Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

First of all, I didn't amount to much in the seat of a race car. Those who know me can account for that. I have to eat humble pie quite often for my points of view. Lots of it. But here goes-

When the sprint cars used to come to town(USAC,CRA,IMCA,WoO ETC.) it was a special occasion. The crowds would swell to see these travellers fight it out with each other and a few locals would get in there and show us we had drivers to be proud of. Eventually it wasn't enough to drive as good as these out of towners, many felt the need to look like them too. Race cars here used to have SIGNATURE SHAPES which lent themselves to have a history of their own to be followed. 24 cars in the A meant 48 personalities when you count drivers and cars together. This took time to do.

In the last decade Karl Kinser commented the sprint car market might be getting oversaturated. Now we have 305,360,410 with varying rules that still separate oppurtunities to an alarming degree. Next year, N----R is going to rename it's top division the SPRINT CUP. You know how aggressive they market in order to keep their clients happy. Oversaturation sets in deeper. We know the difference yet many do not.

Changes are good in many ways these days. The hoods on the sprints keep changing and they are "COOL". The new wheel designs "COOL". Although I'm not sure about the size being good, wings are good in the long run.

Now, here's what I've been dancing around,(please forgive me for being anti-religous)....Do we need to run the same sprint tail shape that has been imposed upon us by other groups? The tail has gotten smaller and the need for weight transfer in regards to it has gotten smaller. A square fuel cell with an original tail design by various teams like we used to have in the last century gives a boost in the signature of a cars shape. It also says something about the teams personality. Throw in a little retro and then when the big boys come to town, put the sprint tail back on. If you can spend several thousands of bucks on engines, tires, traveling,wraps,pit fees etc, you can find a way to do it. You might have to give up the $7.00 hot dogs though. Just my opinion, now I'll go and hide.

By the way, before you bite my head off here, remember a '32 ford is much sweeter to look at than a '53 studebaker. Lines matter.

It's not that we all want our cars to looks the same, it's just that we all want to win. With only getting to race 20 races a year (at the max) the drivers and crews don't have enough time to experiment with new and different things. During the first half of the year my dad was experimenting with a new drive line design that he thought up, and it ended up not working to his expectations. Because of that he wasted the whole first half of the season on something that didn't work. He wants to work on it more, but he doesn't want to waste any more races on it.

We buy most of our parts from companies because they have the ability to pool their resources and build a great part cheaper, lighter, and faster than we can. These resources include many track hours, shop hours, and engineers to think up and design the part. After the part is thought up and designed they use the bottom tier World of Outlaw teams to test the part for them. The Outlaws run about 100 times a year, and if the company has 2 teams testing for them they will have 200 test races on the part. The only way to win now days is to BUY the best parts. It is sad, but it is true. Dad calls it a "bolt on society."

Brian, just remember, when you were a kid everything was great, exciting, and new. Things aren't as fun to me as they used to be, but it's not because they got less fun in reality, I just got used to them.

And for the square tail tank, buy me a square bladder (at least $1500) and I will run one.

I disagree with you on that point about the studebaker. I think the studebaker looks better. Anyhow you just shot your whole point to pieces a little bit on this. You talk about being different and showing something unusual than the rest. You look at all the 32 Fords that are running around the car shows and such. Look how many different companies build fiberglass bodies of 32 ford and you tell me that it is different. There are quite a few 53 studes out there, yes, but they are different than most.

I agree with Cheese it comes down to money and time. I am not going to try something strange that might cost me 2 grand to make and only make maybe 250 winning a feature with it. Todays racing has become alot more cost related at least on the local level. You also have to look at safety. Rules for saftey are alot more strict today than even twenty years ago. That is partly to due with people from the past dieing and suffering major injuries b/c of the lack of rule enforcement.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen 

Well, you were nicer about it than I expected. It was just an opinion.

The power of your show will help determine the strength of the leg you stand on when the next outsider thinks about tearing down the speedway. Money never sleeps.