know the difference between an accelerator pump and sump pump if their life depended on it. It's become 'motorsports entertainment' just as much as drifting is.

Do they really have cup holders now? I'm pretty sure I saw an in-car video of a driver sipping on a water bottle. He had to put it somewhere...

...

And no, it wasn't a commercial.

That gray thing can't be a Challenger can it? It doesn't even have the same roofline.

confuZion3 wrote: Do they really have cup holders now? I'm pretty sure I saw an in-car video of a driver sipping on a water bottle. He had to put it somewhere... ... And no, it wasn't a commercial.

What's wrong with the cupholder? Let's see you drive one of those cars for 4-5 hours in some of the hottest parts of the country in the middle of summer and not want a drink. I've never seen them take a drink while racing, only under caution.

The Mustang is still silly, however.

When was the last ime you saw a "stock" part in stock car racing? early 70's maybe. Saw an 80's Monte Carlo that looked like it had some stockish sheet metal in the floorpan, but I don't know for sure.

stan wrote: That gray thing can't be a Challenger can it? It doesn't even have the same roofline.

The Nationwide car of tomorrow will be just like the Cup COT, same bodies with different noses. Lame.

As a Mustang owner, this makes me infinitely sad At least they're using the newer nose.

Gearheadotaku wrote: When was the last ime you saw a "stock" part in stock car racing? early 70's maybe. Saw an 80's Monte Carlo that looked like it had some stockish sheet metal in the floorpan, but I don't know for sure.

Early 80's G bodies that were run were fairly similar. Sometimes bodywork was swapped between models to gain advantages.

It's a Mustang/Challenger because Nascar says it is.

It's in the rule book.

/thread

Mustang Funny Cars look more like a mustang than that... thing. Back to ignoring NASCAR, so I dont wast my time and effort disliking it.

I haven't cared about nascar since the drivers quit haulin' shine