Team Fuzion

Hey I'm watching the daytona 500 one of the four races I make sure to watch in NASCAR. Toyota is now a prime contender in the Truck series , which means they ae one step away from running with the so call Big Boys the only way an import can enter they say is if its built in america so I bet within the next 5 years all import manufactures will hopefully invade so whats your take o that?

carguycw

First, it won't happen until some import companies besides Toyota start making V-8 engines, and they do some SERIOUS campaigning and begging to get in. NASCAR is NOT going to change the rules to allow different numbers of cylinders; they are making enough money the way things are now. Plus, look at how much the teams bitch and complain when one of the EXISTING companies changes a bodystyle- imagine the fury if an all-new company tries to get in! [BTW I know that Dodge came back a few years ago, but they had it easy IMHO because of their extensive history in NASCAR.]

Second, it ultimately won't really make any difference in the series, except maybe to some companies' marketing departments. NASCAR Winston Cup is essentially the biggest, highest-profile "Spec Racer" series in the world. NASCAR constantly juggles the rules to keep the racing close- the rules are extremely restrictive and are enforced to the nth degree, and if one carmaker or team develops something that gives them an advantage, NASCAR changes the rules to take the advantage away.

We shall see, though.

Pirana

Toyota will appear in NASCAR within a couple of years. They will use a Camry body with a Tundra engine. One of the rules will involve the use of the 5.0L engine on their cars. Hence the Toyota 5000GT. Finally I will watch NASCAR.

PS-Toyota is already dominating the Goodys Racing Series with a V6 Camry.

turbonium959

I think Nascar should allow as many competitotrs as possible. Nascar is so boring, it is all about a bunch of exact same cars having different sponsors. And the only bitching that has been going around Nascar is about aerodynamics, which I am sure th new comers can easly adapt to whatever Nascar will throw at them. Anyhow, Toyota hopes to get in next year with this car:

Arkos

Kind of funny that you bring that up, ...


From what I understand, Toyota is about to build a truck factory down in San Antonio, ... one step closer?

sileighty21

i'm curious to see if nissan will get into the truck series too in a few years with their new truck the titan. it's got a v8 in it and looks to be pretty nice. their main goal was to take on the f150's so maybe nissan will be in nascar too. never know...

kc5zom

I don't think anyone is making pushrod V8's with carburetors anymore.

I could care less. I hate watching cars drive around on an oval waiting for someone to crash (I KNOW that is why people watch that crap). It is going to **** off a lot of the good ole boys because all those aerodynamics packages aren't representing just American cars anymore.

Makaveli

I HATE NASCAR

kcbhiw

They'll be making pushrod V-8's for a long time. Panoz uses a carb'd Ford Motorsports 351 in their Esperante-GTS (just to name an example).

As far as NASCAR goes, it's just plain dull IMHO....redneck roundy round.

JustinMP3

I HATE NASCAR!!!!!!!!! its been said before, nothing but non fuel injected billboards on wheels, O yeah and i dont care what anyone says "watch those right turns!" LOL

carguycw

That's not the best example IMHO because the Esperante GT-S is a purpose-built race car that doesn't have to meet emissions regs. Better example is GM's new LS1 engine, which is a ground-up redesign that shares nothing with the old smallblock Chevy, and the new Mopar 345 Hemi, which is roughly based on the old "LA"-series smallblock but is almost totally all-new. Both engines use pushrods, but both engines are modern in every way and they're smaller, lighter, more powerful and more fuel-efficient than the equivalent OHC Ford modular V-8. Pushrods will be around for a looong time.

However, this helps bring up the irony of NASCAR... all of the Big Three's Winston Cup stock cars still use variants of their OLD pushrod V-8 engines, the ones that have been phased out of their street products. This is for the same reason that imports will have trouble getting in- rulebook stability. These engines have all been around for at least 40 years, so everyone knows what they can do. That's why Dodge had it easy getting back in; although Chrysler had been out of Winston Cup for years, the other teams still had decades of knowledge of what a Mopar smallblock is capable of. NASCAR wants to keep the racing close; the LAST thing they want is for one carmaker to introduce a hot, new engine and wipe the floor with the competition... like what happened in the late 60's. This is why the imports face a HUGE uphill battle to get in to Winston Cup.

However, I will have to agree with some other folks here on one thing... in the end, I don't really care. I don't really like most oval track racing. It's very entertaining on short tracks- especially the dirt kind- but NASCAR superspeedway races make me narcoleptic.

kc5zom

It was more of a joke on the general backwardness of NASCAR and its origins of "stock car" racing. The engine technology they use is extremely outdated.