The NASCAR Car Of Tomorrow, or "COT"?

Question

Love it or hate it??? Tell us why. My opinion....YUK! It takes away from the factory models that much more than they already do. Maybe I'm a 'stock' car racing purist??? Buy them off the lot, rip the glass out, pop-in a roll cage and go nuts....that's what I say. Now it's your turn to sound-off.

Answer 1

Hate it!!

It doesn't even look like a flippin' stock car..and to me, it's just plain stupid. I'm kind of like you with it..

I don't think it's going to "even" up the field like Nascar says it will..and I can't imagine you can get much safer crashing into a wall at 200mph than they have been during the hard hits of last season (Gordon at Pocono..Kahne at Indy.. )

So I wish they'd leave it the crap alone.. I"m not sold on this COT thing, and I honestly doubt I will be come Bristol.

Answer 2

I HATE the COT. NASCAR is moving away from its Southern roots and is becoming a sort of "Europeanized" stock car circuit. The wing on the COT along with the fact that everyone in the field will be driving an identical car just narrows the gap between NASCAR and the boring IRL and other open wheel series. I'm fed up with Brian France. Stop screwing with NASCAR: keep racing in the South (don't kill Darlington and Martinsville), bring back real stock cars, and stop allowing foreigners from racing in America's racing series. There's nothing wrong with America's good ol' boys.

Answer 3

News Flash! There haven't been any UAW built cars in NASCAR for years. "Cars built by Edwin Keith "Banjo" Matthews won 262 of 362 (72 percent) Winston Cup races from '74 through '85--all 30 races in '78 --and four consecutive championships from '75-'78. For many races his cars composed half the field, or more." * The other half was not necessarily Detroit steel as Hutcherson-Pagan *** have also been building cars since1971. Said Matthews, "The basic construction of a car is not what wins races," Matthews said in a 1980 interview. "It's the team effort after the car leaves our facility that separates the winners and losers. We strive to build our cars as good for one customer as we do for another. The credit for their performance goes to the people who operate them." ** I haven't seen a mass-produced Ford, Chevy or Dodge win a race since I was a very young man. If NASCAR feels they should have the "spec car" for safety and to even the aerodynamic playing field, I'm all for it. Any change that reduces the "gray areas" is good. The realization that my driver lost to a better driver is easier to take than losing to a "gray" car. The fantasy that some fans live under of watching Detroit steel race is kept alive only by manufacturer's money and a few important parts coming to the teams, but the reality is long gone. Is it coincidence that NASCAR's rise in popularity mirrors the absence of Detroit built cars? If you were to walk through any parking lot at any racetrack, foreign nameplates are prevalent. The only Detroit steel on the track are the Pace Cars and safety equipment. Limitations on engine "specs" have made NASCAR a "spec" series for years. May as well put them in a "spec car" and let the primary variable be the human factor. If NASCAR fans were only fascinated with cutting edge technology we wouldn't be watching it. Any that are, like me have F1. We have always and will continue to be more interested in who has the better genes, not the best engineering; the crux of the Earnhardt-Gordon debate as an example. Any car is just a useless pile of parts without a driver, as it will just sit there looking pretty all the while but the real beauty resides in what a driver can do with a car, not in what a car can do for a driver.

Answer 4

I agree with all the people who said they hate it. I also think that Mike Helton is a buy out puppet because it seems that everything he is doing is for the sponsors not the sport. Yes I know you need sponsors in order to race but they have to understand they cannot dictate the sport and Mike should stand up to them instead of pus syfoot around issues and give them their way. Along with letting Toyota into an American sport with deep roots in American tradition. Also they could save some smaller teams alot of money by not caving into pressure to bring the series to foreign countries like the Busch series. That is expensive as hell to do and what benefit does the smaller sponsors get out of that? Mike Helton should not even play with the idea of putting the cup series on foreign soil let alone a Busch series. Their are plenty of tracks that could be used in the U.S. for hosting events so why not use them or build another one here in the U.S.? Why not tell the foreigners if you like the Cup series so much come over here and watch one. How long before they take away the prayer before the race or the American Anthem? If it keeps going the way it is it wont be long.

Answer 5

Love it . the COT more closely resembles a stock car better than last year. The green house is larger more in tune with road cars. The car is wider, closer to highway specs. I'll agree the front spoiler is butt ugly. The taller wider car will cause a better air wake behind it allowing for safer easier drafting. Well see more INDIVIDUAL sling shots again. The chassis are completely the same. Absolutely no changes. Engine rules unchanged. From the stands you don't look at the front spoiler and the rear one probably will create better down force. Lets not rush to judgment

Answer 6

The car of tomorrow is pusing the wrong way for stockcars.The car is taking on a look of the American LeMans or Rolex looking cars.The first reports I read this car was to be a safer more compeditive car but now it is looking like a mass purchase car with Asia lines.

The days of going to the factory,dealer or junk yard to get the body for your car is gone.The drivers from the 50's.

,60's,and even 70's could build cars as well as race them.Today there may be a couple of drivers that can do this,but very few of your Gordon,Johnson,Khane(used only as example) that could build as well as race a car.

Answer 7

I'm with the rip the glass and dash out, put some tube in, change the seat and let's race!!!





As for the COT, It's is actually closer to the size of it's street car counter part, though the wing looks goofy, the Frankenstein Ground Effect splitter on the front looks like The Hoover company made it for them... I am starting to get used to it and think it will be fine once they start using it everyweek.



I miss the Thunderbird!

Answer 8

It's being done to even the field. The "poorer" teams are crying because they don't have the money to put into their cars like the big boys do. It will now come down to the drivers, not the equipment. It's both good and bad. I like the way the cars look now, but this way it will separate the men from the boys. Hopefully it will cut down on the cheating as well.

Answer 9

Hate it!!! First of all I love the Chevy Monte Carlo. The COT is going to be a Impala SS. Are you kidding me, a four door race car?



Also, the spoiler package makes it look like a tuner car. Not interested in a tuner car.

Answer 10

Undecided...I want to give it a chance before I throw it under the bus..Everyone hated the Chase format at first too, remember? and as far as the comment down there about the impala ss being a "4 door race car", they are all 4 door race cars!!!

Answer 11

As long as it makes it safer for the driver and the competion gets better , I;m all for it. Kind of getting more and more like IROC where it has more to do with the driver than the car.

Answer 12

Your right



The car of tommorrow is a bust, it takes away the spirit of the sport and is also reverting to F1 a bit. I hope NASCAR changes its mind.

Answer 13

What NASCAR wants NASCAR gets and hey as long as the drivers are happy then I see racing on Sundays! GO JR #8

Answer 14

Like everything else.."run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it". I hear they want to have a NASCAR race in Japan

Answer 15

I said in the past that they look like the Volkwagen "New Beetle", but this is ridculous:



http://www.dantrujillo.com/blog/the_car_of_tomorrow.jpg



Kidding aside, the Crash of Tomorrow *does* look like the New Beetle:



http://www.speedtv.com/_assets/library/img/large/99963_car_of_tomorrow.jpg

http://www.racingone.com/images/sspics/hires/1288a.jpg



http://www.rsportscars.com/foto/02/beetle_rsi_front.jpg

http://www.rsportscars.com/foto/02/beetle_rsi_racing.jpg





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Answer 16

well i am kinda torn inbetween because it is probably the ugliest looking thing i have ever seen but if it makes the racing better than i think it is all worth it

Answer 17

Looks like it's turning into IROC.

Answer 18

It looks horrible

Answer 19

They look terrible from front to rear.

Answer 20

nascar is stupid, watch a real series like formula 1, or champ car

Answer 21

the COT will be a POS

Answer 22

don't like it they should have left it alone