Nascar Making History!

Well, as for racing history ....... I support the car changes , but IMO they [who ever they are] are ruining stock car racing.

 

They are on their last leg now, spending over a million dollars to run a silly race in of all places LA Coliseum. They crapped all over their true supporters in the heartland when they started pandering and getting involved in race baiting. They also got greedy and formed their own network removing the season from commercial TV. There are not many heartland cities with cable that even run their network. Personally I loved racing since I was 6 years old. The first track I was ever at was at the long ago removed North Houston Speedway, a small dirt track on the outskirts of Houston which is still visible from satellite because it is on Houston Intercontinental property that was bought up when the new airport was first built in the 60's. There was Playland Park on South Main that soon became the place to be on Saturdays because it was dirt and had all the old well known racers of the Houston area including AJ Foyt in his younger days. It was still jalopies and a couple special home built classes. Later it was Meyers speedway and that was 1/2 mile paved. All these tracks are gone and Meyers is special because it retired to it's original look of a cow pasture with just a slight trace of the paved infield roads. It was the mass influx of homes apartments and they all bought in the same neighborhood there happened to be a race track. We all know how that goes don't we. I made a few visits to Navasota Raceway and they had good racing, also followed midweek races one vacation and I drove all the way to Fort Worth and made three stops on the way back to Houston to watch the mid week racing. I never even knew they were racing all week but many of those small time drivers were making a living just driving the small tracks. Once again I don't think NASCAR will be around much longer, they got too big and have treated a lot of the old track owners terrible, I suspect this venture was done because all the big tracks have just about gone bankrupt due to covid and no crowds attending for two years. It's pretty bad when you have to sit cardboard characters in your bleachers. We now have seen the new cars that are mechanically inferior to last years super speedway cars. This is probably another attempt to monopolize racing but it will fail until a good group of people come together and rescue racing. It is not profitable any longer so we may be witnessing the end of it all.

 

"They also got greedy and formed their own network removing the season from commercial TV."

They have their own network? I've always watched them on either Fox or NBC ... 1/2 season each. What is their own network ?

 

It depends where you live, cable does not offer NASCAR but in a few select areas. There is no nascar races ran on any commercial networks other than the handful of races when each season starts and on Fox commercial. I can't say about the two Fox sports networks because they aren't available in this part of the country. There have been several cable outlets for auto racing that lasted but one or two seasons due to nobody being able to actually get them from their providers. There was a time when all the races for the season were ran on Sundays, then all of a sudden that all ended. Half the old well known tracks from the past still exist, out in a overgrown wooded area because NASCAR dropped them. The local cable providers only provide something that they can make money from. Here where I live they got so bad they were going to turn off local news stations unless people paid more. Cable is showing the very same movies they were showing over 40 years ago. I can find more to watch on free channels on the internet. I read that the cost to air NASCAR was like 8 billion per year, sounds like a pretty good stretch to me since there aren't that many tracks left, much less fans. The final race for the championship 2021 wasn't even aired here 36 miles from Baton Rouge. I don't like to watch them any longer simply because they only want to stage a show of a tight bunch of cars that don't have enough power to pass one another unless the guy behind him is pushing the leader. 3 laps leading was once the average in the 80s and that is the way it still should be. It separates the boys from the men or I should say the guy who knows how to actually set his car up to race. All manufacturers should be allowed to enter an engine but today that is not the case. I noticed in one accident yesterday the cars appeared to be one unibody frame with the roll cages added like it was in the old days but I don't see how that would be safe. One frame looked like a throw a way in the front in or a stub, it just looked weird. Also heard them refer to trans-axle but to me a trans-axle is attached to the engine not to the rear wheels. Even a full time all wheel drive still uses a third member rear axle. I would love to see what they mean by trans-axle. They had two failures in just a couple laps of the same, it tells me the body cannot take any punishment at all nor the wheel rubbing. I think they built that track just to test these cars in a big group because if they don't hold up better than that a fast super speedway race is gong to be a real doozy.

 

I get it on directTV [satellite] .

BTW .... a transaxle is in the rear , Think Corvette, front engined Porsche, etc. Even go back to the early [62-63] Pontiac Tempest ........ those had a transaxle ...... even in stock trim, they handled [fairly] well. I was in a way disappointed when they [Pontiac] dropped the design in the first GTO. IMO it would have made a decent road-racer for the time ?

 

Sorry, you are speaking of Independent rear suspension, it is not a trans-axle. A trans-axle is attached directly to the engine or power-train. Hence the keyword "Trans" short for transmission. All front wheel drive is a trans-axle arrangement automatic or standard no matter. I think they are using the wrong name on TV describing a rear axle with velocity joints. There is no transmission at the rear of the car ! The engine is mounted in the normal position as is the transmissions. Corvette and Jaguar used the velocity jointed short axles. True the Porsche has a trans-axle because it is mounted with the rear engine arrangement.. No surprise they lost two cars due to tire contact taking out the short shafts. The season will be interesting to see how things work out. ;0) Speaking of road racers you could not find a Jaguar rear axle in 1970, soon as a car was totaled there was already a buyer on the waiting list. Jaguar only offered one gear ratio 3.73 which made a good cruiser but that was all there was. A 5 speed Zenith was used in the Ford Pantera mounted to the 351 cleveland. It was rough brute force linkage made of large fine toothed steel rods for the shifting and if you ever remove one you better be sure and take a hacksaw blade and lightly mark each rod or you would never get it to shift again as it did from the factory. I am sure they must have used some type of special tool to attach them on the assembly line. I ran across a nice custom build of a Volkswagen Bug using a highly customized engine which required a special built trans-axle to mount. I have forgotten the engine used but I am sure I have it saved somewhere. It had about 550 Hp and used a non synchronized trans-axle. It had to be shifted like a truck using no clutch. I'll see if I can find the video tomorrow. Another little car was built using a motorcycle engine, it too had to be shifted differently than a normal car due to the high RPM needed for the motorcycle engine to pull the car, but it too was a beast.

Here is the Volkswagen, there is a complete section on youtube for the actual build, simply first class and handmade .

 

As i understand it, they are a true "transaxle" design......with both the transmission & axle mounted in the rear of the car. See the link below ..... Yes front-wheel drive cars are transaxle, going all the way back to the Cord.

NASCAR's Next Gen race cars will debut for the 2022 season. These cutting-edge stock cars will feature a transaxle–a combination transmission and rear axle unit–similar in concept to the gearbox in the Chevrolet Corvette.Sep 21, 2021

 

Another link to an article posted in PMW magazine....

https://www.pmw-magazine.com/features/development-of-nascars-next-gen-transmission.html

 

More information on the new gen n.a.s.c.a.r car...... Note the mention of possible introduction of electrics/electronics when they explain the new sequential transmission..... Paddle shift ?


https://frcs.pro/nascar/nascar-101/about-next-gen-car

 

Now that is something new. I don't think there has ever been a one unit transmission with the ring gear all in one housing. I stand corrected Ron, that top photo is the first I have seen for this new car. One thing is for certain, the cars won't be able to take those high impact side collisions so this year will be very interesting. Thanks for the updates above.

 

Why do you think the collisions will be worse for the cars ? Not arguing, just asking.

I agree the new season/car, etc. Will be interesting. I'm not so sure I am all that excited about some of the new 'players' involved. And or the exit of some others.

I could do without all the hip-hop stuff ..... but that is likely my age [72] talking .

 

Indeed, the true defination of a transaxle is the one unit aspect ...... the unit is connected to the engine by a torque-tube . Been around for years. As I noted, the older Pontiac Tempest used that design. As does the much newer Porsche 924/944 model does.

 

After watching that final race two cars had similar failures after impact, I think it is the short shafts and suspension, where as in the past with a conventional solid axle it usually just shoved the axle housing over and broke the center alignment mount. They were usually still able to limp into the pits. Using these new shafts it is going to be subject to break after even a slight impact on the super speedways. I think maybe this last event could have been a test more than the fact of just building a track to open the season. I read most of the info on your links and it is going to be a very expensive item with the teams not being able to rebuild or repair those units. Only the maker will be repairing because there are no parts available so it was said. No hammers allowed ;0) I guess this is really just adjusting to the new car designs out there. It is all smaller and compact integral power trains. I watched the 62 Daytona 500 on video where Fireball Roberts finally won a 500 after being so close several times. They showed the pit lane and I noticed that the cars still had factory door panels inside. I never paid much attention to that when I was young watching those races on TV. I guess a radio was optional. You had Pontiac, Oldsmobile and every other brand back then. In the 70s it was HB Baily driving his own Pontiac in the Daytona 500. He had a large salvage yard just outside Houston city limits and he did pretty well for an non-sponsored entry. One of my old drag racing friends Gregg Davidson was his neighbor and he was racing Pontiac. Being a neighbor to Baily he had the inside on a lot of things no one else knew about the engines and what could be done to make more power. He learned a lot but went just a bit far and split his engine block in half literally. There were some pretty bad street cars in Houston in 1970, one a 70 Torino with a 429. It had the NHRA national record of 11.70 for showroom stock. They did allow several changes like cam, carb, unlimited gear ratio etc. One thing he was doing to the 429 was to get rid of the big valve heads and use Thunderbird stock heads with the smaller valves. It made a tremendous difference for drag racing. Oh the good old days, now I just cross my fingers and hope my old Truck will start after an overnight freeze.