While scanning Instagram pics of DuQuoin entrants I detected design trends to further denigrate the once beautifully rounded lines of open wheel race cars.
Yes, I am aged. Yes, I prickle at change. But, I'm pretty sure that Hall of Fame driver and novelist Kevin Olson would agree that midget race cars are becoming UGLY!
I am now off to the shop to work on a slab sided Chili Bowl midget.
That ship sailed in 1989 when downtubes became common. I remember in the mid 1970s when Carmen Mendzado showed up at the IRS modified show with a car that had front and rear downtubes. All the railbirds thought it was the ugliest thing on wheels until it started to go fast. Fast race cars get a pass on beauty and that is why our cars at all levels and classes are so ugly even a cat wouldn't bury them.
If midgets/sprints/Silver Crown cars lost their pointed tails the transition would finally be complete and any five year old could draw them accurately.
I couldn't agree more! Those beautiful little race cars look terrible just like the sprint cars. Put fenders on them and call them late models. Kind of makes me sick.
How about no wedge or side force body panels. All cars must be painted and numbers with gold leaf lettering. Chrome is mandatory. I do miss those 70's CRA race cars at ascot.
But the racing is good with current cars, so I need to adapt. Paint and chrome is expensive. Whatever provides the best racing and most entrants works for me I can look at painted cars with chrome at nostalgia nights or museums.
Why is it the fans are always complaining about how cars look? Things evolve. It's part of life. This is why our sport is dying. Too many people complaining about stupid sh*t instead of just supporting the sport they supposedly "love".
Originally Posted by TKRacing:
Why is it the fans are always complaining about how cars look? Things evolve. It's part of life. This is why our sport is dying. Too many people complaining about stupid sh*t instead of just supporting the sport they supposedly "love".
Maybe just maybe it is that looking at ugly cars turns people off enough to lose some of their interest. Because you can adapt doesn't mean everyone else wants to. Also as the cars get UGLYIER they also tend to get harder to maintain, with all the pretty body panels and all.
People complaining about ugly cars doesn't hurt or kill racing, people fed up with **** racing hurts racing.
The point being a lot of people have been around long enough to know the smell of crap without having to taste it.
Maybe at 26 I'm just too young to remember the "good Ole days". But I know I've been going to races since I was born so 1990. Man have things changed a lot over 26 years, but the cars are far from ugly. If they were so ugly race teams wouldn't keep building them the way they are. The teams have their reasons for building them this way. We can't help that fans don't agree with a more modern look. It's not just midgets or sprints or crown cars. It's IRL, nascar, F1, street cars, motorcycles etc. Everything changes...that's life. It always goes back to all the old timers didn't want roll cages but hey look it's turned out just fine. We need to appeal to a younger generation. They like more modern things. People who have been around for 20, 30, or 40 years won't be around forever to keep this sport alive.
If I want to see something pretty, I can go to a street rod show (one of the biggest every year right across the river, which I have not attended since high school). If I want to see bad-asses racing their balls off, well, I don't particularly care what the cars look like. Minority? Perhaps; I do enjoy the occasional pavement/stock car race as well, so take my opinion with a big ol' grain of salt.
If you don't like the way they look, buy a team a frame and body the way you want it to look. I also guarantee, myself included, that the younger generation thinks the older cars are uglier and the newer ones look better
I can look at painted cars with chrome at nostalgia nights or museums.