Shapes Of Things To Come

The car of tomorrow makes sense safety wise. If we can make tires safer and walls safer what makes you think we can't make cars safer? When I hear owners or fans or the press say, ‘My God, that's got to be expensive….' Since when have we started putting dollars on people's lives. To quote Kyle Petty "When you've lost a son, there's no price you can put on safety of a driver, no price at all. So, if I've got to scrap every car I've got and build brand new cars and it cost me $10 million to run a safer car for Bobby Labonte so every night he can get out and go home to Madison and Tyler, I'll pay that money as an owner." ALL OWNERS should be willing to take that responsibility. After Adams death in 2000, Kyle held regular meetings with Mike Helton and NASCAR officials to aide in developing new safety measures.

Most everyone would tend to believe that when Dale Sr. passed NASCAR went holy shizzit we need to mandate all the available safety restraints. Not so! NASCAR has been developing new ideas since the passing of John Nemechek. Apparently all is not lost. With the soft-walls and Hans devices, and now the Car of Tomorrow stock car racing is getting "safer". If traveling around at an average of 165 plus can get safe. Here are the specs on the Car of Tomorrow as opposed to the cars as we know it.

Cockpit intrusion protection
→ Roll cage is 2 inches taller, 4 inches wider→ Roll cage moved rearward 3 inches→ Left-side door bars covered with steel plate→ Door bars configured for impact attenuation→ Driver's seat moved 4 inches to the right→ Double left-side frame rail (intrusion, EA backstop)→ Fully enclosed driveshaft tunnel→ Truck arm cross member for controlled crush→ Left-side suspension moved left 1 inch→ Match bumper heights front, rear and side→ Exhaust thru right frame rail→ Re-configured floor pan (no OEM floor pan)
• Fire protection
→ Less fuel volume (17.5 gallons from 22 gallons) and stronger container.

Basically speaking all the above bull-shizzit means when Kurt, Kyle, JJ, and of course the Rainblow Warrior hits the wall, they will be better able to walk away to the cheer of the crowd.