NASCAR's First Full Season with a Field of Decidedly Different Race Cars Is
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NASCAR’s ‘Car of Tomorrow’ Not Much Wiggle Room BY PACK BRYAN NASCAR’s first full season with a field of decidedly different race cars is just getting started. Here’s a close-up look beneath the skin of one of NASCAR’s newest cars, and an explanation as to why the rule changes were made. n March 2007, after seven years of development and testing, NASCAR premiered its “Car of Tomorrow” (COT) at the high- ment Center focused their engineering banked .533-mile oval in Bristol, and testing efforts for the COT on the TN. Many drivers had expressed principal goal of safety. It didn’t hurt disdain for the car before the race, that the new rules also led to significant Iclaiming it felt “top-heavy” and was hard cost savings for race teams. Because so to handle. Climbing out of the organiza- much of the car’s configuration is rigidly tion’s much-heralded new racer at the prescribed in the new specs, there is lit- end of its first race, the winner declared tle advantage (or need) to build differ- process: A thickness gauge certifies that how much he hated the vehicle. So ent cars for different tracks. There is far the metal thickness is compliant and a much for a grand entrance! Neverthe- less wiggle room. As a Wood Brothers/ coordinate measuring machine certifies less, the car has been a success. By the JTG team spokesman said, “Under the the proper location of the frame rails, end of the race, most drivers had faced old rules, you used to be able to color chassis tubes and suspension points. To- up to the fact that the car was what outside the lines once in a while. Now gether, the two devices take more than they’d be driving in the future. They put you can’t!” 220 measurements. 1 their objections aside and went to work The COT chassis are built from blue- Although the COT is 2 ⁄2 in. higher learning how to get the most out of it. prints provided by NASCAR. Once and there’s 4 in. more width in the Working with manufacturers and completed, they’re submitted for ap- greenhouse, NASCAR claims that the race teams, NASCAR engineers at the proval at the Research and Develop- car looks more like a production car organization’s Research and Develop- ment Center. Certification is a two-part than the old race car. That will take an Gib Miller Photo: 28 March 2008 experienced eye to discover, for all cars In the past, the big teams often had 20 and Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA, must meet the same dimensional specs or more cars in various states of readi- and still another pair for the short tracks for wheelbase (110 in.), body width ness in their headquarters garages. at Bristol, TN, and Martinsville, VA. Fi- (74.0 in.), body length (198.5 in.) and Smaller, less well financed teams had nally, there was a variety of what we height (53.5 in.). come to the point in recent years where might call “regular” cars for the many On completion of the inspection even they had to have more than just a oval and tri-oval race tracks that make up process, NASCAR attaches radio fre- few cars if they hoped to have any the rest of the NASCAR circuit. Drivers quency identification chips to nine chance of success throughout a 36-race had their favorites and constantly worked points on the chassis with a special holo- season. Starting with the basic require- with their crews to achieve a consistent gram tape to assure that the chassis has ment for a backup car for any given race, feel and driveability among all of them. been officially approved by NASCAR teams had found that there were enough Although teams struggled to make a and is ready to go to the race track. differences in car setups (and, some- car and its backup identical, there are times, even car shapes) that cars built always minute differences that take ex- specifically for certain tracks became the pensive track and shop time to mini- way to go. One pair was built for the two mize. Reduce the need for track-specif- high-speed restrictor-plate races at Day- ic cars and you cut costs by the barrel- tona, FL, and Talladega, AL, an- ful. If the same car was needed for two other pair for road courses races in succession, the problem of like Watkins Glen, NY, cleaning up and “freshening” it after the first race frequently was avoided by sending its backup car to the next event. This practice also worked well when two successive races were sched- uled at tracks located at opposite ends of the country. But you have to have enough cars and haulers to do that. March 2008 29 NASCAR’s ‘CAR OF TOMORROW’ Teams sometimes experimented with discovery of a solution to a problem. In changes to the shape of the front end 2006, in an accident involving an outer and other parts of the body to achieve concrete wall, a protruding rebar real or imagined improvements in pierced the left door panel and badly in- speed or handling. But each time they jured the driver. NASCAR soon re- 1 did, there was a cost in bodywork, quired that a ⁄8-in. sheet steel barrier be painting and testing. That can’t happen welded to the roll cage on the driver’s anymore. Building the Car of Yesterday side. The driver’s seat in the COT has (COY) used to take four to five days. been moved 4 in. closer to the center of Now, for the COT, it’s down to three. the car, further separating him from the possibility of injury from side impacts. Building the Car The car body is molded of 22-gauge Of Tomorrow sheet steel, and energy-absorbing ma- Let’s see how the basic NASCAR racer terials are installed between the driver’s Photos: Pack Bryan Pack Photos: is put together. The days of pulling a car Special racing studs on the hubs side roll cage door bars and the door off the showroom floor, strengthening (here, front right) of a race car are panels. Actually, there are no door pan- the frame, welding a few roll bars in the longer than standard, with rounded els as such. Because doors were always cockpit, souping up the engine and go- tips and no threads on the outer half. strapped or even welded shut in the ing racing are long gone. early days, once the NASCAR racer be- The big changes began in the early the assemblies from specialized com- came a custom-made vehicle, doors 1960s as NASCAR grew and acquired panies like Hopkins Racing Enterpris- were eliminated, and the body became the authority to mandate what was nec- es in Spartanburg, SC. a smooth-sided sculpture from front to essary to make a car eligible for racing. The frame is made of 3x4-in., .093- back. It started with strengthening the A- in.-wall rectangular steel tubing. (The Each of the four manufacturers— frames, moving through the 1967 entry frame is doubled on the driver’s side Ford (Fusion), Toyota (Camry), Dodge of Ford Fairlanes with specially modi- in the COT.) The roll cage is welded (Avenger) and Chevrolet (Impala SS)— 3 fied front frames. A few years later the together using .093-in.-thick, 1 ⁄4-in.- provide their teams with nose and tail roll cage, welded to the existing frame, diameter seamless steel tubing for the pieces for the COT, usually molded of became an integral part of every car. main shapes, smaller for supports and fiberglass. The teams then build steel For several years before the COT, connectors. bodies to smoothly blend with those and now with the COT, race teams Today’s car has become a very sophis- pieces. The manufacturers also furnish started by constructing the basic ticated machine, the result of a progres- the hoods, roofs and deck lids. frame and roll cage, then wrapping sion of evolutionary steps. Safety has A device known as the “egg crate” re- the rest of the car around it. These been the reason behind virtually every places the many templates that were frames could be fabricated in team change mandated by NASCAR. In once used by NASCAR to assure that shops, but most have found it advanta- some instances, these changes have all cars met the specs for shape and size. geous to farm out that process, buying been made just a few days following the Some templates were used to assure 1 Steel rods tie the steel body panels to the roll cage of the Additional protection for the driver is afforded by a ⁄8-in. race car and prevent air pressure from deflecting the steel sheet welded to the outside of the roll cage. Note body sheet metal at high speeds on the track. the heavy steel floor and driveline cover. 30 March 2008 Fiberglass nose pieces are supplied by Ford for Wood Brothers cars. The photo on the left shows the pieces before finished shaping and priming. The photo on the right shows the car ready for early Daytona testing. When coordi- nated with adjustments to the COT’s elevated rear wing, the black front splitter can be adjusted 4 to 6 in. fore and aft, to easily tune aerodynamic characteristics to suit handling needs and driver preferences. that body shapes were in keeping with that covers most NASCAR racers.