[LSC9901]

For a while now we have all vented our frustrations over Toyota being in our beloved NASCAR. How about some postive discussion about Toyota and the effects it will have on NASCAR in general.

[Hassan]

I don't have any good points right now but all i wanna see is a good competition from toyota's so we wont have 2 say that NASCAR done a wrong thing by letting them in.

[wingkey1]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

For a while now we have all vented our frustrations over Toyota being in our beloved NASCAR. How about some postive discussion about Toyota and the effects it will have on NASCAR in general.

Have not really had bad toughts / frustration around Toyota's entry. Possibly been too practically minded around it. Thoughts run around in the area of:

1. Could be the / another wake up call the domestics (i.e. The "big" 3) need to get back on track

2. The way things are going with the "big" 3, there may be no product / cars to run were it not for Toyota

[wingkey1]

Somebody help me with something here. I cannot find the answer.

In which model Toyota car does one find a V8, non-overhead cam, normally aspirated, engine?

Was trying to determine the source of the engine to be used in the racing Camry. Was anticipating (silly me) that there was perhaps a production engine (i.e. available to the general public in a standard model) that was to be used as the basis for the NASCAR entry.

Can find healthy V8 in the Tundra as an option but not without DOHC or fuel injection.

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by wingkey1

Somebody help me with something here. I cannot find the answer.

In which model Toyota car does one find a V8, non-overhead cam, normally aspirated, engine?

Was trying to determine the source of the engine to be used in the racing Camry. Was anticipating (silly me) that there was perhaps a production engine (i.e. available to the general public in a standard model) that was to be used as the basis for the NASCAR entry.

Can find healthy V8 in the Tundra as an option but not without DOHC or fuel injection.

There has been many rumors where Yota got their engine. First it was rumored to be modeled after the Cleveland. Then it was rumored to be modeled after the dodges. I believe the dodge one since Bill Davis helped Yota into the truck series. I guess better competition would be possible as a good thing (in keeping with the thread).

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by wingkey1

Can find healthy V8 in the Tundra as an option but not without DOHC or fuel injection.

Well, when you say "normally aspirated", I assume you are speaking of carburetors in which case nobody has run them since the 80's in production cars. The true sense of normally aspirated means non forced induction, ie turbos or supercharging. Another thing is nobody runs pushrods any longer, so all the Nascar engines are basically dinosaurs of days gone by.

[wingkey1]

Originally Posted by Nevadastars

Another thing is nobody runs pushrods any longer, so all the Nascar engines are basically dinosaurs of days gone by.

You might want to do a bit of investigation here. Particularly on the pushrod thing.

Believe you'll find pushrods on V8 production cars from the big 3 are still fairly prevalent.

Might be a bit tougher to find non-fuel injection but pushrods are everywhere.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

For a while now we have all vented our frustrations over Toyota being in our beloved NASCAR. How about some postive discussion about Toyota and the effects it will have on NASCAR in general.

You know my basic feelings ion this one, but just to show I can debate both sides of an argument...

(a) Even though the majority of the bottom-line profit is going off-shore, Toyota is being built right here in the good old USA and that means a lot of our fellow Americans are getting a paycheck.

(b) Buick, Olds and Pontiac have all dropped out of NASCAR competition in the past decade (Hell, Olds just dropped out of everything!) GM's stock is currently trying to get out of the tank, Ford is starting to worry that their latest version of the F-100 isn't going to be the best thing since Col Sanders' Spicey Crispy Chicken. Chrysler is licking its wound left by Toyota passing them as #3 auto-seller in the USA and there is an annoying little rumor (completely unsubstantiated) out their that Stutgardt, or where the Hell Daimler-Benz is headquartered, is contemplating pulling out. Maybe NASCAR need another manufacturer?

(c) NASCAR is playing with old technology. Maybe Toyota's technology and probable success will give the Toy's the cache to push NASCAR to evolve itself into the 21 Century and allow fuel injection and sundry other technologies that have been in use for a couple of decades.

Gosh, that hurt.

[BringBackWilkesboro]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

(c) NASCAR is playing with old technology. Maybe Toyota's technology and probable success will give the Toy's the cache to push NASCAR to evolve itself into the 21 Century and allow fuel injection and sundry other technologies that have been in use for a couple of decades.

Gosh, that hurt.

I dont think Im ready for NASCAR's evolution into the 21st century the way thing are going, but one good thing Toyota does bring to the table is its TRD (Toyota Racing Development) program. As you said Bob, some of TRD's new technology could boost NASCAR forward to today's level of racing performance, and Im not talking about "tuner car" performance.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by BringBackWilkesboro

I dont think Im ready for NASCAR's evolution into the 21st century the way thing are going, but one good thing Toyota does bring to the table is its TRD (Toyota Racing Development) program. As you said Bob, some of TRD's new technology could boost NASCAR forward to today's level of racing performance, and Im not talking about "tuner car" performance.

<SIGH>

Yep, TRD could usher in an entirely new brand of competition with new technology.

You know, Wilks, I had something explained to me today in a manner I could finally accept. First of all you have to take two things as givens; (a) NASCAR is a profit-motivated business, just like your favourite auto parts store, home improvement store, or the garage you take your car to. (b) Every generation views the world differently than did the previous generation.

Keeping (a) and (b) in mind, the changes we are seeing in NASCAR; the conversion from NASCAR to NA$CAR is inevitable. We "old-timers" don't regularly pay the high ticket prices, buy the high-priced memorabilia, collect ables, and clothing in the quantities the younger generation does. We see foreign involvement, national pride, and ethical behaviour in an entirely different light than many years our junior do.

Speaking for my generation, we may follow NASCAR rabidly but as far as buying things which put money in NA$CAR's coffers, we are toward the bottom of the food chain. We just plain have better things to become more than superficially involved in.

I feel that there is something wrong with a Japanese company becoming involved with an "American"(as I see it) sport. I think NA$CAR-orchestrated competition (read: Chase, Lucky Dog, Debris Cautions, etc., etc. here) despicable. I firmly believe a "one template fits all" race car just plain sucks. I think the reality that a 18 yr old kid can step into a championship-level ride when only a decade and a half ago the average age of a NASCAR rookie was 32.5 leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't believe that it is fair or even ethically right that a driver who qualifies as one of the fourty-three fastest has to go home because he isn't in the top thirty-five in owner's points.

However there is a frightenly large number of people out there who see nothing odd about any of the above. This is basically because the demographic that NA$CAR panders to is one to which my above complaints have as much credibility as gangster rap does to me. This demographic just plain sees the world in an entirely different light than do I.

I guess that I'll just have to accept the fact that NA$CAR is what it is. Yep. I may have to just accept it but I sure as Hell don't have to necessarily like it.

[wingkey1]

An entire island country of potential drivers that meet the physical dimensions and stature most prevalent in Nextel Cup today?

Somebody want to close my cage door behind me please?

[LSC9901]

Bob, as usual a very well put post. I do agree and have stated so many times that today's NA$CAR is all about profit. Yes in the eyes of the older generation that is a sin and it has taken away the sport as we remember it from years gone by. Today many folks think nothing of going to EBay and bidding twice the value for a PS3. Money has a different value than it did in my younger years.


I also feel that I am a NASCAR fan who is unhappy with where the sport is at but will continue to be a fan because it is still the closest thing to stock car racing.

[clutch]

More competition has to be a good thing. Mediocre teams will have to up their performance to make the field.....or could they increase the field????

[clutch]

Originally Posted by wingkey1

An entire island country of potential drivers that meet the physical dimensions and stature most prevalent in Nextel Cup today?

Never thought of that one

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by clutch

More competition has to be a good thing. Mediocre teams will have to up their performance to make the field.....or could they increase the field????

Obviously there will be more competition but at a cost. The cost is that the members of the teams will be spread thinner than 2006. Every year crew members swap from one team to another but this year there will be another 10 +/- teams so the field of experienced crew members will get thinned out even more. What does this mean ?? To me it means just one thing. Teams will have less experience than in the past. This is one reason I feel that Toyota will not be great this year. It takes time for a team to come together. We'll see.