What you should know about NASCAR
NASCAR is a racing series that represents the American vision of endurance racing. For example, in the world-famous Le Mans endurance championship, drivers periodically switch cars for 24 hours without interruption. Le Mans features several classes and uses typical twisty race tracks. In just 24 hours the drivers manage to cover 5000+ kilometres. The record for 2010 is 5,410 km and the average speed is 225 km/h.
What is NASCAR
NASCAR is a little different. The tracks are not twisty, but oval, with turns all the time in one direction. Cornering points have a great slope to the centre of the track, to improve the grip of a car and prevent exit from the track at high speeds. Thanks to these tracks, NASCAR racing cars can run at near top speed all the time, and even in the corners, with the engine throttle fully open. NASCAR’s highest average lap speed was set at California Speedway at 388.537 km/h, the highest average lap speed in motorsports. The average speed per race, at the same track, is 333 km/h, including pit stops for tyre changes and refueling. The endurance of these races is not determined by the time the car is on the racetrack, but rather by the time the engine is throttled down! You can follow the latest NASCAR news here.
As for the NASCAR race car, then everything is both simple and complicated. Simple, because the framework of the rules do not allow much to complicate the construction of a car and implement a super modern and very expensive technology. For example, one of these rules is mandatory use of a carburetor in the design of the engine (until 2012). It is difficult because you can not just take any factory car and improve it to the state of the race car NASCAR. The car must be created from scratch, as all units and assemblies are based on a very strong spatial frame made of steel pipes, with a rather large cross section.
The development of a NASCAR car starts with designing such a frame. Power frame ensures pilot safety in case of accidents at speeds close to 400 km/h. And such cases are not uncommon and happen all the time. High accident rate is caused by very close motion of the cars relative to each other. The cars’ pilots drive literally half-corners to make the best possible use of the rarefaction zone created by the car ahead of them.
A rear spoiler is designed to create a low pressure area behind the rear of a NASCAR car. Which is another difference from all the available racing series. In none of them, the cars are assembled in such long columns, to keep each other moving at high speed. The front spoiler creates balance to the car and allows more fine-tuning of the car, for greater stability and better aerodynamics.
The main dimensions of the car body are strictly regulated and checked against templates, during the certification of the car. All of the panels covering the car are made by hand from sheet metal, using the so-called “English Wheel”, after which the sheets are welded to the frame and the seams are deburred to form a smooth surface. Sports news is available on this website.