After years of complaints from fans (and drivers for that matter) over the looks of the Cup Series COT, NASCAR undoubtedly didn’t want a repeat as they developed the Nationwide COT.
This weekend we got our first glimpse of all four stickered up Nationwide COT’s. I don’t know how you feel about the cars, but in my opinion the manufacturers and teams (of course with NASCAR) did a good job making the cars look more like a production model.
I was fortunate enough to see a Challenger COT early in development and I was happy to see through the process there weren’t any major changes to it’s overall look. By far I think it’s the best looking of the new cars. The Mustang turned out well too.
I think Chevrolet missed out here though in not bringing the Camaro into the sport; though I understand their position. Mark Kent, Director of GM Racing said earlier this year:
It’s understandable they didn’t want to murder the body lines of a car they’ve been working on for many years. Still how cool would that have been?
I digress. NASCAR though now has a problem on its hands. They have visually attractive and realistic looking Nationwide cars competing with the less than handsome Cup Series COT.
After meetings this past week with drivers and team officials, NASCAR said they would make changes in 2011 to the front fascia of the Cup Series COT, presumably to make them look a little better up against the Nationwide COT. Let’s hope the changes are enough.
Now I know many of you aren’t fans of the COT and from the comments I have read elsewhere people are still complaining that this new car is still “cookie cutter”. In NASCAR’s and the team’s defense though these things could help bring down costs and will certainly make the racing safer; the hope of course is that racing will be better. Whatever the case, it’s hard to complain about the looks of the car; this is the closest we’ve seen to a production model (in my opinion) since the late-80s or early-90s.
With these new good looking cars though, let’s just hope competition isn’t the cost we all pay.
So any thoughts on the new Nationwide COT? Anything you would have liked to have seen done differently? Any hopes for the Cup Series COT? Talk amongst yourselves.
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on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 1:56 am
The Dodge Challenger even with the different window configuration is the best looking car out of all of them…period
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 4:13 am
Well first of all I think NASCAR did an amazing job on the NNWS COT. Of course that’s only based on how it looks. The NNWS is my favorite series out of the top three because of the entertaining racing and the older car lol. Now that they are going to replace it I will hope to see the good reacing stay or get better.
As far as the NSCS COT goes….If I was NASCAR I would do a slight body and aerodynamic redesign all the way around the car. I think they have the right idea, but they missed with the shape of the car…and yeah now it needs to look more like the showroom models.
Maybe more people will watch Nationwide now =P
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 8:31 am
I think The Busch cars look awesome! The challenger looks best!
I think the Cup cars have a hard act to follow once these hit the tracks full time.
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 am
I couldn’t tell watching tv whether the different models had the same body with different decals or whether there were real differences. Personally, I prefer the latter, there ought to be more to racing a Ford than just the engine.
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 am
Nice photos from the link. It’s amazing how excited fans get to view the selection of various headlight and grill decals and fiberglass bumper covers (insert sarcasm). Ahhh spec car racing at it’s best!
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I love the new Nationwide cars. The big plus I could see is this might help bring some attention back to the Nationwide series, who from what I’ve seen has had some dissapointing attendance this year. Love the new cars, especially the Challenger.
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
The Mustang is very cool.
But beauty is only skin deep.
We’ll see……
on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
O.K. I am going to agree with everyone that the Challenger is cool, but I think the Mustang is the best looking. I agree that GM is missing out by not running the Camaro. That would be really cool to have Mustang, Challenger and Camaro racing. I still hope that they will at some point change thier mind on that one.
on Nov 4th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Mark Kent’s explanation for forgoing the Camaro seemed counter intuitive. After all, the Impala outsells the Camaro by a large margin.
So if you’re going to alter the body lines of a car, you’re going to pick your top mid-size sedan? Not a good business decision given the explanation Kent provides. He’s assumed a greater risk by altering a higher selling vehicle.
Reduce your risk, work hard and get the Camaro in by 2011.