I simply cannot fathom how in the Generation 4 segment, they never discussed how the car bodies became more skewed for front, rear, and side downforce! How could you NOT discuss something that defined the late gen 4 "twisted sister" cars?
My thoughts exactly. More than any other "generation", the difference between a car from the earlier years to 2006 is huge. Big disservice to the video by only talking about safety which is really closer to what the COT's stated goals were
it would be nice if they discuss it but even Formula 1 Fans they never forget the deaths that happen in that era of deaths what have happened the whole thing even towards the focus on safety personally ashame they didn't talk about it more since they didn't move on about that.whilst the F1 and Formula 1 Fans they moved on and talked about it and made improvements
@@ThiccRicc ignition sucks, how could someone possibly like it. But I see as that person has the worst opinion ever it could be 1% possible that they like nascar 21 the only fan of that game in existence
That's what has NASCAR burnt into my brain. Playing a mates copy of Nascar 99 on N64. Back in 2000 or so as a 7-8 year old over here in Australia. That Black # 3 with the "Plus" as in Goodwrench Service Plus, always stayed with me. I had a copy of the 2002 Guinness world record book with a piece on Dale Earnhardt Sr again with that famous #3 Goodwrench car. It always stood out to me. As well as being a Holden fan here in Australia which was the Australian division of GM.
I wish I could've experienced Nascar in the 80s and 90s. I wasn't born til 96. I remember having the Nascar toys and even a Jeff Gordon ammo box as my toy box. Saw my first race in 2005 at Talledega. I didn't grow up in a racing family but my family always knew how much I loved racing. I wish the sport would return back to its fanfare and popularity it used to have. I even got my best friend into Nascar in 2020 and took him to his first race at Bristol and we've been going to Talledega since
It was a different era that's for sure. I grew up in the 80s and attended my first race in '92 when I was 12. The camaraderie among fans were like we treated each other like family. Don't matter who or what you are. All we cared about was racing! Fans were rowdy and loud. Stands were packed and I mean packed from the tower seats to the infield. Watching guys like Earnhardt, Martin, Wallace among others was great for the sport. Those 750 hp engines x 43 cars made that earth shake like no other. Original points system, Winston Cup sponsored sport. Good times they were and boy did I miss those days!
Sprint Car Racers seemed to do pretty well in NASCAR. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Don't seem like the rest of Them Great Open Wheel Drivers liked racing NASCAR taxi cabs.
Ive always thought the gen 6 certainly looked great but I think this gave them too much credit. To say “fans loved it” is a bit of a overstatement. Good video though.
I've been watching Nascar racing for over 45 years and the one thing I took away from this is that the old timers in this video understand that you have to evolve if this sport is going to survive. You can't run carburetors and solid axials forever. Also what I've noticed is that life has changed so much that it was impossible for this sport to stay the same. They could be racing hybrids in the next 10 years and you know what? I'm not mad about it. I will continue to embrace the evolution of the sport as long as they do it right.
@@Grizz270 that would probably result in homologation specials and I'm definitely not an expect but i don't think road legal cars would work as proper race cars. even gt3 cars are very removed from the road versions while looking the same. and if we did go back to stock, the cars would probably be slower and i don't know how fans would take that. although i think it'd be really awesome to see truly stock cars racing.
@@sleepysxb7710 the original rules to stock car was the car and chassis were stock but they had to atleast sell 500 of those cars a year to make it considered a marketable car ...that is the reason why dodge built their car in the 70s with the rear spoiler for Richard petty...yes it can be done...the manufacturers would start having to make these cars for basic racing and the teams do modifications to the stock engine and drive terrain like they used to
@@Grizz270 it even happen in the 80s when GM went with the "aero coupe" Monte Carlo and Grand Prix 2+2. They were homologated for the purpose of going racing and to combat the sleek design of the Thunderbird that Ford brought to the party.
F1/GT racing fan here, why did it take NASCAR that long to create the cars that we see today? (IRS, sequential transmission, single lug nut aluminum wheels, etc.)
Its really sad that it took Dale Sr dying for nascar to focus on safety and not because of the 3 drivers that died in 2000 from a basilar skull fracture
Dale was the one that was pushing to make the cars safer, It took him passing away to do it. Safety should be first today. I worked on Sprint Cars and lost alot of friends till they made wings mandatory,
For some reason, NASCAR seems to refuse to get any air under the car at all. The racing was always better up until the mid-2000s when everyone started coil-binding. Then came the splitter, now the diffuser. Racing is obviously better when mechanical grip is the game. Once you seal the cars to the ground it becomes about air which in turn makes it about track position. Take away horsepower and it just keeps getting harder to pass. Now everyone just wrecks trying to go 8 wide on restarts because that’s the only time you can pass. No matter how many fans they lose they just don’t seem to get it. High-hp low-downforce, and cars not sealed to the track is better racing.
Im all for innovation but the day we are not running V8's anymore in the cup series is the day I stop watching. Besides, the V8 has been "dead" for 25 years now. I dont think its going anywhere.
Gen 6 was the best in my opinion, 2014 model specifically. Very safe chassis, 900hp and incredible racing. That doesn't take anything away from the perfection of the sport from the 80s to early 2000s, but I feel that one year NASCAR had all the boxes checked.
Removing the 2014 spec was a complete mistake. Brian should publicly apologize from doing it. It had literally everything. Great looks, great performance, it did great racing, and a perfectly equalized high-horsepower short-intermediate spec, and one of the best super-speedway packages ever seen in NASCAR, and back then it seemed pretty safe to drive. *It literally was a Neo-GEN 4 wherever you looked at it, but with a closer look to real showroom cars. Changing them 2015 onwards was a complete mistake.* Literally what Brian France had to do back then, was to continue from there improving whatever had to be improved, and not reducing like crazy those 975 hp, he just needed to stick and contiuue from there.
15:50 As a fan what I would like to see in nascars future is factory cars from the lot, bought by teams who strip it out, add some race parts, some bodywork, and safety stuff. Gotta keep the body, frame, engine, drivetrain. This is a way how manufacturers are important, win on sunday sell on monday, and makes the fans feel its more relatable
bullshit. "Win on sunday, sell on monday" is an obsolete motto because of the fact that nobody is even buying a new car. BTW, that kind of thinking will not work with NASCAR today in terms of safety.
@@racdude01 TCR touring cars as well. In fact TCR is more of a proper STOCK car than NASCAR itself with all base car's parts still intact even the engine, tune up the engine, add some racing parts and safety measures, and BAM! You got a race car
Great video, really sold the gen 4 and 5 short tho. I wanted to hear a little about when the bodies started being fully fabbed, when the templates changed, when they quit using factory hood, roof, decklid, etc
I m 71 yrs old I ve watched the development of Nascar since the mid sixties I got my fix every Saturday on Jim McKay s Wide World of Sports it wasn t more than the final lap or a big crash but I was hooked periodic races and then full time races in the 80 s I love the sport and all the characters from the King to what we see today Chase Elliot and the new Young Guns God Bless America and God Bless NASCAR oh my fav racer was Senior
Gen 3, (81-91) was the best they have ever been, production based bodies, manufacturers had to use engines that were in production, (their own engines), the racing was far better and that's why it was so much more popular back then.
The Hendrick Motorsports Garage 56 Camaro ZL1 that raced the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans can contribute to the development of the Gen-7 as well as possibly whatever becomes of Gen-8. It is amazing just how much this series has evolved over the years and also how much the vehicles have evolved (including Trucks and Modifieds).
@@TheOwl22 its stupid to you, sure. To me its not. Electric vehicles are the worst vehicles because of the damage its doing to our earth and I wont and dont have to support it.
@@tankerboysabot first it's "gas cars are damaging the earth hurr durr" and now it's "electric cars are damaging the earth hurr durr" I mean make up your goddamn mind! Almost everything we've made has been damaging the earth. Oh and BTW, enjoy your oil while it lasts, it's gonna be gone by the end of the century.
Maybe NASCAR should do a throwback series where the teams all have to drive with Homologated cars. Basically bring back Gen 2 with V-8’s, Carbs, H-shift, 5-lugs, and then run it fast n’ loose for a couple races. I grew up watching Gen 4 cars, wishing I could have seen Gen 2 or Gen 3 in their prime.
One thing i find pretty cool with the gen 7 car is that the australian supercars are debuting a new gen next year and they are running mustangs and camaros and they look the same save for a wing vs a spoiler
I think NASCAR would've looked at an Aussie Supercar as a little inspiration for the Gen 7 car, especially with the look to be better on Road Courses and stuff like the sequential transmission and single lug wheel nut
@@RunningOn7CylindersYT they were both likely in development at the same time and as ford and chevy use the same name plate for both series, at least starting next year for chevy, it would make sense they look the same
@@Lcngopher Most of the tech (transaxle, single lug, etc) had already been in use in Supercars for a long time. The only real differences are the power trains and bodies. Up until this year NASCAR was using technology largely developed in 70s. They definitely looked to them and other motorsport series.
My favorite NASCAR eras of Generation racecars is: Generation 3 & 4 from the 90s & 2000s. Generation 5 from 2007 the Car Of Tomorrow, it's kind new spoiler and splitter type of The Fast and the Furious 1st movie. Generation 6 with steel aluminum into carbon fiber, less a hundred pounds of 3,300 pound racecar. & Generation 7 is the future car, new wheels, new single lug & prototype aerodynamic.
The cockpit and everything was good wit the wing. But to me it took away from having the roof flaps because I seemed to see more flipping the wing on the back end...to that aspect I'm glad they got rid of that wing...
When they say the next gen looks more like the real cars…….it doesn’t. The way the back fenders are Claire’s and the rear of the car squats down. I think the last 2 years or so of the Gen6 look more like the real cars than the next gen
This is awesome, don't get me wrong! But see, you want more interest in the sport? For example, you could have easily turned this into a 7-1 hour long part, mini series on netflix and really educated people and found more tv views sunday.
Lol, if they want viewers they should just re-air the Gen 4 seasons. The modern sport is unwatchable. If they had a good entertainment product they wouldn’t need to make Netflix documentaries to get views.
It's funny. If Nascar gave a damn after Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty, we wouldn't have lost Dale Sr. It took losing a driver they gave a damn about to actually do something. They basically said to the King and to Kyle that they didn't give a shit about Adam to worry about safety.
I love how the first generation was basically a legal way to race your friends and just have a crap ton of fun lmao. Seeing how time changes is just crazy lol it went from 130 mph being fast to 130 mph nearly being in the warm up laps lol.
2001 was obviously a turning point in the safety of these cars, but I’ve watched that video so many times, and the wreck that took Dale just didn’t seem that bad. We’ve all seen much worse wrecks, where the driver survived, both before and after 2001. The big difference, aside from the redesign of the cars, is NASCAR making the HANS mandatory. If Dale had been using it, and had his straps cinched up tightly, he very likely would still be with us today.
His lap belts were tight, but he didn't like the way they were suppost be mounted and mounted his way, the left side lap strap broke and he was throwed around inside his car. Bill Simpson went to NASCAR about it and they said he has never been hurt before so they didn't do nothing.
Gen 4 is my childhood. I was born in 93 and those awesome years to watch! The COT wasn’t good at all except for 2011 and 2012. The Gen 6 car was at its very best in 2014. Once they messed around with in mid 2015, it was doomed.
The big change in '67 was that so many street cars were built using unibody construction with a front clip that bolted to the body and held the engine and front suspension -- instead of full-frames. A unibody wouldn't be strong or rigid enough for racing, so they started building tube chassis and roll cages into the stock cars. And over time, it evolved to where they'd build the chassis and cage, and fasten the stock panels to that. And the cars LOOKED like what you'd see on the road, but that started to change when they came out with the GM10 Buicks, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles in '88 (where they had to stretch the body of a front-wheel-drive car to fit the same rear-wheel-drive chassis that they'd been racing for years). And when the Ford Taurus came out in '98, that was pretty much the end of the cars resembling anything you'd see on the road.
Yep. When I hear somebody complain about Toyota ("where can I get a RWD, V8 Camry) I have to remind them of 1988, 1991, 1998 and 2001 when GM, Ford and Dodge all ran cars that weren't available to the public.
Late 50's until the end of the 60's were the best looking cars. These were actuall cars made for the regulair public, but than souped up as much as possible. So for me this means i'm a fully "Generation 1" guy.
I always said my first hotrod was a stockcar ('63 Mercury) with a 390, and my last one was a racecar with all kinds of racing parts from bumper to bumper...l Loved every one of them.
@@tuftyterror983 gen 7 really is only good at multi groove tracks like auto club, this is prob due to the lack of side force, however drivers have come out saying that the gen 7 produces worse aero push than the gen 6
While it's not NASCAR, I remember back in the mid-70s at an NHRA event, Lee Hunter had the driver's side door open on his Mustang II pro stock car. Bill Jenkins looked at the door jam and said, "My God... this used to be a real car."
NASCAR NEEDS TO DO A TON MORE OF THESE VIDEOS. The new fan does not know how THINGS WORK in NASCAR. The old fans, know NEXT TO NOTHING about the new car. Explaining to the fan how things work will enable us to connect not only to the car or the driver. But the race itself. Larry McRenyolds, Mike Waltrip, Dale Jr. They all have that engaging personality. Get these guys, some 3D Models (like ya got already), and really go deep on how the car works. The fan will be able to level up their knowledge and really invest in our sport. ❤❤
man I hate how little everyone likes the CoT I mean it was such a great era but they give it a like 30 second segment I mean hell the Next Gen hasnt even had a full season yet but they talked about it more
Gen 6 started out great (even though it was responsible for one of the worst Daytona 500s), but overtime... it fell off, especially once they used the 550 package
I am one of the few fans that loved the Tandem Era drafting on the plate tracks that the COT provided for a few years with the height of it being in 2011.
Looking bad at the CoT I kinda appreciate it more. Still a step in the wrong direction as from the Gen 4, but it was a decent car. The rear wing was stupid and don't get me on about the splitter, but the racing was still better than the Gen 6.
they fixed the CoT by the end of the generation though, once they put the spoiler back on it and removed the step splitter they had some of the best racing they'd had in years
I'm surprised there aren't vintage races where some of the older cars are raced. Maybe not all together because of the risk of destroying a vintage race car or a driver getting hurt or killed, but even a time trial where the only opponent is the clock would be interesting. I'd love to see the Superbird on the track. Even if that's not possible due to safety. I'd love to see a video game where you can race different generations of cars to see how they compare.
it's very ironic that these idiot boomers are becoming massive hypocrites when it comes to their best NASCAR stock car eras. If they did use production cars off the lot in 2022, it would suck.
Ok for all of the Cars fan this is all of the racers in their respective generations Doc Hudson(Cars): Gen 1 Junior midnight moon(Cars 3): Gen 1 Louis barnstormer nash(Cars 3): Gen 1 River Scott(Cars 3): Gen 1 Strip "the King" Weathers(Cars): Gen 2 Chick Hicks(Cars): Gen 3(i guess) Lightning Mcqueen(Cars): Gen 4 Jackson Storm(Cars 3): Gen 6(fight me) Cruz Ramirez(Cars 3): Gen 6 Idk what you will do with this info but i think im obligated to do this
Really good video to understand what is Nascar and the story of this great sport (I come from EU and its really diferent from Formula 1, but is really really goog)
All through Gen 2, I was hoping they would have talked about the Aero Cars of 69 to 70, but.....nothing. Not even a single photo of a Dodge Charger Daytona, Plymouth Superbird, or mention of Ford's King Cobra (that never raced, but could have won).
I'm going to make one bit of constructive criticism here, and it's probably more towards NASCAR as an organization than it is towards the makers of the video. I'd personally put the break between "Gen 1" and "Gen 2" between the 1962 and 1963 seasons, as that was when the Strictly Stock/Grand National rules changed to allow teams to assemble cars from "scratch," as it were, rather than having to buy an actual production car and modify it. (The specific rule change was no longer having to run a factory floorpan, but instead being able to simply use a fabricated copy of the 1962 Ford Fairlane floorpan.) Since that's when the cars no longer had to be bought off the lot, I'd say that's when the generational shift happened. I'd also say that much of the safety revolution came with the CoT instead of the Gen 4; the Gen 4 was more of an Aero Wars Part 3, with the teams and OEMs trying to gain aerodynamic advantages while NASCAR was trying to equalize the cars aerodynamically, resulting in cars that had only the slightest resemblance to their production counterparts. (I specifically remember one mid-90s Ford commercial that saw a top-down view of the nose of a production Thunderbird morph into the nose cap of the then-current Winston Cup Thunderbird, and being shocked at how different they were, right down to the NASCAR one being a couple of inches forward at the center and a couple of inches back at the corners.)
The 7 generations of *NASCAR* race cars are amazing, faster & impressive. Respect *NASCAR* I wish to see a Gen 8 race car on all race tracks from *USA* That would be great.
I think the Gen 4 could actually be broken down into 2 or maybe 3 sub-categories. The 2006 Gen 4 was different than the 2003 Gen 4, which was vastly different from the 1992 Gen 4. It also seems the difference between the late Gen 3 and early Gen 4 were so subtle that most people would not even notice any change had taken place. The 1991 Thunderbird and Lumina race cars really didn't look any different than the 1992 Thunderbird and Lumina race cars. I am not even 100% sure what exact details are supposed to separate these two generations, though I think some body panels were made by the manufacturer prior to 1992, whereas those panels could be made by the teams after 1992, though still to factory dimensions. The Gen 4 actually remained a decently accurate outward representation of the street cars until 2003, with the exception of the Ford Taurus. In 2003, the common template came into being and the cars all essentially became identical with different headlight, tail light and grill graphics. By 2006, the bodies had even become radically asymmetrical (Twisted Sisters). I liked all of the cars well enough through the 2002 season. I could even live with the 4 door Taurus masquerading as a 2 door. I haven't liked ANY of the NASCAR race cars from 2003 to present when factory dimensions for the bodies were completely discarded. The COT was an abomination. The Gen 6 looked like a bloated catfish. And the Gen 7, though an improvement over the Gen 5 and Gen 6, still just doesn't quite look right.
He means 3 generations of NASCAR! 1948-2006 - cars you could buy at dealerships. 2007-2021 - the first generic body that is identical to all the others except for the stickers. 2022-present - the updated generic body that is identical to all the others except for the stickers.
It is clear that the new cars are safer, but still the cars of the second and third generation made nascar specific and spectacular above all. It's like here in Europe with the group b rally championship, those cars were legendary and spectacular...and they were real car races...
I can spot differences between the 1991 Ford and Chevy race cars to the 1992 ones. It seems like the cabin is lower, the front is longer, and it's more aerodynamic and faster in 1992 than in 1991.
I'm biased because they were introduced when I was a kid, but Gen3 are my favorite cars by a mile. Purpose-built racecars underneath, stock sheet metal on top. My second favorite might actually be the new cars, but I really hope you guys figure out how to keep the drivers safe without changing them much. It seems like the drivers are absorbing way more energy in crashes than they should be.
