OT: racing budgets, history Options

[lapuwali]

While discussing a topic on another board, I recalled a dramatic comparison done in a car mag 20 years ago.

It was possible to build a championship winning NASCAR stock car for only $25,000 in 1985. This car, unfettered by the restrictor plate rules introduced shortly after, could do 240mph on a really big oval.

A competitive sports racer with full Le Mans bodywork (a 962, in fact), cost around $250,000 then, and could only do 220mph on the same big oval.

Some proof that cubic inches really do win in the end, and those brick-like stock cars weren't actually so brick-like, after all.

A wag at the time stated that the $25K car would get $250K for a race win, while the $250K car would only get $25K for a race win. This test also prompted the snide comment that "A race car is just like the family car, only it doesn't go as fast."

All that aside, the difference in budgets over the years really has been startling. Many of the NASCAR types are just now making the same "money has ruined the sport" noises the F1 types started to make 20 years ago. And back then, F1 budgets were still far from the $300-400M a season they are now. I have no numbers, but I'd not be at all surprised if NASCAR team budgets aren't 20-30x what they were in 1985.

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (URY914 @ Mar 15 2005, 06:04 PM)

I think it was Motor Trend but it doesn't matter. It was Al Hobert's 962 because he was running IMSA and NASCAR back then. It was a little one sided. They should have done at the Glen. The 962 boys would have been laughing then. Or let Porsche design a car to ONLY run around a superspeed way. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif) Paul

The oval was so big that turns were basically non-existant (like 7 miles around), so this was strictly a top speed test. If Porsche had been allowed to build a car just for that test, I'll bet it either would have cost a LOT more than $25K, or it would have looked exactly like a stock car. That's the part that's so hard to swallow. $25K, almost no setup, and they produce a car that would blow right by the 10x as expensive 962 on Mulsanne (pre-chicanes).