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Okay, I’m a car nut and engineering guy. Right on the heels of the Daytona 500, I just couldn’t pass up the timing for a NASCAR piece to incite riots or enthusiasm, depending upon how your gears shift. Yes, I mention NASCAR and F1 in the same breath. Go ahead. Take your best shot.
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Pushrods and Carburetors = Low-Tech?
I’m still not thrilled about pushrods and carburetors. I’ll take my fuel-injected, supercharged, double-overhead cam (DOHC), 32-valve V8 any day, thank you. Pushrod and carburetion technology have gone the way of the Dodo bird in most every other high-end form of auto racing (CART, IRL, Formula 1, World Rally Championship (WRC), etc.) in the world.
Single-camshaft pushrod engine designs are the only game in NASCAR town, however, as it has been since the humble, bootlegger beginnings of the sport. Still all the rage at GM and Chrysler for high-horsepower, mass-production V8s (such as the Corvette Z06, Dodge Magnum Hemi, Dodge Viper/SRT-10 V10), pushrod designs clearly work as long as one remembers that size matters. Most of these engines displace 350 cubic inches (5.7 liters) of displacement or greater, including those used in NASCAR (358 cubic inches).
While SOHC and DOHC designs make more power with less displacement, it’s tough to make the argument that pushrod designs are antiquated when non-restricted NASCAR Nextel cup engines produce somewhere in the area of 800 hp (teams are, of course, very secretive about the actual numbers) and regularly endure 7,000 – 9,000 (with some teams pushing 10,000) rpm for hours on end under racing conditions. Sure, small-displacement F1 V10s, for example, idle at 7,000 rpm and achieve over 19,000 rpm in race conditions, but they’re propelling one-third the car weight.
While it can be argued that pushrod-engined, carbureted racecars with solid rear axles are of stone-age technology, the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in NASCAR Nextel Cup vehicle research, development, and engineering have made these technologies work exceedingly well. NASCAR isn’t about the latest and greatest technologies. It’s about using the latest and greatest technologies (in terms of 3D computer modeling, aerospace materials, state-of-the-art engine testing and wind tunnel-perfected aerodynamics) to make traditional technologies work extremely well. Why try so hard with older-style basics? Doing so is ultimately less expensive, as the typical Nextel Cup car engine (excluding development) costs about $35,000. Considering that 4-cylinder WRC engines are rumored to cost anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000 apiece, $35K is dirt cheap thanks, in part, to pushrods and carburetors.
No one will argue that newer technologies will make more horsepower, taking Nextel Cup cars well over 1,000 hp. The burning question, however, is why? On the largest tracks of the Nextel Cup circuit, Daytona and Talladega, engines are restricted (with airflow-limiting, under-the-carburetor restrictor plates) to approximately 400 hp to hold speeds under 200 mph for driver and fan safety. A no-holds barred test (sans restrictor plates) last year reaped a straightaway speed of 228 mph at Talladega. While I’d love to see restrictor plates go away forever (It’s the nature of a race car driver to want to go faster. Period.), forty-three cars bumping around at 230 mph cannot be a good thing.
The ‘technology’ works. ‘Old’ designs or not, Nextel Cup is hands-down the most competitive form of auto racing in the world. (In today’s Daytona 500, with 49 laps to go, 25 cars battled within a total span of two seconds from the first car to the last. (Just a little more exciting than the typical 2-day gap between 1st and 2nd place in an F1 race, huh?) Keep the changes incremental, and God bless the engineers.
Good Ol’ Boys Driving Left in Heavy Taxicabs?
Yeah, Nextel Cup racecars are heavy (minimum weight of 3,500 lbs., sans driver). Most of that weight is attributed to the complex, integrated chassis and roll cage that’s strong enough to (most often) allow drivers to walk away from 200 mph crashes. Bodies are not fiberglass or high-tech composites, as they are in most other high-end forms of racing. They’re metal, each panel lovingly formed by hand, not stamping presses. Sure, open-wheel racecars generate considerably more grip and, more often, even turn right. However, if you believe that driving a Nextel Cup car looks easy (and it appears that way on television), go to a race. Stand as close as you can to the fence and try to keep your eyes on just one car as it flies by at 180 mph-plus. If you can do it, let me know.
Better yet, many racetracks around the country offer ride and drive programs in Nextel Cup-style cars. I recently experienced one such program at Pocono International Raceway, as a passenger. (I’ve got to go back to drive the cars.) The cars are close to the real thing, generating 600+ hp and achieving speeds of over 160 mph at Pocono. If you don’t walk away from that experience weak-kneed, giddy, and unable to form a complete sentence, you must be jumping off of buildings for kicks. If all goes well, you’ll walk away with an enormous amount of respect for what these Good Ol’ Boys do for hours on end every Sunday afternoon—and the engineers who design these monsters. Should you do it to prove anything? No. Do it to indulge your inner psychopath and have some inexpensive fun. A lot of it.
Congrats to Tony Stewart for leading the most laps in the 2005 Daytona 500, as well as to the winner, Jeff, um, what’s his name?
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I was an open-wheel road-racing mechanic and sometime test driver before going back to school for my aerospace and mechanical engineering degrees, I HAVE also driven a Winston Cup car so believe me when I tell you they are plodding lumbering hunks. A decent SCCA Trans-Am car can drive circles around any NASCAR “race-car”. NASCAR is not racing, it’s televised bumper cars. NASCAR is to true racing what Elvis on velvet is to fine art, and a direct descendant of the WWF or whatever All-Star Wrestling is calling itself these days. By the way, there is nothing inherently wrong with OHV/pushrod engine designs, just NASCAR’s application. However, your comment about F1 cars propelling only 1/3 of the weight (with greater HP) demonstrates a lack of basic engineering understanding. Maximizing the power to weight ratio combined with handling IS the objective of racecar engineering. In summary: NASCAR is like watching your toilet flush, but I’ll let your imagination fill in the details!
Thanks for your feedback, Dwayne. Hey, I asked for it; you took the shot. My compliments for that! Of course, I have a few issues with your arguments. 1. Even Racer of the Gods Tony Stewart would agree with your ‘plodding, lumbering hunk’ comment. But, go figure, that’s where the money is in U.S. racing. 2. Of course an SCCA Trans-Am car can drive circles around a Nextel Cup car, just as Tommy Kendell could drive circles around many Cup guys. Might as well compare a Gallardo to an Impala. 3. Maximizing power to weight ratio is not proof of knowledge. Any kid who’s lightened an HO-scale slot-car knows all about power-to-weight ratio. COMPETITION & DRAMA… Racecar engineering is not about power-to-weight ratio or handling. Last time I checked it’s about winning, no? F1 is certainly the pinnacle of automotive engineering. Watching a toilet flush, however, is about the level of excitement in F1 until Michael Schumacher retires–or lapses into a boredom-induced coma. The last time I was on the edge of my seat watching F1 was when Barrichello had the win tightly in hand–and, as ordered by the Ferarri team–kicked the handle and, bah-whoooosh! …flushed his well-deserved glory by slowing, letting teammate Schumacher take the win. Yeah. Wow. That’s racing (yawn). I’ll stick with televised bumper cars battling for position at 200 mph any day, thank you. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY… Missed this one too, Wayne. F1 teams have more money than God, and they spend it like drunken sailors. Were the Almighty to chare to share as much money with Nextel Cup teams, we would of course have lighter, faster, better handling cars–and NASCAR would again restrict top speeds for fan safety. So, what’s the point? Nextel Cup is simply extremely fast, extremely competitive racing. Oh. It also fills the stands with fans, something that no other U.S. auto racing sanctioning body has figured out how to do for an entire season. How does NASCAR do it? See “Competition & Drama.” Empty seats at the Indianapolis 500? That’s just sad, pitiful, and inexcusable. The finest racecar engineering in the world doesn’t mean much if fans don’t really give a flush. Respectfully, Mark