The 1963 Fairlane 500 Fastback, the 1969 Dodge Daytona and the 1975 Chevrolet Laguna S3. All great cars in NASCAR history. The thing they all have in common is the efforts by the manufactures and teams to use the air to gain grip and speed. Seeing the effect that Aero Racing has had on the sport, do you wish we could go back to boxy, flat nosed cars with chin spoilers?
I wasn't sure, I guessed.
Great story, I would have loved to have seen that.
I wish for that all that time. Figure a way to get rid of coil binding, ban bumpstops and do what it takes to prevent these teams from sealing off the front end completely. Terry Labonte said they didn't even know what downforce was until the teams learnt about the advantages of sealing off the front around the mid/late 80s.
The Junior Johnson built 1966 Ford Galaxie "Yellow Banana" at speed in Atlanta's 1966 Dixie 400 with Fred Lorenzen at the wheel.
Hey how about that.. I thought the Banana only ran once, at Richmond where Lorenzen blew a tire. Did not know it ran Atlanta too. Thanks for the pic Dave.
Jim.. great insight, thanks. The thing is though.. just looking at those cars like the 70 Torino Talladega and Dodge Daytona or even the cars until the early to mid 80s.. while they were definitely designed more and more to maximize airflow around the car, they still had so much front end clearance off the ground and only that little lip under the bumper. Seems like that while they understood the importance of cheating the air and basic effects of an inverted airfoil, they probably didn't quite know the advantages of creating a low pressure area under the car (think they call it the Venturi effect?? Not sure) by sealing off the front when at speed until the late-80s when the T-bird and the other cars started growing those big flared out front valances skipping along the ground at speed.
Good point, but I have to say, THEY, the teams didn't do that on there own, NASCAR changed the rules and allowed the team to go from the chin spoilers to the huge valances. Speeds were creeping up and stablity was needed and NASCAR gave into the teams cries and it planted the sport in this AERO mess he have now.
I wish the sport could go.
Yea.. wish they'd nipped it in the bud right there somehow.. but I'm sure the teams would've found something else to screw it up eventually LOL.
My thought is that when the cars went away from chrome bumpers and went to rubber covers is when it all started.
Atlanta was where the huge controversy took place when NASCAR told Junior to never bring it back. To my knowledge and eveything I can find on the car, that was the first, last and only appearance for the "Yellow Banana."
Great points. All these rules make me wish for the old days even more.
Looking at your pictures I see just where part of the problem started. The top picture of #95 shows the front valance cut off at the rubber skirt and the chin spoiler is there. The bottom picture of the Petty #6 shows the rubber skirt at the bottom of the valance in place and the chin spoiler is not needed anymore. Before the chin spoiler had to be a minimum of 4" off the ground and with the rubber skirt in place the cars were a little lower than that. I think some other models had at this time still had chin spoilers but NASCAR soon allowed all cars to completely box off the nose.
This is some great info.. if you ever write a book, I'm buying it.
It's like the old saying goes.. what's seen cannot be unseen.. and that fact has been shrinking the box more and more all across the racing world every year. I would love it if they could reverse that trend someday but it almost seems impossible since all the tricks are known anyway. What I would like to see is more options atleast.. like let them adjust the spoiler again. If Knaus can lay that blade down at 45 and make it work, more power to him.
Indeed that's what it looks like. I wish NASCAR would atleast try.. one of these days.. to test a raised front end with no splitter/valance and a highly trimmed off rear spoiler to counter for the loss of that front downforce and see how they race at an intermediate track.
Here are 2 pictures of the the Monte Carlos raced in 1985 and 1986 I think. Look at the valance on them and see the difference. 
