Nascar's Car of Tomorrow

By Allen Madding

With the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow into 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup competition, there have been lots of complaints aired about the impact of changing over. What exactly is different besides the roofline being higher, the “greenhouse” being wider, the freaky new rear wing, and the “splitter” under the front bumper?

The basic design on the chassis is the same as before, but NASCAR has mandated a significant amount of things related to the chassis.

A NASCAR Nextel Cup car has a rear suspension consisting of two truck arms that run from a cross member near the center of the car to the rear axle, two rear springs, and a panhard bar which locates the rear axle from side to side. The new Car of Tomorrow chassis has design and location specifications for the truck arm cross member as well as specifications for the floor pan height and width, and for the firewall location.

The specifications are above and beyond those of years past.

Additionally all sheet metal making up firewalls and floor pans must be 22 gauge. NASCAR now requires teams to submit a completed chassis to their Tech Center in Concord, North Carolina for inspection and certification before the teams can hang bodywork on the cars.

In the past, NASCAR never inspected the chassis until the whole finished race car was presented for inspection at the race track prior to practice on race weekend. Finished cars and body work inspection will still take place at the track as in years past, but NASCAR now gets the chance to check the chassis before it is covered with bodywork.

Teams still have some flexibility in locating pivot points on the front suspension as they have in the past so they can still create a drop-snout style chassis or a straight-up chassis as before, but there are a few new rules addressing the snout of the Car of Tomorrow chassis that did not previously exist.

Bump stops, a tool for limiting suspension travel that were once illegal for use in NASCAR Nextel Cup competition, are now allowed. The main reason NASCAR has allowed bump stops is to give the teams a tool to prevent the chassis from sinking too far into the drag and damaging the splitter the sits below the front bumper. As NASCAR has designed the Car of Tomorrow to be aerodynamically dependant on the splitter for front down force, damaging the splitter by bottoming out on it would effectively end a team’s day.

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