Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
powerslide
When I talk about going faster I'm meaning further back before late models became Camaro's with slab sided bodies and huge spoilers/noses. I watched a late model race from the 70-80's on youtube the other day and it looked like a freakin endure or pure stock race of today...
All this was really before my time really, but when they were building these large tracks the cars were much slower, a SBC wasn't even a thing. I can believe the speed from the carrying the LF days aren't that much off from the cars of today, if you have some times before the wedge cars came about I bet they have made some pretty big strides.
From what I gather the track records fell when the wedge cars came about and up until the last 5 years they held pretty strong.
As far as Muskogee goes its always been fast and if you wrecked you usually had a couple days on the frame machine or needed a new car.
There was a time in between, "Carrying LF" time and Wedge cars, from 85'-98' that is referred to as the small body cars. The wedge cars, like todays cars developed so much downforce that bigger HP became essential because the cars were glued to the track. Engine costs and stupid light frames became all the rage. Titanium lower ends started showing up and the cost escalation pushed a lot of folks out of late model all together, some regions of the country have never been the same. Seeing what was happening they outlawed the wedge bodies and took away the aero, implemented a small body set of rules and the racers came back. Within a few years DLM was growing by leaps and bounds, multi-car teams sprang up and there was an entire spectrum of suspension designs being tried, it was a great time. Once Skip Arp and Joe Garrison started developing the LR shock/spring behind setup known as, "Being On The hook" the trend towards needing more HP returned but gains have leveled off, so in the last 5 years everyone has shifted more towards aero and to me that is a bad thing for your average blue collar racer. Add in sanctions that look the other way on body rules and let the nose manufacturer dictate to them what's being run every year and things can get ugly real quick for average Joe Racer. Sorry, got on my soapbox. I'm done.