going green

[wdmickjr]

i have been all over the internet and am in several forums sites all related to NASCAR.
i am looking for why doesn't NASCAR allow fuel injection.
i know there must be someone out there that knows why, maybe it isn't just one reason but yet the must be something written somewhere about fuel injection and NASCAR.

what came to mind about this fuel injection topic was the exhaust from the JGR cars at Phoenix.

[Chris]

thats simple...
fuel injection does away with carberated engines.  NASCAR can't tinker with carberators and restricter plates with EFI... but more than that.. It becomes SOOOOO much easier to hide TRACTION CONTROL with EFI.  NASCAR has enough problems now keeping up with the teams and keeping that out of the sport... so this would make it almost impossible. 

[scott b]

I agree with Chris.  Carbs make it easier to police against cheating.

[wdmickjr]

after some research i did find this;   

When fuel injection arrives is up to NASCAR. But with a research and development center now in place in Concord, North Carolina, NASCAR officials admit fuel injection is an issue that is under consideration.

"It's something down the road," NASCAR President Mike Helton says. "You have to keep an open mind to things like that. There is a place for normally aspirated engines. The uniqueness of motorsports-I don't think there is anything wrong with our relationship with the manufacturers to use carburetors on normally aspirated engines.

"The issue we need to keep an open mind to is: Would it make more sense one day-particularly from the efficiency of the engine, the life of the engine, the cost of the car owner's involvement in engine programs-to have a different engine package than we do today."

Helton says NASCAR Managing Director of Competition Gary Nelson, Charlie Whiting of Formula One, and Brian Barnhart, the vice president of operations with the Indy Racing League, have all discussed how to police fuel-injected engines. The IRL uses rev-limiters, which Helton says is a possibility for NASCAR.

The current carbureted engine may be coming to the end of its life cycle, but what is amazing is how something that is a relative antique can continue to crank out the horsepower.

"I think it's a tribute to the competitors to take something that has been around for so long and continue to make it better," Helton says. "At the same time, I don't think there is anything wrong with using a 1955 V-8 block system in these cars. I think it works well in these cars.

"The conversation is all about, 'What do you do next?' What will determine when we do it is the technology-how we police it. What will drive us is the benefit of the car owners and the competitors and what happens on the racetrack."

[Chris]

yeah... kinda sounds like a round-about way of saying what I said...
As far as the reference to F1... they DO allow traction control over there (or did)
And if you folks think restrictor plats suck... rev-limiters fall into the same group....

[CodeBlueEMT]

 <Spit> Double damn <Spit Spit>

 Don't y'all know nuthin'? It's stock car racin' boys, not that sissy F1 crap. Stock cars run carbs. I know some of y'all liberal, tree huggin' commies would like nuthin' more than to ruin our sport. Hell, "stock car" is 1/3 of the name, NASCAR. Ain't nobody got the right to screw with tradition.   

[wdmickjr]

well, but, whoa up.
an old cliche' is  "race on sunday, sell on Monday". Car manufactuers have not sold a car with a carbruerator for 30 years. Fuel injection does not have gravity problems, g-force problems, and is more efficent burning what is there (fuel in the combustion chambers).
5 years or less, and Nascar has fuel injection.

Maybe they can pass out a sealed ECM to the teams like they do shocks, to prevent traction control.

Traction control is another whole different module of the ECM. A stand alone Engine Control Management has nothing to do with traction control except that it too can be managed with a computer, and the contolling module can work with the Engine Management and could be in the same component. Yet still needs a signal to get info, to control something...

The '95 ECM for the LT1 is probably the best (as an example), since it only reads 2 (left and right bank exhaust) O2 sensors therefore one could run a engine with out a cataylic converter. Enough fuel delivery is the only problem I can see where there would be a problem.

But when was the last time a car manufactuer sold a car that didn't have a cataylic converter on it? 40 years?

and then there are plunger type injectors that are not computer controlled...another debate someday..

Fuel Injection is coming to NASCAR. when ? i dunno. I just wondered how they would do it, and make it fair.

[DougS]

<Spit> Double damn <Spit Spit>

  Ain't nobody got the right to screw with tradition.   

Then why is Brain France the CEO of NASCAR?

[wdmickjr]

BTW..
   Robert Devall talking to Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder,
      "there ain't nothing stock about a stock car"

                                  

[scott b]

ROFL at NASCAR asking F1 for advise on preventing cheating.  Talk about 2 driunks leaning on each other to keep from falling down. 

[CodeBlueEMT]

yeah... kinda sounds like a round-about way of saying what I said...
As far as the reference to F1... they DO allow traction control over there (or did)
And if you folks think restrictor plats suck... rev-limiters fall into the same group....

 Chris, I beleive F1 eliminated TC either last season or at the beginning of this season. A move, I think, that made the racing better. Nothing like seeing those guys getting all wiggly jiggly laying down the gas.

 Shayne

[Chris]

Yeah.. when i was writing that that came to mind... (thats why I threw in that  "or did")  LOL
I knew for years they did allow traction control.. and I think you are correct that they did dis-allow traction control at the start of 2008

[Tyyrus]

Well lets not Go Postal , but I'am all for fuel injection ! I would hate to see traction control allowed ! I would think that within a few yrs you will see fuel injection required
for conservation reasons alone .

[wdmickjr]

yep. me too. it's time for fuel injection to come to NASCAR.

[Chris]

yep. me too. it's time for fuel injection to come to NASCAR.

IMO I'm just not thinking you are going to see it...
It's something new and different to the 'old boys' school network of NASCAR.
Until they have a complete turnover of thinking about motor technology, and technology in that area I'm not so sure it'll ever change.
The therory thay have is "It works, we can tech it easily, and it easy for us to catch 'cheaters',.. so why change"
From that points of view they have a good argument. Also it've very dependable and you don't have cars dropping out because some "latest greatest" electronic part todo with EFI failed and the car had to DNF.
I'm thinking it'll still be a while before we see this in NASCAR
Here's one thing to look for... When the TEAMS start saying they need to switch NASCAR may start looking at it... SO far the TEAMS like the carburated system just fine.