OT- Toyota in Winston Cup
 

Just heard it on Auto Week- In 2007 Toyota will field a Winston Cup effort. The carburated V8 is still on the drawing board and will be used in the Camary in Cup and the Tundra in Craftsman Truck. Apparently its a done deal. This news certainly doesnt make my day. I love the all American flavour of Winston Cup and besides I dont think there is anything wrong with the current formula, Its only the fastest growing sport in America.......Doug

Push-rod V-8's are already in the works in NC, be preprared for some big name teams to switch.

It'll be interesting to see how they do. It kinda doesn't surprise me since they are already in NHRA. Of course they are not using Toyota engines in NHRA though. :D

Is the Toyota V8 engine Push-Rod ?

Current Tundra/Lexus V8 is NOT a pushrod motor. Kind of like the custom one-off Mercedes pushrod V8 that took CART racing a few years back. Benz had not mfd a pushrod motor since around 1915.

Why WOULDN'T toytota make a play for Nascar? Its the biggest revenue generating form of racing in America. Toyota and Nissan were both huge players in the Club racing/SCCA/IMSA scene but that was small-to-no return for them. NASCAR is the racing that flows through the veins of the merchandise-buying red blooded American...

P L E A S E .............maybe they will run a corrolla









:rolleyes:

We used to drive a friend's mom's corolla on weekends. We'd go find guys with T/A's and Camaros and raise hell with them until they'd chase us.

We'd run from them and usually lose them when we'd jump the railroad tracks. The ones that stayed with us we'd spotlight them with a Q'beam in the eyes. That always worked.

Maybe the new Toyota team will get to use Q-beams...

Well they can always put a Toyota Engine in a Chebby.

Oops!!!

There goes the neighborhood! Ilike Toyota cars and trucks, but I'm not ready for a Toyota in NASCAR!!!
Excuse me while I puke.....

Im with you, BIG TIME!!

I was shocked when they popped up in NHRA.Kinda have to agree with you,I might have to hurl.

I thought NASCAR meant NATIONAL AMERICAN STOCK CAR






I guess i was wrong :confused: :confused: :confused: tripps

NASCAR = National Asociation for Stock Car Auto Racing,
I'm going to play devils advocate here, and probably
take some **** on this, but, if the issue is having
a push rod engine in the 350 c/i range, and the
body fits into the "cardboard cutout" of the street
version, whats the big deal?

Monte Carlo, taurus, intrepid, all f.w.d. cars.

Does ford even make a push rod V-8
engine anymore?

does chrysler corp. even offer a V-8
in a production car?

I was happy to see chrysler come back into
NASCAR, it gave more variety.

Besides, wouldn't all the "naysayers" just
love to see them fail, sometimes rooting against
someone/ thing is almost as fun as rooting for
someone/thing.

Lastly, no, i dont own any Toyota's, 3
Chevrolet's
my .02
jt
s
someone/thing.

I am with jt29olhp500s on this one.

Since the Ford Thunderbird was replaced with the Taurus, the whole term "stock car" exceeded it's stretching ability. Even prior to that, when Chevy went to the Lumina. Really, they are a riveted together, vaguely similar looking version of an everyday car formed from sheetmetal on top of a circa 1975 technology full tube chassis.

I'll go one step further.
When it comes to the motor...when was the last Chevy produced with an 18* headed motor? How about an SB2 motor? Did they come in trucks? Nope. Monte Carlo's? I wish!

Oh well. They've stretched it this far, why not go a little more.
Hell, it all boils down to the almighty dollar anyway.

The thing is, Toyota likes to win. They will come in and dominate before NASCAR knows what hit them. They came to Formula One this year and actually finished in the points. No, they weren't knocking down Schumi's door, but they surprised all the critics. That was with their own in house built chassis and motor combo.....Light years beyond NASCAR.

BTW-I own no Toyota's.
One Dodge. One Ford. One Chebby. One Nissan.
I also hit two to four NASCAR races per year.

Flyin, sorry dude, Toyota will not come in and dominate Nascar. They may have success over time, but instant domination is a nah-baba-nah. Just to many variables in Cup racing today.

I guess you can call it progress, but NASCAR needs to be careful not to abandone it's base fan support, red blooded die hard Americans. Hope this is not part of the "learning curve" of success, seems a little risky to me.

By the way, my new Monte SS came witha 358 sbc.....HAHAHA....j/k, I don't have a M SS..... A4:D

Keep Toyota out. Nascar is supposed to be about America. Regardless of pushrod motors and what bodys are on the American cars, do we really want to see corollas racing? And Toyota in NHRA, please the only thing Toyota on a funny car is the word Toyota. I dont recall seeing a Keith Black 500cid Hemi motor in a Toyota lately.

Now that it's out in public, I've known of friends working on this with Toymotors for the last couple of years. They have been doing their homework, and I expect will really wake up the locals.

-Greg

OK I have a question!!
If there are only 3 engine manufactures then do the chevy's have a motor based on a chevy and the ford's have a motor based on a ford motor?? Or are they all running the same motor and just changing the stickers???

A4,
your right on the "domination" thing,
if there is any advantge, NASCAR officials
will "level the playing field", the only thing
i see that they cant control is engine
longevity, "if", and i say"if " their engines
fail less than the current manufacturers,
that might be somewhat of an advantage.

Mrgoodwrench,
the will probably use the camry, it's marketed
against the taurus.

And it's built in Lexington, kentucky.

As far as top fuel funny cars go, all the
manufacturers are guilty of this.

Isn't part of the entertainment of F-1,
and F-2 racing, the variety of manufacturers ?

I "believe" they are going to start in the truck series.

They've been running in the the Goody's Dash Series (NASCAR) for a while. I think Robert Huffman finished 2nd in the series this year in Celica. There was another in the top 10 as well (Brandon Ward?)

Toyota sells more cars in this country than most american car companies. Most of them are also made in america.

I also agree, none of the cars currently raced are even offered for sale to the public with a V8 or rear wheel drive! So, it seems they have significantly strayed from their original formula.

I'll start watching Nascar when they race what they build. With only safety modifications allowed. Let see some front wheel drive v6 action with roll cages and 5 point harnesses.

Any bets on the winner?

I went through this whole thing myself when Allan Johnson's team announced they were going to run a toyota body. At first I wanted to puke. Then I looked at a funny car and realized you cant tell the diff between any of them anyway. Who cares?
Running Pro Stock at the time, we were hoping it might bring more interest and $$$$ to our sport. Didn't happen as far as I can tell.
NASCAR is, IMHO a bit different however. The cars are still somewhat recognizable. Does this hurt the sport? I don't know. Someone once told me that most Toyota cars have a larger american made content in them than the big 3 US firms cars. Could be true.
I guess for me, I'm not for it because NASCAR IS and American sport, and we have enough degeneration of AMERICAN values already.
Then again, I never understood driving around in circles for 500 miles looking for the finish line, so what do I care! :D

Steve If ole Smokey was still around he could probably get one of the front wheel drive cars to run! And I do agree with the race only what you build mentality.

But what happens is like in the case of the Chrysler Hemi banned or like NHRA overloaded with weight to make it uncompetitive. Because the Ford and Chevy guys were crying (I love chebbys BTW just the facts) the races are won/decided in the office sometimes unfortunately!

The funny thing about NHRA rules (Pro Stock again..sorry)
Before the latest hemi (which is a wedge, not a true hemi by the way) Pontiac, Ford, Mopar were all the same. Different casting number, but you could basically bolt any of the heads on any block. (with minor mods)
It's basically the same today. You would be shocked at how many parts interchange between brands. I'm sure it will be the similar in other forms of racing.

Summer
I was talking way back in the Sox Martin,Jenkins,Landy days,when the Hemi had them all crying.

THOSE were the days!! The Grump still builds a killer piece!

Only a hand full of teams have a chance anyway. Let somebody else try to get up to the top ten teams. All the lower 30 teams are just filling out the field anyway. The equipment is only one of the variables involved.

If you have watched NASCAR since the 70's you have seen a drastic change in the way it is run. Hell, Richard Pety and Cale Y would lap the field several times, at some tracks, before the modern day rules made it more competitive. Bring on Toyota, Hundai or any other manufacturer. Just a 190 mph billboard on Sunday afternoon.

My .02

I don't know whether it makes to big a difference, but those Dash cars are 4 bangers and little tiny cars.

Funhome, yes the engine builders build motors for a certain make. Examples,........EEE (Ernie Elliott Engines) built Ford's for years, maybe still does, but now builds many Dodge team's Dodge motors, Robert Yates Racing and Rousch Racing build Ford motors and Rick Hendrick Motorsports and DEI build Chevys (which is a GM hence Pontiac as well)etc......There is a nuasiating ammout of R&D that goes into these cars--chasis, suspensions,motors, trannys, you name it.....This is where the big $$ comes into play. Building large numbers of mulitple makes of motors would probably be a step backwards, just too much to keep up with. Maybe some guys do, I'm not sure, but they definitely are not all one make of motor. This is why you hear things like Rousch engines are known for their gas mileage, and Yates for their power etc.....in house R&D.

They used to be built on 358ci smallblocks, pretty sure they are still 358's with 870 carbs. Block and so on is all factory make. There are still independent engine builders but the big teams are building in house these days.

I'm not sure I like Toyota in Cup, and I think if you polled NASCAR fans, the overwhelming majority would not like this idea. Consider the brand loyalty that drives NASCAR sponsorship. It will be interesting to see the reaction to a Toyota in victory lane with "Pepsi" all over it....would the end result of increased purchases of Pepsi be the same as if he is driving a US make?? Dunno.....food for thought though.