If you watch the Speed Channel they show some old NASCAR racing, and the cars look nearly bone stock. During the “Aero Wars” of the late '60s the Superbird, Torino and Daytona had to be homologated, which means that they were pretty much bone stock. Even into the 1970s they still looked like the cars on the showroom floor, even if there were a few differences. If you watch the 1979 Daytona 500 the cars looked like they slapped a few stickers on, took the windows out and went racing.
So when did they become the cars they are now? Now they’re just tarted-up racecars, with at best superficial resemblances to the cars they represent. I’ve been watching since I was a kid, and I recall seeing the Buick Grand Nationals in the mid '80s, and they looked pretty normal, so it couldn’t have been all that long ago.
NASCAR fans, clue me in.
My brother and I were just talking about this today. The term ‘stock car’ seems to have lost most of it’s original meaning. Back in the day, the regs. were very strict. The car had to be a model sold to the public and there was even a requirement of how many must be sold in a year. All the parts had to be available to the general public, any modifications were stringently regulated, and very few were allowed. Todays “stock” cars are really specially built race cars and have little in common w/ what you or I can buy at our local dealership.
I hate bumping threads, but I’ll give this one more shot.
I imagine that NASCAR cars stopped being anything close to stock earlier than the mid 1980s, but up until then, they did fairly well preserve the look of an “off-the-showroom-floor” car.
Take a look at this shot of Bill Elliot’s 1986 Ford Thunderbird and compare it to his 1988 car here. Helpfully, they even have the supposed equivilent showroom car on the same page. The 86 car remains much truer to the form of the stock car. Note that the headlight “sockets” were still there.
On a related note, I would suggest that anyone with a sensitive stomach refrain from looking at pictures of NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow”. :barf:
They stopped using strictly stock in 1952 when roll bars were mandated for all cars. The following year, cars started to adopt other equipment made specifically for racing – most notably racing tires, but also safety equipment. Manufacturers also began to develop specialized suspensions and carburetors, and by the mid 1950s the major auto companies were heavily involved in customizing cars for racing – what we call today factory-backed programs.
NASCAR has a very good three-part article on the subject, for those who are interested in more detail.