The Evolution of Stock Car to Race Car: Seven generations of NASCAR race cars explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2022
- The spotlight shines on all seven generations of NASCAR race cars as we explain why every version is special and how innovation made each generation great.
The NASCAR race cars in the 1950s and '60s were truly stock cars. The evolution of the car took on many forms through the years to bring us to where we are now with the sophisticated Next Gen race car.
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I just wish there was an official video game where you could drive all 7 generations of cars.
that would be cool
and every track ever used on the Cup schedule
Nascar Racing 2003 has almost them all. Dunno if there's a gen7 mod already
@@vMaxDaniel there IS a gen 7 mod already
Yeah one that isn't broken on arrival with false promises.
I simply cannot fathom how in the Generation 4 segment, they never discussed how the car bodies became more skewed for front, rear, and side downforce! How could you NOT discuss something that defined the late gen 4 "twisted sister" cars?
My thoughts exactly. More than any other "generation", the difference between a car from the earlier years to 2006 is huge. Big disservice to the video by only talking about safety which is really closer to what the COT's stated goals were
Ikr its a huge part of the evolution of nascar
@@Mooker_43 when was the gen 4 ever demonized? They literally posted a clip of Mark Martin talking about it the same day this video came out.
A lot of deaths in the 90s til Dale Sr. They wanted to fly through it.
it would be nice if they discuss it but even Formula 1 Fans they never forget the deaths that happen in that era of deaths what have happened the whole thing even towards the focus on safety personally ashame they didn't talk about it more since they didn't move on about that.whilst the F1 and Formula 1 Fans they moved on and talked about it and made improvements
Wow! Whatever you guys did to up-convert the old SD video to HD looks absolutely amazing. Thanks for making this. Loved it.
AI upscaling. There's lots of products that can be used to "fix" old video.
@@marlafar Either that or they had film and not tape of the event. You can upscale film almost indefinitely.
Gen 4 will always be my favorite.
Same but gen 7 is kind of cool.. I know people hate nascar but I can’t.. been watching NASCAR forever..
I've been watching Nascar racing for over 45 years and the one thing I took away from this is that the old timers in this video understand that you have to evolve if this sport is going to survive. You can't run carburetors and solid axials forever. Also what I've noticed is that life has changed so much that it was impossible for this sport to stay the same. They could be racing hybrids in the next 10 years and you know what? I'm not mad about it. I will continue to embrace the evolution of the sport as long as they do it right.
I'm not against racing hybrid's either...just wish they would bring back stock car racing that the manufacturers built and sold like they used to
@@Grizz270 that would probably result in homologation specials and I'm definitely not an expect but i don't think road legal cars would work as proper race cars. even gt3 cars are very removed from the road versions while looking the same. and if we did go back to stock, the cars would probably be slower and i don't know how fans would take that. although i think it'd be really awesome to see truly stock cars racing.
@@sleepysxb7710 the original rules to stock car was the car and chassis were stock but they had to atleast sell 500 of those cars a year to make it considered a marketable car ...that is the reason why dodge built their car in the 70s with the rear spoiler for Richard petty...yes it can be done...the manufacturers would start having to make these cars for basic racing and the teams do modifications to the stock engine and drive terrain like they used to
@@Grizz270 it even happen in the 80s when GM went with the "aero coupe" Monte Carlo and Grand Prix 2+2. They were homologated for the purpose of going racing and to combat the sleek design of the Thunderbird that Ford brought to the party.
F1/GT racing fan here, why did it take NASCAR that long to create the cars that we see today? (IRS, sequential transmission, single lug nut aluminum wheels, etc.)
Its really sad that it took Dale Sr dying for nascar to focus on safety and not because of the 3 drivers that died in 2000 from a basilar skull fracture
Dale was the one that was pushing to make the cars safer, It took him passing away to do it. Safety should be first today. I worked on Sprint Cars and lost alot of friends till they made wings mandatory,
Ive always thought the gen 6 certainly looked great but I think this gave them too much credit. To say “fans loved it” is a bit of a overstatement. Good video though.
I'm pretty sure 2021 was literally just "WHERE IS THE NEXT GEN ALREADY!?"
The gen 6 was badass. Go look at any race from 2014. It doesn’t get better
Sure as hell better than the COT. That thing was an eyesore
Lol the look not the racing
It looked alright still didn't have the same proportions as the street cars. Gen 7 came closer
I remembered playing the old EA Nascar games on my PS2/N64 with Generation 4 and still enjoyed the games. Nothing can beat old school games!
You mean those outdated pieces of rubbish?
@@trent7736 I bet you're a nascar ignition enjoyer
@@ThiccRicc ignition sucks, how could someone possibly like it. But I see as that person has the worst opinion ever it could be 1% possible that they like nascar 21 the only fan of that game in existence
@@ThiccRicc never touched that shit
That's what has NASCAR burnt into my brain. Playing a mates copy of Nascar 99 on N64. Back in 2000 or so as a 7-8 year old over here in Australia. That Black # 3 with the "Plus" as in Goodwrench Service Plus, always stayed with me. I had a copy of the 2002 Guinness world record book with a piece on Dale Earnhardt Sr again with that famous #3 Goodwrench car. It always stood out to me. As well as being a Holden fan here in Australia which was the Australian division of GM.
Nascar, you REALLY should make a game... a sandbox, if you will... Where a player can start and play through the generations of the sport! Not just the modern current day, starting with gen 1 and allowing the player to race and build their team into a dynasty that lasts all the way until modern times! You will literally be printing money if you do it right!
That’s my dream NASCAR game. A career mode with the ability to choose in what era of the sport you want to start your career in. You start off with your own team without any sponsors but eventually if you do good in your equipment big teams will take notice and start offering you contracts, or you can choose to stay as an owner driver and build up your own team and get other drivers into your team to make it a multicar operation. There’s so much you can do with this concept, I just wish they would’ve done it already.
@@normalguy88 Exactly! I'd love some openness too. Allowing custom seasons, rulesets... Heck, maybe even a sort of "Story mode" that goes over some key events and urban legends in Nascar's history. Of course having a paint booth of sorts would be nice too... So many features I could think would tie this up in a nice package. But it can't be outsourced to someone like EA or, heaven forbid: Motorsports games... -shudder-
They haven't had a good developer who cares enough give it any effort
they can’t even make a good nascar game atp
@@tiddy671 They could if they actually gave it to a tested, reliable studio. Motorsports games is a total scamjob that should be investigated by the government. No I'm not joking.
For some reason, NASCAR seems to refuse to get any air under the car at all. The racing was always better up until the mid-2000s when everyone started coil-binding. Then came the splitter, now the diffuser. Racing is obviously better when mechanical grip is the game. Once you seal the cars to the ground it becomes about air which in turn makes it about track position. Take away horsepower and it just keeps getting harder to pass. Now everyone just wrecks trying to go 8 wide on restarts because that’s the only time you can pass. No matter how many fans they lose they just don’t seem to get it. High-hp low-downforce, and cars not sealed to the track is better racing.
Excellent comment
They just dont care what anybody but themselves and the tv ratings says
Im all for innovation but the day we are not running V8's anymore in the cup series is the day I stop watching. Besides, the V8 has been "dead" for 25 years now. I dont think its going anywhere.
Ground effects aren't the same as conventional downforce
This comment, on every NASCAR video... please...
I wish I could've experienced Nascar in the 80s and 90s. I wasn't born til 96. I remember having the Nascar toys and even a Jeff Gordon ammo box as my toy box. Saw my first race in 2005 at Talledega. I didn't grow up in a racing family but my family always knew how much I loved racing. I wish the sport would return back to its fanfare and popularity it used to have. I even got my best friend into Nascar in 2020 and took him to his first race at Bristol and we've been going to Talledega since
It was a different era that's for sure. I grew up in the 80s and attended my first race in '92 when I was 12. The camaraderie among fans were like we treated each other like family. Don't matter who or what you are. All we cared about was racing! Fans were rowdy and loud. Stands were packed and I mean packed from the tower seats to the infield. Watching guys like Earnhardt, Martin, Wallace among others was great for the sport. Those 750 hp engines x 43 cars made that earth shake like no other. Original points system, Winston Cup sponsored sport. Good times they were and boy did I miss those days!
NASCAR's popularity was built upon NASCAR dancing upon the grave of American open wheel racing.
Sprint Car Racers seemed to do pretty well in NASCAR. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Don't seem like the rest of Them Great Open Wheel Drivers liked racing NASCAR taxi cabs.
this was awesome! well done I'd love to see a full documentary about this
Ikr, this should be on Netflix
Gen 6 was the best in my opinion, 2014 model specifically.
Very safe chassis, 900hp and incredible racing.
That doesn't take anything away from the perfection of the sport from the 80s to early 2000s, but I feel that one year NASCAR had all the boxes checked.
2014 was amazing.
As a Gordon fan I loved 2014. Record speeds and competitive racing can’t top that.
2014 was probably my favorite season since 06/07, and it started with Jr getting that 2nd Daytona win
Removing the 2014 spec was a complete mistake. Brian should publicly apologize from doing it.
It had literally everything. Great looks, great performance, it did great racing, and a perfectly equalized high-horsepower short-intermediate spec, and one of the best super-speedway packages ever seen in NASCAR, and back then it seemed pretty safe to drive.
*It literally was a Neo-GEN 4 wherever you looked at it, but with a closer look to real showroom cars. Changing them 2015 onwards was a complete mistake.*
Literally what Brian France had to do back then, was to continue from there improving whatever had to be improved, and not reducing like crazy those 975 hp, he just needed to stick and contiuue from there.
I Miss 900 Horsepower
Gen 3, (81-91) was the best they have ever been, production based bodies, manufacturers had to use engines that were in production, (their own engines), the racing was far better and that's why it was so much more popular back then.
15:50 As a fan what I would like to see in nascars future is factory cars from the lot, bought by teams who strip it out, add some race parts, some bodywork, and safety stuff. Gotta keep the body, frame, engine, drivetrain. This is a way how manufacturers are important, win on sunday sell on monday, and makes the fans feel its more relatable
bullshit. "Win on sunday, sell on monday" is an obsolete motto because of the fact that nobody is even buying a new car. BTW, that kind of thinking will not work with NASCAR today in terms of safety.
That’s basically what GT racing is
@@racdude01 TCR touring cars as well. In fact TCR is more of a proper STOCK car than NASCAR itself with all base car's parts still intact even the engine, tune up the engine, add some racing parts and safety measures, and BAM! You got a race car
10:20 mad respect for admitting faults and not acting like youve gotten it right every time ever
Maybe NASCAR should do a throwback series where the teams all have to drive with Homologated cars. Basically bring back Gen 2 with V-8’s, Carbs, H-shift, 5-lugs, and then run it fast n’ loose for a couple races.
I grew up watching Gen 4 cars, wishing I could have seen Gen 2 or Gen 3 in their prime.
I grew up watching Gen 4 too... Wish i could've seen earlier generations
I m 71 yrs old I ve watched the development of Nascar since the mid sixties I got my fix every Saturday on Jim McKay s Wide World of Sports it wasn t more than the final lap or a big crash but I was hooked periodic races and then full time races in the 80 s I love the sport and all the characters from the King to what we see today Chase Elliot and the new Young Guns God Bless America and God Bless NASCAR oh my fav racer was Senior
My favorite era is the late 70s to the early 90s
My favorite NASCAR eras of Generation racecars is:
Generation 3 & 4 from the 90s & 2000s.
Generation 5 from 2007 the Car Of Tomorrow, it's kind new spoiler and splitter type of The Fast and the Furious 1st movie.
Generation 6 with steel aluminum into carbon fiber, less a hundred pounds of 3,300 pound racecar.
& Generation 7 is the future car, new wheels, new single lug & prototype aerodynamic.
*Eras*
Facts. Everything from 2007 onward is simply 🤮
Great video, really sold the gen 4 and 5 short tho. I wanted to hear a little about when the bodies started being fully fabbed, when the templates changed, when they quit using factory hood, roof, decklid, etc
Generation 4 - most beautiful cars
@nascar we NEED more content like this please!
Awesomeness Dale Earnhardt Senior was truly the King of generation 3 going into 4
Absolutely. 6 titles from 1986-1994 nobody will touch that type of dominance not even Jeff Gordon did that
Celebrating 75 years of racing.🌟
One thing i find pretty cool with the gen 7 car is that the australian supercars are debuting a new gen next year and they are running mustangs and camaros and they look the same save for a wing vs a spoiler
I think NASCAR would've looked at an Aussie Supercar as a little inspiration for the Gen 7 car, especially with the look to be better on Road Courses and stuff like the sequential transmission and single lug wheel nut
@@broadytaylor9493 they were both likely in development at the same time and as ford and chevy use the same name plate for both series, at least starting next year for chevy, it would make sense they look the same
@@Lcngopher Most of the tech (transaxle, single lug, etc) had already been in use in Supercars for a long time. The only real differences are the power trains and bodies. Up until this year NASCAR was using technology largely developed in 70s. They definitely looked to them and other motorsport series.
@@broadytaylor9493 They actually use the same transmission the only difference is that the Gen 7 only has 5 speeds instead of 6.
Nascar stock cars have probably had the strangest evolution of any type of race car out there.
I love how the first generation was basically a legal way to race your friends and just have a crap ton of fun lmao. Seeing how time changes is just crazy lol it went from 130 mph being fast to 130 mph nearly being in the warm up laps lol.
If you think about it tho its fast for it being 70+ years ago and they are still going speeds the modern ones do. Even if its only a warm up lap.
It's funny. If Nascar gave a damn after Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty, we wouldn't have lost Dale Sr. It took losing a driver they gave a damn about to actually do something.
They basically said to the King and to Kyle that they didn't give a shit about Adam to worry about safety.
This is awesome, don't get me wrong! But see, you want more interest in the sport? For example, you could have easily turned this into a 7-1 hour long part, mini series on netflix and really educated people and found more tv views sunday.
Lol, if they want viewers they should just re-air the Gen 4 seasons.
The modern sport is unwatchable. If they had a good entertainment product they wouldn’t need to make Netflix documentaries to get views.
Gen 4 car was the best racing Nascar ever seen
The Hendrick Motorsports Garage 56 Camaro ZL1 that raced the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans can contribute to the development of the Gen-7 as well as possibly whatever becomes of Gen-8. It is amazing just how much this series has evolved over the years and also how much the vehicles have evolved (including Trucks and Modifieds).
as a new nascar fan, i really love this content. keep it up & more will realize how dope nascar is and always has been
Gen 4 is my childhood. I was born in 93 and those awesome years to watch! The COT wasn’t good at all except for 2011 and 2012. The Gen 6 car was at its very best in 2014. Once they messed around with in mid 2015, it was doomed.
Yeah the gen 4 was one of the best
When they say the next gen looks more like the real cars…….it doesn’t. The way the back fenders are Claire’s and the rear of the car squats down. I think the last 2 years or so of the Gen6 look more like the real cars than the next gen
The Gen 6 was really asymmetrical
"Gen-6 put on a great show and the fans really liked it" outside of 2014 when did it actually put on consistently good races? RC must be on something.
Great shows: gen 1 to mid gen 5. Gen 7 is is a pretty good show though.
@@tuftyterror983 gen 7 really is only good at multi groove tracks like auto club, this is prob due to the lack of side force, however drivers have come out saying that the gen 7 produces worse aero push than the gen 6
Gen 6 was great. 550 HP killed it.
@@earth7440 nothing was worse that the aero push from the gen 6 550 package
Agreed. 2014 was the only good Gen 6 year... 2015 wasn't horrible, but 2016 and over was hot garbage
While it's not NASCAR, I remember back in the mid-70s at an NHRA event, Lee Hunter had the driver's side door open on his Mustang II pro stock car. Bill Jenkins looked at the door jam and said, "My God... this used to be a real car."
I liked the COT wing, but when it was deemed a huge safety issue, I wasn’t even upset.
I love nascar history like this! Love it!
This is expert production quality. Well done.
4th gen cars are just beautiful design in my opinion. My favorite generation
I would love to see NASCAR make a game after it’s history. Race each generation car over your career mode
2001 was obviously a turning point in the safety of these cars, but I’ve watched that video so many times, and the wreck that took Dale just didn’t seem that bad. We’ve all seen much worse wrecks, where the driver survived, both before and after 2001. The big difference, aside from the redesign of the cars, is NASCAR making the HANS mandatory. If Dale had been using it, and had his straps cinched up tightly, he very likely would still be with us today.
If the seat belt latch in Earnhardts car didn't fail he would have most likely survived.
His lap belts were tight, but he didn't like the way they were suppost be mounted and mounted his way, the left side lap strap broke and he was throwed around inside his car. Bill Simpson went to NASCAR about it and they said he has never been hurt before so they didn't do nothing.
@@billschaefer3818 *supposed
*was thrown
*had never been hurt
* didn’t do anything
I always said my first hotrod was a stockcar ('63 Mercury) with a 390, and my last one was a racecar with all kinds of racing parts from bumper to bumper...l Loved every one of them.
To see and hear 2 legendary names in Nascar talk about how these cars have changed since the beginning is completely mind blowing.
NASCAR NEEDS TO DO A TON MORE OF THESE VIDEOS. The new fan does not know how THINGS WORK in NASCAR. The old fans, know NEXT TO NOTHING about the new car. Explaining to the fan how things work will enable us to connect not only to the car or the driver. But the race itself. Larry McRenyolds, Mike Waltrip, Dale Jr. They all have that engaging personality. Get these guys, some 3D Models (like ya got already), and really go deep on how the car works. The fan will be able to level up their knowledge and really invest in our sport. ❤❤
As soon as NASCAR goes electric I wont be watching anymore, but for now I watch.
it's inevitable LOL. Seriously, get over it. Quitting a sport because it's going electric is the stupidest comment I have seen.
@@TheOwl22 its stupid to you, sure. To me its not. Electric vehicles are the worst vehicles because of the damage its doing to our earth and I wont and dont have to support it.
@@tankerboysabot first it's "gas cars are damaging the earth hurr durr" and now it's "electric cars are damaging the earth hurr durr" I mean make up your goddamn mind! Almost everything we've made has been damaging the earth. Oh and BTW, enjoy your oil while it lasts, it's gonna be gone by the end of the century.
@@TheOwl22 good we can enjoy oil as long as we can
@@TheOwl22 no it's not with a comment as stupid as that you must be a kid
man I hate how little everyone likes the CoT I mean it was such a great era but they give it a like 30 second segment I mean hell the Next Gen hasnt even had a full season yet but they talked about it more
Looking bad at the CoT I kinda appreciate it more. Still a step in the wrong direction as from the Gen 4, but it was a decent car. The rear wing was stupid and don't get me on about the splitter, but the racing was still better than the Gen 6.
they fixed the CoT by the end of the generation though, once they put the spoiler back on it and removed the step splitter they had some of the best racing they'd had in years
7 generations. But in especially gen 4-6 the cars changed drastically from the beginning to the end of the generation
The cockpit and everything was good wit the wing. But to me it took away from having the roof flaps because I seemed to see more flipping the wing on the back end...to that aspect I'm glad they got rid of that wing...
You know, Racing has always been around and it always will be. 🌟🏁
The iconic Toyota Camry #18 M&M's Go Rowdy!!!
4:20 DINOCO inspired livery
The gen 4 era was awesome
I actually kinda liked the COT era
The Gen 6 car is probably the worst car nascar has ever created
Gen 7 saved the racing
Gen6 was okay when they had a lot of horsepower/little downforce. Gen5 was okay when they removed that accursed wing, that was sending cars airborne.
Gen 6 started out great (even though it was responsible for one of the worst Daytona 500s), but overtime... it fell off, especially once they used the 550 package
I am one of the few fans that loved the Tandem Era drafting on the plate tracks that the COT provided for a few years with the height of it being in 2011.
Harry: “There’s nothing stock about a stock car!”
This was an amazing video I didn’t know I needed
Thanks NASCAR for the upload.
This was awesome keep it coming
We need more content like this! A series called NASCAR Seaons(similar to the mlb network show Baseball Seasons) woud be amazing
The big change in '67 was that so many street cars were built using unibody construction with a front clip that bolted to the body and held the engine and front suspension -- instead of full-frames. A unibody wouldn't be strong or rigid enough for racing, so they started building tube chassis and roll cages into the stock cars. And over time, it evolved to where they'd build the chassis and cage, and fasten the stock panels to that. And the cars LOOKED like what you'd see on the road, but that started to change when they came out with the GM10 Buicks, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles in '88 (where they had to stretch the body of a front-wheel-drive car to fit the same rear-wheel-drive chassis that they'd been racing for years). And when the Ford Taurus came out in '98, that was pretty much the end of the cars resembling anything you'd see on the road.
Yep. When I hear somebody complain about Toyota ("where can I get a RWD, V8 Camry) I have to remind them of 1988, 1991, 1998 and 2001 when GM, Ford and Dodge all ran cars that weren't available to the public.
Ok for all of the Cars fan this is all of the racers in their respective generations
Doc Hudson(Cars): Gen 1
Junior midnight moon(Cars 3): Gen 1
Louis barnstormer nash(Cars 3): Gen 1
River Scott(Cars 3): Gen 1
Strip "the King" Weathers(Cars): Gen 2
Chick Hicks(Cars): Gen 3(i guess)
Lightning Mcqueen(Cars): Gen 4
Jackson Storm(Cars 3): Gen 6(fight me)
Cruz Ramirez(Cars 3): Gen 6
Idk what you will do with this info but i think im obligated to do this
this video is great man.
Wow this was awesome thank you nascar.
Technology evolution, yes. Racing devolution, also yes.
Mid 1980's-Mid 2000's was the best gens...
COT with the wing was the worst...
Great video. I love the NextGen but my personal favorite Early 90s Luminas and Thunderbirds.
very insightful
thrilling doc. thank you
Even though I was born just shortly after they stopped using them, Gen 4 is and will always be my favorite.
R.I.P. DALE!!!
Great video!
I grew up with the gen3 IROC cars. The gen 4 cars where when NASCAR really became popular nationwide and NASCAR got that first big contract with Fox TV.
Gen3 is the fastest. Gen4 is the GOAT. COT is the game changer.
You can make Gen 7 faster with a new engine.
Would that make Gen 7 the commie dictator?😂
The 7 generations of *NASCAR* race cars are amazing, faster & impressive. Respect *NASCAR*
I wish to see a Gen 8 race car on all race tracks from *USA*
That would be great.
Really good video to understand what is Nascar and the story of this great sport (I come from EU and its really diferent from Formula 1, but is really really goog)
It's quite impressive the amount of stuff they implemented over the years.
Awsome video!
Should’ve used jimmie Johnson car to represent gen 5
Ricky Bobby joined in the cup series since 1996 with his teammate Cal Naughton Jr.
He means 3 generations of NASCAR! 1948-2006 - cars you could buy at dealerships. 2007-2021 - the first generic body that is identical to all the others except for the stickers. 2022-present - the updated generic body that is identical to all the others except for the stickers.
I'm going to make one bit of constructive criticism here, and it's probably more towards NASCAR as an organization than it is towards the makers of the video. I'd personally put the break between "Gen 1" and "Gen 2" between the 1962 and 1963 seasons, as that was when the Strictly Stock/Grand National rules changed to allow teams to assemble cars from "scratch," as it were, rather than having to buy an actual production car and modify it. (The specific rule change was no longer having to run a factory floorpan, but instead being able to simply use a fabricated copy of the 1962 Ford Fairlane floorpan.) Since that's when the cars no longer had to be bought off the lot, I'd say that's when the generational shift happened.
I'd also say that much of the safety revolution came with the CoT instead of the Gen 4; the Gen 4 was more of an Aero Wars Part 3, with the teams and OEMs trying to gain aerodynamic advantages while NASCAR was trying to equalize the cars aerodynamically, resulting in cars that had only the slightest resemblance to their production counterparts. (I specifically remember one mid-90s Ford commercial that saw a top-down view of the nose of a production Thunderbird morph into the nose cap of the then-current Winston Cup Thunderbird, and being shocked at how different they were, right down to the NASCAR one being a couple of inches forward at the center and a couple of inches back at the corners.)
All through Gen 2, I was hoping they would have talked about the Aero Cars of 69 to 70, but.....nothing. Not even a single photo of a Dodge Charger Daytona, Plymouth Superbird, or mention of Ford's King Cobra (that never raced, but could have won).
I'm biased because they were introduced when I was a kid, but Gen3 are my favorite cars by a mile. Purpose-built racecars underneath, stock sheet metal on top.
My second favorite might actually be the new cars, but I really hope you guys figure out how to keep the drivers safe without changing them much. It seems like the drivers are absorbing way more energy in crashes than they should be.
Well like was said in the video, with great advances of safety, the drivers are sticking their noses where they shouldn't be.
Put the 5 bolt wheels and tires back on and I think they could absorb some of the G-Forces during a crash.
I think the Gen 4 could actually be broken down into 2 or maybe 3 sub-categories. The 2006 Gen 4 was different than the 2003 Gen 4, which was vastly different from the 1992 Gen 4. It also seems the difference between the late Gen 3 and early Gen 4 were so subtle that most people would not even notice any change had taken place. The 1991 Thunderbird and Lumina race cars really didn't look any different than the 1992 Thunderbird and Lumina race cars. I am not even 100% sure what exact details are supposed to separate these two generations, though I think some body panels were made by the manufacturer prior to 1992, whereas those panels could be made by the teams after 1992, though still to factory dimensions.
The Gen 4 actually remained a decently accurate outward representation of the street cars until 2003, with the exception of the Ford Taurus. In 2003, the common template came into being and the cars all essentially became identical with different headlight, tail light and grill graphics. By 2006, the bodies had even become radically asymmetrical (Twisted Sisters). I liked all of the cars well enough through the 2002 season. I could even live with the 4 door Taurus masquerading as a 2 door. I haven't liked ANY of the NASCAR race cars from 2003 to present when factory dimensions for the bodies were completely discarded. The COT was an abomination. The Gen 6 looked like a bloated catfish. And the Gen 7, though an improvement over the Gen 5 and Gen 6, still just doesn't quite look right.
This! The gen 4 segment did not even explain what the gen 4 was!!
The 2005 Taurus is my favorite model ever used in NASCAR. Who cares if it didn't resemble the street car. Those things looked badass.
What about the 1993 Chevy to Ford comp as red to the 1992 Chevy and Ford?
Any differences.
Rear trans-axle, sequential shifter, and single lug nuts. JUST like the cars on the road...
Best nascar video
I love The Nascar Cars From 90`s And 2007 To 2010
Helton saying they had a wing on it "for a few races" is hilarious. When did the spoiler come back? 2010? That's more than a few races, Mike.
Gen 2 and Gen 4 are forever the best, gen 3 was all right, and I don't even want to mention the COT
It is clear that the new cars are safer, but still the cars of the second and third generation made nascar specific and spectacular above all. It's like here in Europe with the group b rally championship, those cars were legendary and spectacular...and they were real car races...
Gen 3 and 4. Legends like the Hornet, Cole Trickle, and Ricky Bobby. 😂
Epic also the songs
Good content
The winged COTs looked cool though. Not the biggest fan of the new gen cars, but it definitely looks cool.
Great video
From the flying mile in Daytona to the Speedway.
Gen 4 is still the best looking car and one of if not the fastest too.
Gen 4 the best
Gen 4 & Current Next Gen the best - The Worst was The COT
COT > Late Gen 6
I can spot differences between the 1991 Ford and Chevy race cars to the 1992 ones. It seems like the cabin is lower, the front is longer, and it's more aerodynamic and faster in 1992 than in 1991.