I understand 22Fans deal and in his defence... no one had any idea what was going to be the final outcome to making a CASCAR a NASCAR.
This cost and workload for 2007 will be as intense for next year as more rules will be changed at the cost to the racer. NASCAR will add rule changes regardless of what they say, but in most cases it will be safety related.
So far for 2008 rule changes I believe to be implicated are as follows,
1. New Fire bottles in the cockpit and trunk area with a new SFI rating.
2. New Seat belts- only 6 point harness systems will be allowed.
3. New Window nets with new SFI ratings.
4. New Transmission options which will cost $9000.00 per trans- Teams Choice !!
5. New Lexan rules on front and rear window classifications.
6. Shocks ??
7. Brakes ??
8. Ignition Systems to spec.
9. Roll cage layouts ??
10. PURSE
Nascar will make the best improvements on the cars, but will be deemed at Race Teams expense.
The Series will continue to prosper but with a limit of old teams being able to afford to compete and walking away from racing in a series they love to compete in.
Times change, Rules change, and Sponsors change.
What NASCAR has to do is warrant the cost of change to the cost of reality and growth, something they have not been able to do yet.
If the Race Payout becomes a winning factor for teams then teams will spend the money, but Teams if smart, will not spend 2 cents more unless they can be shown the return.
NASCAR will make it here as long as racers show up to race, and if they are truly awarded for putting on the show, the Teams will return year after year.
If NASCAR keeps going in the direction of paying out Endoro Prize money for races, they will fail on car counts and I for one would think if NASCAR wants to put on the show, they need to pay the entertainment in order to survive.
Racers are only as smart as there checking account is big. The smaller the account, the more they pay attention to what they lossed, and NASCAR needs this to turn around so racers can see what they gained.
mid part of me hopes you are wrong about the changes but i think you will be right. the little greedy part of me hopes you are right because this will make options like the oss down there and the Siemens west tour all that more attractive to the lower budget teams.
in my opinion, rather than keep making changes to the old CASCAR cars, NASCAR would be smart to change to the Grand National rules in 2008. This change will come sooner or later and the series has been successful enough in 2007 that most teams would be willing to take the gamble.
Any thoughts?
would this entail completely new cars,if so how much, would this be cheaper than some changes to the old cascar cars?? is this the busch cars?
I don't know all the details but basically the grand National Cars are the Nextel Cup (pre COT)/Busch chassis.