NASCAR's R&D Center

[supermod52]

These guys have been working on the Car of Tomorrow for, what? seven years or so and they just discover that the flame retardant foam mandated for insertion in the door panels will catch fire?  What else have they missed in designing and re-designing this car? It looks like a car designed by a committee.  Harvick's car catches fire.  He has to bail out and park the car and lose points.  Is this his fault or NASCARS?  What a joke this whole thing is.  They could have raised the roof lines on the current car, moved the steering to the right a little and made the teams run a more stock appearing nose and tail.  They should be figuring out when to go to fuel injection and stop this joke of carburetors and restrictor plate.  Nice job Robin, Steve and all the guys in the Hi-Tech R&D center

[flamehothead]

My Thoughts Exactly Supermod.

IMO Nascar should have asked 5 or more teams to build a COT so it could have been put thru some Serious Testing. No two teams build their cars the same way and this would have shown Nascar how they do it. I'm not sure but I think there was only a couple of teams that really put alot of miles on their COT and they didn't have any big problems. You may only have one or two teams that encounter serious problems but if the car isn't tested ALOT you will NEVER know what might happen. I know Nascar took the COT to a Short Track, Super speedway, And a couple other tracks but they should have done one more thing. They should have put the COT thru a Full Race run and I mean how ever many cars they built should have been on that track beaten and bangen on each other just like a real race and they would find problems like this. You can't take a Brand New Car to a track, Run 50 or 100 Laps, And say.........It's Ready.........Because it's NOT. Like I said in another Post, I can't believe Nascar is serious about running the COT full-time in 08 but if they are serious they need to be sure it's 100% ready and IMO it's NOT near 100% ready. I don't know about anyone else but I have NEVER heard of having to Cool Down Flame Retardent Material, It just doesn't sound right but I guess anything is possible LOL. I also agree with Jr when he said if there going to run it full-time in 08 then do it so they can get to building it instead of building two totally different cars. Here is what I think Nascar should do now that every team has a COT built.

 Nascar should ask EVERY team if they want to they can bring a COT to Talledega for a Test since Texas and Phoenix are so far away.
The teams can use a Craftsman Truck series driver or they could use their development driver if they want to.
Nascar should supply the EXACT Tire they plan on running there. At no charge to the teams of course.
Nascar should supply the Fuel, No charge.
The teams wii NOT have to use up one of their Test days.

If Nascar could get say, 20 teams to do this they could run a FULL race simulation so they could see how each individual COT will perform and they could see where the most problems are and WHAT they are.

The following race is Richmond which is perfect since the Fire issue has been on a Short Track due to lack of Cool-Air getting into the car.
Ask EVERY team to do the same at Richmond then go to Darlington, Charlotte, Pocono, And then Definitly ONE Road-Course just to see how it does turning right LOL.

Of course Nascar could use ANY track but I would use the Trouble tracks, The tracks that are tough on the Chassis and Engines then a Super Speedway to check the Body out.

I know this sounds like alot but IMO in order to make sure the COT is ready to run each and every weekend they need to do SOMETHING like this. I Honestly think Nascar would have alot of teams show up for the simple fact there are so many ?? ans Unknowns. Ya never know, It just might save someones life.

[flamehothead]

I just read that Nascar took the #29, #48, And the #26 to the R&D Center to study how a race effects the COT. Like I said in the post above, How about the tracks the COT isn't going to visit? They said teams should have them back on Monday and I bet RCR can't wait to see what caused the Foam to burn this time.