What kind of car did Dale Earnheart, Sr. drive?

[Mahaloth]

I know it was a Chevrolet, but that is all. What specific kind of car was it? Thanks.

[Bear_Nenno]

I believe it was a race car. :D

[Llardball]

He drove a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

[SmackFu]

Aren't all the Chevy's Monte Carlos?

[El_Kabong]

All Winston Cup cars are specially-built, V8-engined, rear-wheel drive racing chassis fitted with bodies representative of full-size, front-drive sedans. The body shapes used are based on uniform templates generated by NASCAR. The four body types currently used in the series are:

Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Dodge Intrepid (new for 2001 season)
Ford Taurus
Pontiac Grand Prix

Earnhardt's car had a Monte Carlo body. Smackfu, the production Monte Carlo is a 2-door coupe, based on, I believe, the same platform as the production Grand Prix. All Monte Carlos are Chevys, but not all Chevys are Monte Carlos.

Cheers,

[El_Kabong]

Sorry, Smackfu, after I hit "Submit" I realized you were talking about the Cup cars, not the production versions. Duh.

[Gunslinger]

Just a note...

With the demise of the Ford Thunderbird :(, none of the NASCAR bodies' "real life" (production) counterparts are available with a V8 or rear-wheel drive.

Kind of ironic, considering that some of the drivers racing today (and nearly all of the recently retired ones) started out in cars that were truly stock, off a dealer's lot, with a few simple engine tweaks.

[Shiva]

Yup, the days of true stock bodied cars and homologation are over. Hopefully NASCAR's crash energy absorption program will equal their make-it-look-like-a-stock-car efforts.

http://www.daleearnhardt.net/chevy/specs.htm

[Mahaloth]

Uh, Shiva, maybe it's just me, but that link didn't work. Can you fix it?

[Shiva]

That's strange. Let's try Google's cached page: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.daleearnhardt.net/chevy/specs.htm+&hl=en

[Gunslinger]

Mahaloth: It is just you, apparently. It worked for me.