Monday morning the COT, NASCARs Car of Tomorrow race car, as we have known it for the last few years, will become the car of yesterday.
In 2013 NASCAR are introducing the next generation of race car but before we move forward lets look back at the COT's tenure in stock car racings top series.
So did it work?
To start to answer that we need to look at what the sport had pre-COT. NASCAR race cars had become very aerodynamic machines. The cars had very different bodies for each track to maximise aero efficiency and a Daytona car looked very different to a Charlotte car or a Martinsville car. The bodies were also "twisted" meaning they were different from one side to the other. It is fair to say they bore little to no resemblance to the road cars they were supposed to be based on. All the wind tunnel time and technology required to perfect those slippery bodies was also sending budgets through the roof. For teams and sponsors the sport was not as relatively cheap as it once was. Unfortunately the now infamous wreck in the 2001 Daytona 500 also highlighted the need to improve the safety aspects of the cars sooner rather than later...
The COT was introduced in 2007 with several goals, improve safety, lower costs for the teams, give the manufacturers more identity on the car, minimise the reliance on aerodynamics, and improve the racing.
The easy one of those to look at is the improvements in safety. We have seen some very big wrecks and some hard hits over the last few years and every time the drivers involved walked away. Nobody can deny that the combination of the COT, improved seats, SAFER barriers and the HANS device have made the sport much safer. Well done to all involved on that respect!
The other goals for the COT are harder to judge.
Has it lowered costs? On paper the theory seemed valid, no need for different bodies for each track meaning the number of cars the teams need to build can drop and no need for expensive wind tunnel programs. I am not sure if it has worked to lower budgets but the fact that several people have been able to set up teams by purchasing cars from other teams must mean something.
As I have already said, the previous generation of race cars had become so unrecognisable as Fords, Chevys, Dodges or Toyotas that improved manufacturer identity was a big part of the COTs remit. In one way it worked, the manufacturers had more space to put their own stickers on the cars so the fans could tell which was which. The COT had a problem though. They were widely considered UGLY, and as all the cars had the same shape bodies regardless of manufacturer they therefore did not look like any of the road cars they were meant to be. The fans hated the new rear wings and the boxy fronts with the big splitter sticking out. Bigger stickers or not, fans did not identify with the new race car. Hate campaigns were started, mainly against the rear wing and the splitter which many fans thought stopped the cars looking like "stock cars". Part way through the 2010 season NASCAR replaced the rear wing with an old fashioned rear spoiler and for the start for the 2011 season NASCAR facelifted the COT removing the boxy front and replacing it with a move conventional smoother front air dam, like the previous generation Daytona cars. Fans still didn't like that the cars all looked the same, but at least they now looked like "stock cars".
The problem with the facelift was that the splitter and rear wing were there for a reason. NASCAR designed the COT to have a bigger, taller, squarer roof line, not only for safety but to also punch a bigger hole in the air, therefore increasing the draft. The rear wing created downforce at the back of the car while also allowing air to pass though it and onto the front of the following car in theory limiting the effects of aero push for the following car. Lastly the splitter gave the car a big shelf to catch air and help the front end.
Upsides... The cars sure could draft at the restrictor plate tracks! They drafted so well, and as the new bumpers lined up perfectly the drivers could bump draft much more easily compared to the old cars, that a new style of racing emerged at Daytona and Talladega. Tandem racing, where two cars could literally push each other around, became the order of the day. Fans hated it, and NASCAR has spent the last few years trying to minimise this effect, to, it has to be said, much success. Another upside of all of this was the return of the "slingshot" at the 'plate tracks. The COT reintroduced the last lap overtaking move. You didn't want to lead the last lap as the driver behind could pull out and slingshot passed you coming out of turn four a la Petty vs Pearson! The new car also had lower cornering speeds and for a while it looked like the racing at the mile and a half track was going to be better than before.
Unfortunately the COT also had its downsides. As well as the UGLY factor, and the fact that they all looked the same there were other problems. Firstly the cars kept getting airborne every time they wrecked. This was blamed on the rear wing which was doing what it said on the tin, as soon as the cars were turned sideways the wing was literally picking the back of the cars up off the ground and making them fly. This would not do.
So NASCAR facelifted the COT. The cars now looked better and stayed on the ground, which is a very good thing, but it has to be said that to me the racing has suffered ever since the wing was removed.
Aero push and track position have become huge factors on all tracks bar the restrictor plate tracks and the short tracks where aero is not an issue. The cars seem unable to run close together without getting upset by the leading cars air, exactly what the COT was designed to eliminate in the first place. Unfortunately none of this has helped improve the standard of the racing.
The other problem the early COT had was the drivers hated it. It was hard to drive, had far too high a centre of gravity so it rolled to much in the turns, the aero balance was wrong, and in the early days ate tyres for breakfast. Aside from the tyre issue, which was largely due to the fact that early on Goodyear were still learning how to make tyres for the new, higher downforce, heavier car, I had little time for the drivers complaints. Of course they were not going to drive like the old cars, they are not the old cars. Once drivers and teams stopped complaining and figured out how to make the new car design work for them the sport started to move forward, and NASCAR told them to stop complaining and get on with it!
So what does all of this mean for the soon to be old COT. Well the lessons learnt from the first COT were put to good use as the COT mark 2 was introduced into the Nationwide Series in 2010 with much success. All the cars have the same, newly redesigned body but the cars now have greatly improved manufacturer identity and better aero balance. The fronts of each model now resemble the road car in shape as well as sticker design meaning a Dodge Challenger now looks like the road car, and a Mustang looks like a Mustang! The cars also have all the improved safety features and it has been said the racing in the Nationwide Series has be better than in the Cup Series on many occasions.
Hopefully the learning process from the first Car of Tomorrow with the wing and splitter, to the redesign, to the Nationwide car will bring about a successful introduction for the COT mark 3, the 2013 Cup car.
Under the skin the cars are the same and again improved manufacturer identity and improved racing are the goals. We can already say that on the first count NASCAR have succeeded. The cars look like their production counterparts, and no one is going to say they are ugly this time! I just hope NASCAR have learnt the aerodynamic lessons, done their homework, and get it right this time. Next years cars need to be able to draft and slingshot at the Daytona 500 in February like the current car and continue the 100% safety record, but they also need to eliminate the aero push on the intermediate tracks and make track position a thing of the past.
NASCAR had good intentions for the COT and those intentions are still relevant today and going into the 2013 season. They may not have succeeded with all of the goals but they must get it right this time around.
No pressure then!
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