What kind of engines may they be using in the T race cars? T, GM, Ford or?
- posted
16 years ago
What kind of engines may they be using in the T race cars? T, GM, Ford or?
Are you serious?
Chipmunk power.
"T" for Ttundra
Just in case you are not interested in cars - Toyota came in 3rd and
4th at Daytona over the weekend. (That is a large racetrack in FL)
But...but...one was leading 1/3 of the way through!
(At least better than 30th, or bombing out. Pretty damn good for a second year effort...)
Toyota has actually been in NASCAR for quite a few years. They started out in trucks and moved up to the Nextel / Sprint / Winton Cup level last year. And the people building and driving the cars have been in the business for many years. So I think it is not relevant to call it a "second year effort."
The "Camry" race cars have zero in common with any Toyota products (well except they do have wheels and use gasoline). NASCAR is just as much a pure race car series as Formula 1 or Indy Racing. The only difference is that NASCAR has tried to freeze technology at the level of a 1972 Ford Torino. Solid rear axles, front engine, carbureted, push rods, V8s, 15 inch wheels.......
The Toyota "Sprint Cup" V8 is a purpose built push rod engine unrelated to anything else Toyota builds (it is even different than the engine used in the truck series). Toyota had the advantage of being able to review all the existing NASCAR V8s when they designed theirs and were able to take advantage of the strengths and avoid the weakness of the other designs. Except for the engine and the decals on the front of the car, the rest of the Sprint Cup cars are as identical as NASCAR can make them. You could literally change the engine and decals and turn a NASCAR "Camry" into a NASCAR "Impala."
The races at Daytona and Talladega are among the least interesting NASCAR races. Because speeds are so high at these track, NASCAR deliberately restricts the power of the engines to hold speeds down. This further reduces the differences in the cars and makes winning the race more a matter of luck than skill. I'll have to admit this years Daytona 500 was more enjoyable than in past years, mainly because the new style cars seem to be more stable. This allowed drivers to recover from minor mistakes instead of wrecking and taking out half the tightly bunched field.
As has been the case for at least 60 years, NASCAR can and will manipulate the rules to favor one brand or another. NASCAR attempts to play the manufacturers off against one another to try and keep everyone playing. It has never been fair, or honest, or even sensible. It is a lot more like WWE than anyone at NASCAR or Fox or ESPN would ever admit.
One of the Wood Brothers said it best years ago - "it is not cubic inches that wins races, it is cubic dollars." Right now, Toyota is willing to spend more cubic dollars than anyone else.
Ed
That sums up why I lost interest in the top levels of NASCAR.
I love my local road course (Lime Rock Park) and the local short tracks where the modifieds run, but the "Cup" has turned into a made for TV, scripted, WWE event. I'm sure pay-per-view is not that far off.
Pocono experimented with "pay-per-view" a few years back. It was not successful. Back in those days all the tracks made their own broadcast arrangements, so different tracks were on different networks and coverage varied greatly. NASCAR eventually convinced all the track owners to participate in a common TV package (actually split over a couple of networks), and everyone makes more money off TV, or at least that is the theory. Of course this became easier as the number of different track owners decreased. I think there are now only five or so different track owners now (International Speedway Corp - 12 tracks , Speedway MotorSports Inc. - 7 tracks, Martinsville, Pocono, Richmond).
Ed
Ed
Kyle Busch driving one of the Joe Gibb's "Camrys" lead the most laps (86 of 200).
For what it is worth - Laps Lead By Manufacturer -
Toyota - 143 Chevrolet - 31 Dodge - 18 Ford - 8
Laps lead when it mattered - Dodge - 1
Ed
Leading during the ONLY lap that counts is the last lap. That is like saying the other team may have won the game but, we won for the first three quarters, in a football game. LOL
Nobody in their right mind would run a FWD car in a nearly 200 mph race. They tried that at Indy years ago a killed and nearly killed a few driver and they were only running around 100 MPH LOL
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