NASCAR Cup Series

All dressed up, nowhere to race

Published Mar. 4, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

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There's the flashy Chevrolet Camaro SS that held its own against Porsches and Aston Martins during a lap around the Nurburgring race track in Germany. There's a Dodge Challenger R/T that cranks out 370 horsepower and a Ford Mustang GT 5.0 that goes zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.9 seconds while delivering 25 miles per gallon. Even Hyundai has a pony car in the showrooms now, the 300-plus horsepower Genesis Coupe, which has been reviewed favorably as a "Mustang killer."

From a performance perspective, these new pony cars are modern marvels. Their power-to-weight ratios, stout brakes and slippery aerodynamics would have been unimaginable years ago. And unlike the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s, they're engineered to corner almost as respectably as top performance sedans from Europe. Their sticker prices start at a relatively modest $30,000.

While sales have been solid, if not spectacular, for these cars, there is one issue that makes very little sense to some automotive enthusiasts. Although these are some of the most talked-about cars Detroit produces, and despite the fact that they're combatants in a a very real horsepower war between major car makers, none of the world's top motorsports circuits has any plans to let them race.

Even as computers have revolutionized car safety, efficiency, and performance, they've made those same cars increasingly hard to fix, and robbed arm-chair mechanics of the thrills of tinkering in the garage. WSJ's Andy Jordan reports.

"Imagine the possibility of racing these guys," said Tom Peters, a design director for rear-wheel-drive performance cars at General Motors. He points out that years ago, race fans would watch the "stock" cars compete on the weekends, then head to the showrooms on the weekdays eager to buy them — a dynamic that led to the famous marketing adage: Race on Sunday, sell on Monday. "It could be relevant again," Mr. Peters said.

A.J. Baime, the author of "Go Like Hell," a book about Ford's racing history, recounts a time when the company invested millions to win the 1963 Daytona 500. The auto maker created a new engine specifically for the race, the huge 427 V-8, and announced its subsequent victory in thousands of newspapers across the country by offering the winning engine to the public at an additional cost of $461.60.

"People loved that warfare between the manufacturing giants. And they wanted the engine that won Daytona," Baime says.

Through a kind of reverse engineering, these races also fueled innovation. Developments in engine and tire design, in aerodynamics and safety and the use of composite materials, filtered up from racing to production models.

Over the years, for reasons ranging from cost controls and safety to the desire for closer races, NASCAR began requiring its cars to have more standard dimensions and features. The cars increasingly had less in common with the showroom models they were based on.

Three years ago, as the cost of sponsoring race teams began to reach the $20 million mark, NASCAR introduced a templated machine — dubbed the "Car of Tomorrow" — that is used by every team in its premier Sprint Cup Series. Although these cars are badged as Chevys, Fords or Toyotas, they have the same body dimensions, the same aerodynamics and the same enhanced safety features with only minor differences in engine technology.

"NASCAR was built on fans becoming loyal to a race car because it looked so much like the car in their driveway. That's lost," says Steve Waid, a longtime writer with NASCAR Scene magazine.

There have been some indications that racing fans might respond to seeing more of these showroom models on the track. Last season, a Dodge-sponsored car with a front end modified to look like that of a stock Challenger ran in a handful of races.

"It went viral," says Ralph Gilles, the new president of the Dodge brand. "Fans love that they can recognize the car. They want to root for a Dodge."

Peter DeLorenzo of the Web site Autoextremist.com suggests that most of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow safety features could fairly easily be placed in a vehicle with the manufacturer's stock-dimension sheet metal. "It would make NASCAR cool again and give enthusiasts a reason to get fired up," he says.

Ratings for Nascar's Sprint Cup Series on ESPN have dropped to 2.8 in 2009 from 3.8 in 2007, according to Nielsen Co. In this same time span, Sprint Cup ratings have dropped from 4.7 to 4.3 on broadcast TV. Ratings for the Daytona 500 went up from 10.1 in 2007 to 10.2 in 2008, but dropped to 9.2 in 2009. This year's race earned a 7.7. Nascar spokesman Ramsey Poston says the sport continues to draw 5 to 8 million viewers and 110,000 spectators each week. "These are numbers just about any sport would like to have," he says.

Both the IndyCar Racing League and Formula One, the world's largest circuit, have worked to make the cars in their races cheaper to build and operate. This comes at a time when many auto makers are paring back the money they spend on their racing programs.

NASCAR recently announced several rule changes for its current season, including some designed to make the car look more like the showroom model. "This will be the first big visible change to the car," says Poston. "It's for the fans." Asked why NASCAR doesn't race street-model cars anymore, Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, says it's the same reason football doesn't use leather helmets anymore.

"The safety of our competitors and fans is paramount," he says.

There are some places where fans can see showroom cars in action. A slightly-modified Mustang with the same body, powertrain architecture and chassis geometry as the turn-key model has been faring well in a circuit called the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, where it takes on entries from auto makers like Porsche and BMW.

"The Mustang base platform is so well engineered, it can serve as the platform for a production-based race car," says Jamie Allison, the head of Ford Motorsports.

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