History When Stock Cars Were Still Sorta Stock

Remember when stock cars were still kinda stock--and had tons of personality? Many hardcore gearheads say this is their favorite era in NASCAR.

Here's a big gallery with the focus on interior, chassis, and engine views, and some photos you probably haven't seen before.


Photo Essay: Early NASCAR Tech | Mac's Motor City Garage

 

Rememeber when they used to anounce winners by car brand?

 

Exactly. The announcer would shriek, "Who wants a FORD to win? Who wants a CHEVY to win? Who wants a PLYMOUTH to win?" and the fans would go nuts trying to out-yell each other.

 

Note one door bar no bar across the dash. This was when racing was fun/ dangerous and the mechanics had some room for creative thinking. Now in cup and top drag racing its all spec cars and nothing new.

 

I like some of the forties cars that had a belt strapped around the door pillar and back window.

Killer shot of the rear of that Pontiac.

 

i really love the real nascar thanks for the pics

 

Back a bunch of years ago I worked in the local GM plant. We built and shipped three Monte Carlos for A.J. Foyt. He had his hauler come get them. They were the body on a frame bolted to a wooden skid. Had pictures but who knows where the went. Black an white Polroid.

 

That is some really cool stuff !

 

My grandpop had a 32 ford coupe stock car. Bone stock car with a few of his tricks on the engine and the number 17 handpainted on the door.

 

yep...they had a lot of those on the ol' dirt-tracks.

Sometimes the fights in the pits were more entertaining than the feature.

 

What I liked about that era was that your local dealer could sell you the same basic car. "What wins on Sunday sells on Monday".

 

You could tell what they were just by looking. I remember watching back in the 60's when they all looked like stuff you could see on the street. Now they all look pretty much the same to me and they don't seem to resemble anything you can go buy at a dealer. New cars would be more interesting if they did.

I used to love watching The big races on TV when the cars looked like stuff you could buy. It seems to me that late 80's was about the last that really peaked my interest. They were racing Thunderbirds and Areo Monte Carlos.

 

Exactly. These were different times.

 

Stock car racing used to be more fun then today.

Nascar owns the sand box and it is their traveling circus so they can made the rules over who plays and who cannot play.

I think they have really tried many different things to make the racing better but some how that does not seem to have happened in some of the cases.

The Lucky Dog Rule is one area where they really screwed up big time.

Are there any local Saturday night tracks in the country that also have a Lucky Dog Rule in place?

In many ways the World of Outlaws does a much better job at putting on a great show.

If you are not fastest enough to qualify you don't get to race.

Nascar has a policy of " Boy's have at it " on the track but if a driver makes any negative comment about the new generation cars they jump all over him with both feet!!!!!!!!!

I understand that Nascar would really love to see a finish with about ten cars crossing the finish line together to make for a better show but the question is at what price in safety are they willing to pay to order to make that happen?

Personalty I see a better show on a Saturday night at East Bay Raceway then I do watching Nascar sad to say.

Just my opinion. Jimbo

 

Cool photos, thanks for posting. I can't understand why someone would one star this thread??

 

I see lots of bitching about the good ole days of Nascar and how the cars should be more "stock". Well let's see, a modern day " stock" car would most likely be a fuel injected, front wheel drive, V-6 powered car with a unit bodied structure.

Today's stock car is a fabricated chassis, 9 inch Ford equipped, V-8 powered 4 speed shifted machine that is alot like Hot Rods that we like to build. I for one would rather watch the current stock cars than a bunch of late model Econo boxes with numbers on them.

 

imho - nascar cars from early 60's to mid 80's still keep my crank spinnin, the modern day stuff is all about ,who can get the sponsership dollars to build MEGA teams and control the so called sport, nascar racing still employes a whole lot of people and creates a lot of dollars for economy , so I guess it is not all that bad !

 

If NASCAR would race cars that you can buy off the show room floor that have V-8's and rear drive I would be more interested in watching it. They could race Camaros and Mustangs.

 

Great pics, thanks for posting.

Bill, or anyone, can you tell me what the message on Lorenzen's dash stands for?



Win-Holman-Moody?

 

Don't forget the Challengers and Chargers!

 

I haven't followed or watched a NASCAR race since about 1971 or so. That to me was when they started taking the "stock" out of NASCAR. I was more interested in the brand name winning back then as I was a big Ford fan. They are all carbon copies now.Now its just nothing like it was in any way, form or fashion. I don't even think its racing, it is more like strategy.

 

My father took me to my first NASCAR race at Charlotte in 1963. At that time there were three sections of grandstands. There was the GM section, the Ford section and the Mopar/Chrysler section. People actually bought tickets for a certain section because they were a fan of a particular brand of car. I really enjoyed the sport while it was a regional thing.

I remember David Pearson had a cigarette lighter in the dash of his car and whenever there was a caution he would light up. Can't imagine that today.

I used to plan my Sundays around watching the races when they began live broadcasts. But NASCAR changed and I started to lose interest. I guess the final nail in the coffin was when Toyota got involved. Toyota has never had a production pushrod V8 engine but they race one now. Go figure.

 

Thanks!

 

NASCAR would give a hefty fine out for that now a days. Not only for smoking but having a car that is just a little different than the other guys.

That's cheating!

 

One big change in NASCAR today: there are only three body styles and none of them look very much like their production counterparts.

Many believe NASCAR was much more interesting when there were more brands involved--and typically, with more than one model year and/or body style in competition. One year at Daytona, there might be Torino, Galaxie, Thunderbird, and Mercury Cyclone cars entered...and these were just the Ford entries.

Look for a story soon at Mac's Motor City Garage with the spotlight on unusual cars and body styles. Should be a lot of fun.

 

I dunno. What if you showed up with a V6 or four banger FWD or AWD car that could dominate an oval? Not saying it could, but what if real world innovation led you in that direction? Kind of like when mid-engine cars displaced the old indy roadsters.....

If there were a homologation rule like the old days, the manufacturers would certainly come up with some interesting RWD V8 street cars just to be able to compete. That's how we ended up the the winged cars, Talledega Torinos, fastback Monte Carlos and Pontiac GP's.

These days there's such a sameness to all the cars. Same chassis, same rear end, same sheet metal. And the rules are so restrictive that even the engines are fundamentally the same so that they can have all the cars running in a single pack from start to finish.

Only the stickers change. This year there's a little more latitude so that the front sheet metal kinda sorta looks like a real car, but underneath they are still essentially spec cars with lots of high tech tweaking, but no real manufacturing innovation that filters back to real life cars. I would love to see one manufacturer totally dominate a season because of the car they developed and sold in a showroom.

I was one of those that watched the cars and the racing. I've quit watching because I really don't give a rats ass about Danica's latest romance or the shape of her ass, or where she gets her hair cut. who's got the hottest wife, or who-hates-who...don't care.

NAssCAR has become nothing more than WWF on wheels. If you want to see a real race, you should go to a LeMons event and watch those guys wheel that crap around a track!

 

At least the Great American Race has never been paced by a foreign car?...ah... O... wait

 

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing this link.

 

The France family started NASCAR and they are killing it. I rarely watch a race anymore. Only a few owners, with multiple teams, no chance of an independent coming from the out left field and shaking up things like Alan Kulwicki. If I wanted predetermined shows, I'd watch wrestling or American Idol. NASCAR is still a customer-driven business and they are losing customers rapidly. This may seem counter intuitive, but I also think one of the biggest problems is the speed. They can't do much racing because the cars are always on the edge of control. I would prefer to see actual stock bodied cars going 120-150 mph that could race against each other than wind tunnel designed slot cars going 200.

 

The evolution of the so-called "Stock Car" was kicked forward from those good old days by that genius of a damn mechanic down in Daytona, Smokey Yunick, when he started messin' with the bodylines of the cars he built making them more aerodynamic than the next guy's car.
That brought out the templates.
That was the beginning of the end.