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Bigbore500r

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I'm on the late train here, and this is probably VIN - but what the hell is up with NASCAR switching to 18" aluminum single-nut wheels on the next gen cars?
Were the 15" steelies too un-relatable for today's kids?

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240Hallett

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They wanted to update to bigger wheels but steel was gonna be too heavy. Pitstops might change by a second or two, most of the time was going around the car and jacking it up.Lugnuts are by far the shortest operation in the stop.
 

Bigbore500r

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They wanted to update to bigger wheels but steel was gonna be too heavy. Pitstops might change by a second or two, most of the time was going around the car and jacking it up.Lugnuts are by far the shortest operation in the stop.
They said they might save 1/2 a second on the stop due to the single nut, but the pit crews will still hop the wall and function they way they currently do.
 

LargeOrangeFont

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I'm on the late train here, and this is probably VIN - but what the hell is up with NASCAR switching to 18" aluminum single-nut wheels on the next gen cars?
Were the 15" steelies too un-relatable for today's kids?

View attachment 850698

They need bigger brakes, real tires, and that necessitates bigger wheels.

They are going independent rear suspension and sequential transmissions the cars are gonna be bad ass. Time for more road course races.
 

BONER

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They need to put air jacks in the cars.

Good luck with that. Cars have been running the same suspension design for 30 years. I was actually very surprised when the Cup Cars went FI. Didn't ever think I'd see the day....

The only Technology in these Cars is in the Valvetrain, and in the Seats. Everything else is Dinosaur shit.
 

Ziggy

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Yeah, yeah, progress. But where do they hide all the moonshine in them these days?
 

Bigbore500r

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Yeah, yeah, progress. But where do they hide all the moonshine in them these days?
In the infield motorhomes ! ! ! That's a good party, we camped infield once at Fontana. Couldn't see the race for shit, but i also don't remember much :D
 

Flying_Lavey

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Good luck with that. Cars have been running the same suspension design for 30 years. I was actually very surprised when the Cup Cars went FI. Didn't ever think I'd see the day....

The only Technology in these Cars is in the Valvetrain, and in the Seats. Everything else is Dinosaur shit.
Except the wind tunnel testing and fuel injection and crazy high tech engineering and testing. But hey, you could easily take a 358 ci small block from the 60's, keep that 60's tech, and make it rev to 9k rpm for 500 miles and make 850 horsepower.

[emoji849]

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Ricks raft

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Good luck with that. Cars have been running the same suspension design for 30 years. I was actually very surprised when the Cup Cars went FI. Didn't ever think I'd see the day....

The only Technology in these Cars is in the Valvetrain, and in the Seats. Everything else is Dinosaur shit.

More like 50. Rear from early 60's truck, front late 60s
 

LargeOrangeFont

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Good luck with that. Cars have been running the same suspension design for 30 years. I was actually very surprised when the Cup Cars went FI. Didn't ever think I'd see the day....

The only Technology in these Cars is in the Valvetrain, and in the Seats. Everything else is Dinosaur shit.

See the revised car next year. No dinosaur shit anymore
 

GRADS

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I really don't care about the big wheels but eliminating the lug nuts is eliminating a big part of what can go wrong in the pit stop and that is lame.👎
 

monkeyswrench

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Except the wind tunnel testing and fuel injection and crazy high tech engineering and testing. But hey, you could easily take a 358 ci small block from the 60's, keep that 60's tech, and make it rev to 9k rpm for 500 miles and make 850 horsepower.

[emoji849]

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Never been a roundy round fan...but the skills in the engine shop amaze me. I could maybe build an sbc to 600hp...and it may even hit 9k...but it would need a push broom after a couple minutes.
 

Flying_Lavey

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Never been a roundy round fan...but the skills in the engine shop amaze me. I could maybe build an sbc to 600hp...and it may even hit 9k...but it would need a push broom after a couple minutes.
I'm not a big nascar fan either but the development that goes into those cars is astounding.

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rrrr

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I really don't care about the big wheels but eliminating the lug nuts is eliminating a big part of what can go wrong in the pit stop and that is lame.👎

As someone with lots of experience from my IndyCar days, I can say you will be surprised at how often things go wrong with a single, and during the first year you'll get many chances to see it.

There's no doubt changing a wheel with a single is faster, but there will be a learning curve.

The wheel studs won't be completely gone, they're replaced with smooth drive pins that absorb the steering and power loads. They fit much tighter into corresponding holes in the back of the wheels, so getting the wheel set on the pins is more difficult than dealing with threaded studs.

When the wheel nut is removed, it's captured by multiple fingers on the wheel gun socket. If the gun isn't pulled off perpendicular to the large hub stud, the nut can bind just enough to get knocked off the socket, and because it was still spinning on the gun, the nut will go skittering across the pit.

The tire changer has a spare nut attached to his firesuit with a really small tie wrap, which breaks when he grabs it. He has to set down the wheel gun, grab the spare nut, start it onto the hub stud by hand to prevent it from crossthreading, pick up the gun, and tighten the nut. That takes four to six seconds.

With lug nuts, one or two can be missed or left untightened, but the car can still leave the pits and come in again on the next lap. If the stop is done under yellow, the penalty for track position lost on the second stop to fix it is going to the tail end of the lead lap cars. Depending on the particular track and the stage of the race, that isn't a big deal.

However, if the tire changer loses the single nut off of the gun and the over the wall chief doesn't realize it, it's entirely possible the driver will be told to go, and the car will leave the pit without the nut. In IndyCar, sometimes this isn't a problem on ovals, because the car can still be driven on three wheels and return to the pit without serious damage.

That won't happen in NASCAR. The car will travel a few hundred feet at most before the wheel departs. The car is going to sustain damage to the fender area as the tire leaves, and then it's going to drop onto the hub (and the splitter if it's a front tire), causing more damage.

More importantly, the car will be sitting on pit lane unable to move, and if the yellow flag isn't already out, it will be. It'll take a rollback to remove the car from pit lane, and from there the car will be taken to the garage area and unloaded. Multiple laps will be run while all this unfolds. At that point, the race is over for that team and driver. Imagine that happening to one of the leaders during the playoff races. He's done. Their season is over.

So this change isn't going to eliminate pit stop drama. The stakes will be raised, because loose lug nuts after a pit stop aren't a fatal mistake. Losing a wheel nut after leaving a pit, even by just a few feet, is.
 
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BONER

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Except the wind tunnel testing and fuel injection and crazy high tech engineering and testing. But hey, you could easily take a 358 ci small block from the 60's, keep that 60's tech, and make it rev to 9k rpm for 500 miles and make 850 horsepower.

[emoji849]

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*yawn*

I mentioned the FI already, which has been around since the 50's, so no amazing Feat there, just 60 years behind the Curve Lol. And I'm almost positive it's not even their Technology, I think they use Mo-Tec. Wind Tunnel? Yeah, to make sure those 3400lb pieces of shit don't fly into the Stands at 180+. I'll give you the Testing part as they do test a ton, but the Engineering? That's exactly what's in question.

I've had a couple of these motors apart. There really is no special parts besides the Valvetrain. The Heads have their fair share of work done to them, but nothing a good local Machine Shop can't do, and have been doing it for years. If these Motors are so "Hi Tech", why can't they be idled below 2krpm?

Cubic Inches doesn't mean shit. Especially when revved to the Moon, with massive intake runners, 12 points of compression, and the best Fuel available.

You could seriously build one of these Motors in your Garage, if you bought a set of SB2 Heads. Which again, have been around for Decades.
 
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BONER

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See the revised car next year. No dinosaur shit anymore

About fucking time. Now they need to add 4 or 5 more road Courses, and I might entertain the idea of turning the Series, back on. Maybe even add Eldora to the Schedule. :)
 

Bigbore500r

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*yawn*

I mentioned the FI already, which has been around since the 50's, so no amazing Feat there, just 60 years behind the Curve Lol. And I'm almost positive it's not even their Technology, I think they use Mo-Tec. Wind Tunnel? Yeah, to make sure those 3400lb pieces of shit don't fly into the Stands at 180+. I'll give you the Testing part as they do test a ton, but the Engineering? That's exactly what's in question.

I've had a couple of these motors apart. There really is no special parts besides the Valvetrain. The Heads have their fair share of work done to them, but nothing a good local Machine Shop can't do, and have been doing it for years. If these Motors are so "Hi Tech", why can't they be idled below 2krpm?

Cubic Inches doesn't mean shit. Especially when revved to the Moon, with massive intake runners, 12 points of compression, and the best Fuel available.

You could seriously build one of these Motors in your Garage, if you bought a set of SB2 Heads. Which again, have been around for Decades.

You can't make a 9000RPM 800hp N/A 358" motor idle low because it has a donkey dick cam in it to rev 9000rpm! The layman could build one in his garage, it might make it to 7000rpm a few times before coming apart though :D . Its all in the knowldge of what works for each track, and the precision assembly. The tech is old, but the tricks and knowledge are what push them to the winners circle
 

BONER

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You can't make a 9000RPM 800hp N/A 358" motor idle low because it has a donkey dick cam in it to rev 9000rpm! The layman could build one in his garage, it might make it to 7000rpm a few times before coming apart though :D . Its all in the knowldge of what works for each track, and the precision assembly. The tech is old, but the tricks and knowledge are what push them to the winners circle

Yep, Donkey Dick Cam. Old ass Technology. That's my point.

RPM is all about clearances, tolerances, and oiling. Again, when you rip one of these motors apart, not a whole bunch of special stuff. There aren't many "Tricks" that can be used because when that Car leaves the Winner's Circle, it gets escorted straight to Tech by Officials, torn down, mic'd and measured, Fuel inspection, Heads are flow checked, as well as static compression. That pretty much eliminates all "Tricks". Lol

Most cheating is done with aero and weight.
 

Bigbore500r

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Yep, Donkey Dick Cam. Old ass Technology. That's my point.

RPM is all about clearances, tolerances, and oiling. Again, when you rip one of these motors apart, not a whole bunch of special stuff. There aren't many "Tricks" that can be used because when that Car leaves the Winner's Circle, it gets escorted straight to Tech by Officials, torn down, mic'd and measured, Fuel inspection, Heads are flow checked, as well as static compression. That pretty much eliminates all "Tricks". Lol

Most cheating is done with aero and weight.

What is the new technology that replaces the donkey dick cam in an N/A 9000rpm race motor that needs to make 800+ HP out of 350" ?
 

playdeep

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The single nut system has been around since the 60's on Sprint cars...
If you expand the picture you can see the dowel pins used to hold the wheel on that rrrr alluded to.
If you look real close on the lip of the wheel you can see the world's first b
20200304_180603.jpg
eadlocks...
 

QC22

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I hung around on Monday at Fontana procrastinating packing up the motor-home. Watched William Byron test the new car. Looked and sounded seriously badass. No one is mentioning here that sloppily torqued lugs and aluminum don't mix according to what I'm reading. It's potentially bent wheels that necessitated the change.


BTW, what exactly is wrong with low tech?
 

rrrr

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No one is mentioning here that sloppily torqued lugs and aluminum don't mix according to what I'm reading. It's potentially bent wheels that necessitated the change.

I'm unable to determine what you're saying here. Can you elaborate or provide a link?
 

arch stanton

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It looks like the wheel offset is going to be problem they regularly knock off a valve stem and bounce the tire off the wall, it looks like the wheel spokes will be susceptible to damage.
 

QC22

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I'm unable to determine what you're saying here. Can you elaborate or provide a link?
I'll look for a link, but the explanation I read or heard was that:

1) The OEMs wanted to go 18 and aluminum to be more in sync with what is sold on modern cars
2) Aluminum wheels don't like unevenly torqued or loose lug nuts. The wheels will warp, bend, vibrate, break etc. During pit stops, lug nuts are often, if not always unevenly torqued, or loose or even missing.
3) Single lug solves that issue
 
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