Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

UGLY

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.:5:

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

Well said.

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

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.

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

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.:deadhorse:

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

Can not argue with that.

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".

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

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

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

Im totaly against this making a air dam out of the hood and side panels. I don't even like the dished hoods on sprints as you can't see the number on most of them.

The downtubes are hear to stay but that doesn't make em Fugly. I've seen downtube cars with rounded hoods. that were beautiful.

Now here's the deal. Its easier to make and replace straight side panels. most are carbon fiber.

You want to change it and you got a car, Start with a sheet of aluminum or sheet metal and a English Wheel. and change it! :)

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

I don't know how anyone could call something like this ugly. :11:

https://photos.smugmug.com/2015-Will...SC_0128-X2.jpg

I swear the offseason brings out the worst in all the bench racers..... Complaining about cars being ugly? Come on... Do something more productive with your time.

At the age of 23 I find modern day midgets and sprints to be "cool" looking..... I enjoy seeing the creativeness in "aero" bodies, carbon fiber, full enclosure bodies, etc.... I think they look great.

At the same time, I find vintage sprints and midgets to be absolutely gorgeous cars, but let's face it the days of no cages, chrome, and skinny tires are long gone- so get over it. If you want to look at vintage midgets and reminisce about the "good ole days" go to a museum or watch your local vintage race (pretty boring honestly).

Should we give up full face helmets and go back to open face/goggles too?

.

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

Sorry, but I have to tell you what I've been told myself: You're stuck in the past.
You have fond memories of the old race cars, but thats just you. Its the racing that counts, like somebody said, if you want looks go to a car show, or a museum

Who cares what they look like as long as you have enough of them to put on a good race

Manual typewriters were magnificent, then they went to electric and became uglier, and finally we entered the computer age...talk about ugly. Take a look at those beautiful horses pulling buggies hand crafted from wood, now those were truly works of art. Then Henry ruined it with the model T, it's been down hill ever since.

I don't deny that I love the looks of those old sprint and midgets. However, they are gone never to return just like the horse and buggy. If you are concerned about the future of racing and not the past then the focus should be on what appeals to a younger generation. I do not believe the looks of today's cars vs oldies would come up in a conversation about how to get millennials to attend races.

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

The problem I have with the new trend of body style has nothing to do with looks and more to do with safety. USAC just launched a new safety initiative with flashing lights but yet you can encapsulate a driver to the point where if they were laying upside down on fire they couldn't get out. I see far too many race tracks who skimp on fire equipment to rely on them to put a fire out before its too late.

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

To me, most open wheel race cars, regardless of age, asphalt, dirt, whatever, are like women. They come in all styles and shapes and sizes and the vast majority of them are beautiful. Some you just have to look a little harder to find the beauty is all.:)

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

Thank you. I think that sums up the issue perfectly. Still, I much prefer girls and race cars with curves.:6:

Re: Midgets are becoming U**Y!
 

I think what you grew up watching, you're nostalgia for. For me it was the hand painted and lettered CRA sprint cars of 70's. Back than I always heard how much better the cars were in the 50's and 60's, without cages and open face helmets.

IMHO, I think we are now in a golden age of racing and cars in general. Before too long, cars in real world and some racing maybe be self autonomous :(

But I like/love the racing I know see for open wheel racing. Lot's of talented drivers and teams. In the socal area, the sprint car racing is down. When it was SCRA at PAS in the 90's early 2000's, we had 50 plus cars EVERY Week. Through ******** and economy, we now have one race a month at PAS, and most nights just 3 heats :( and traffic SUCKS.

I can live with ugly midgets, because I love open wheel dirt racing and I can adapt (with just a little screaming). You guys in the midwest are spoiled with all the great open wheel dirt racing. I tend to only get excited early in the season when some of the midwest guys venture to the West and at the end of the year for the Oval Nationals and Turkey Night.

Ugly is just perspective. Just as long as we support our local short track is all that matters to me. It looks like USAC has a really strong 360/410 schedule all across CA, and for the first time in awhile really excited about non wing racing :)

cheers and Merry Christmas to all the Open Wheel Dirt Fans :)