On Feb 9, 8:53*am, Zombie of Woodstock wrote:
On Mon, 9 Feb 2009 05:38:53 -0800 (PST), wrote:
Actually, teams are getting the new car dialed in nicely, and it's
making some damned good racing. What looks strange as all hell is the
way they've got those things crabbing to make them tighter. You see
them on the straight and it looks like the ass end is coming around!

You think?

Not to me - they are unstable as all hell and when you read what the
crew chiefs and drivers are saying "off the record" they hate the
freakin' car.

NASCAR designed a safe car - no doubt about it - but it drives like
crap and it's a constant battle to keep the thing on the track.

One of the SAE engineers I know that was marginally involved in the
project told me that NASCAR is requiring too much precision in the
manufacturing process which is stifling development.

When you watch the in-car cameras on the COT compared to the previous
model car, these things are jumping all over the place and have a
horrible tendency to suck up sideways in multi-car drafts. *And you
never know if you are getting a push or are loose until it happens -
it constantly changes from lap-to-lap.

And, just listening to a comment on SPEED from Mike Wallace, the car
eats tires - none of the compounds they used to use are any good on
the new car and according to Zipendelli, the compounds were never
right last year because what looked to be the right choice from
previous testing turned out, in general, to be wrong for track
conditions on race day.

Plus, it's ugly and you can't tell, unless there is a really
distinctive paint job, which car is whose like you used to be able to.

It's going to kill NASCAR and quicker than you might expect.

--

When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you

They didn't like the car at first, but are warming up to it, besides,
if they had everything they wanted (crew and driver) then it would
surely be a boring contest. Goodyear had problems dealing with tires,
but seems to have gotten a handle on it. And cars have always been
jumping around, it's just part of it, the tracks are sometimes rough
in spots (like turn #1 in Daytona where the tunnel is) etc. Again, if
you listen to the chiefs, they are horrible, but if you listened to
the chiefs before, they've always complained about one thing or
another. That's racin', I've been involved in racing even when I was a
little kid, I'd go to the shop and hang all day, then a little older,
got to go the the track and help pit the car, as well as help out with
the after race fights!