What Make & Model Automobile would you have liked to have seen more in Cup Racing?

Over the years I've seen a few photos of the 1972 Olds Cutlass 442 built for stock car racing; The 72` Cutlass 442, with it's distinguished twin grills, sleek design and strong motor seemed to be a likely candidate for Cup racing but as history shows very few of this muscle car ever graced the track.

What era of production of a make and model would you have liked to have seen in Cup racing that was otherwise not chosen by the car makers or teams? Not necessarily what car from the past would you like to see today, rather what car that got passed over would you have liked to have seen run during it's production? Mel Gillette, Michigan 1973 DNQ

The tried and proven Shoe box style of cars from the 55-56-57 range were the choice I would love to see ran again. Just think if Nascar were to revert back to its "Younger years of racing" what great races you would see and at speeds you could actually see the cars in their own form,not in a train and each look like the other sans the paint scheme applied

I could never get enough '57 Chevys. My buddy, Frank and I always said that somebody ought to build one of those indestructible Checker cabs for dirt track GN races.Of course, they'd have had to have one of those NASCAR E.I.R.I. exemptions - might not have met the minimum 500 vehicle production requirement and the Checker folks didn't produce their own motors. That would have relegated it to the Late Model Modified status I guess.

One of my favs

My favorite car of all I had--she was almost bullet proof. and survived many a place i planted her in a race...Oh to have her again

this ca

Cale & Derrike took a 1993 Mercury Cougar to Daytona Testing, but Ford was very COOL to the idea of the Mercury or Lincoln nameplate any longer being associated with redneck racing and pulled the plug quickly.

Patty, I agree, when the Mustang showed up in Nationwide I was pumped that Cup would run them, same goes for the Challenger, the Charger is OK but, the new Challenger is B.A. and if Cup would run the Mustang, Challenger and Camaro it might start attracting more viewers, I mean, who don't like to watch the sport cars run, not Mom and Dad sedan.

As for the question , let me put it another way...during the era of production what car would one liked to have seen run? Put another way, what car that got passed over would you have liked to have seen run during it's production?. Sorry for the confusion.

I still don't consider Toyota as a contender in NASCAR and whoever drives one I won't pull for period. Call it what you want, I won't pull for the Japanese auto maker.

I too would have loved to see that Mercury Cougar race in Cup.

Here's an article about the Cougar and some current photos of it at Road America

my be the smokey yunick chevelle 13

Ray, that's a good one, and here's photo of a big impala, not as compact as the Smokey `66. 1968 Impala, Bub Strickler 1972 Daytona Permatex 300

i saw that cougar at the charlotte test. really cool to see something that different.

i agree about the caprice. if you watch the early lapsof the 1979 daytona 500, you can see dave marcis running in the lead draft with his captice. marcis would later win with another unusual bowtie,a malibu, at the 1982 richmond 400.

the 1959 daytona 500 would have to be the best race of all time for brand diversity. the speedway offered all kinds of incentives to manufacturers to showcase their current model year machines. lee petty won the race in a new olds 88for what i believe was the only victoty by the 1959 edition of that make.ford was represented by t-bird, galaxie, and ( one) edsel. joining in were chevrolet impala, pontiac catalina, and single car entries forstudebaker lark and desoto.

Love the 66 and 67s!!!

Just noticing the ride height of the #87 Olds pictured here....hmmm. A good sized dog could run under that thing.

Ya know Jeff, I've noticed that but didn't quite put my finger on it. I bet your cat could dash under it with it's tail in the air and clear it.

I think it would have been neat if the various Chrysler products had stayed in NASCAR. (Still wonder why they never allowed the LeBaron or 90s Avenger, both of which were raced in ARCA. )

It's kind of twisted, but I would love to have seen a K-car in race trim. I know it wouldn't have been in NASCAR, (maybe Goody's Dash) but still. Woulda been cool.

It would have been great to see the Mercury that was tested...they also tested a Lincoln in 1996, and Cadillac got as far as drawing up what a Cup car would have looked like in 1996 or 97 as well. THAT would have been cool.

I've heard rumor that an Eagle was on NASCAR's approved list in the mid-1990s...but no one actually built one. Would have been kind of strange as Eagles were just re-badged Dodges, in fact, the Intrepid.

Haha, funny story! My brother's first car was a K-car...so I have heard that kind of story before! It was also maroon, as it seems like so many of them were! I don't think lead feet and K-cars work very well togther at all, lol. He had his until somebody wasn't paying attention and rear-ended him at a stop sign. I actually heard that for a time they were the most popular car in Mexico...I just have a hard time imaging them as the mostpopular anywhere!

That slant six would run forever but they were real dogs.

My wife and I drove my dad's 77 Dodge pickup with slant six and automatic to Bristol one time. This was when the infield was still grass and crew members were allowed to park there. There was one way in and out which was at the exit to turn 2 where the banking was still pretty steep. While exiting the track the line stopped with me sitting in the middle of the track. The line moved and that truck sat there and would not move. I could not back up so I held it on the floor. You could crawl faster than I was moving. When we finally got to the top everyone started clapping and cheering. Now that was embarrassing. LOL

A little technical/historical correction. The '77 Volare was a Chrysler Corp. pre-Kcar platform. The first two K-Cars were the 1981 Dodge Aries and 1981 Plymouth Reliant. In 1982 I had the misfortune of renting a Plymouth Reliant at the Ontario, California airport for a Riverside race. That was no car to be driving on Los Angeles area freeways. Zero power. Hard to believe that the mind of the man who invented the Mustang for Ford - Lee Iacocca - was also the brains behind the K-Car. However, those two Chrysler models were credited with saving Chrysler Corp. and Iacocca did pay off the government loan - Early! His biography makes for fascinating reading. Highly recommend it. My oldest daughter's first boyfriend picked her up for a date driving his grandmother's K-car. She didn't want to leave the house.

Driving up that banking from the Bristol infield to that famous "Michael Waltrip crash" turn two gate was no fun atall in traffic. You really needed a running start. I about stalled anything I ever drove up that banking in traffic.Do you remember when Eddie Gossage crashed the Bristol pace car at that gate? During a test session (I think) he drove in the open gate and was hit by a wrecker.

No Dave I don't remember that one but I could easily see it happening.

Here's a first year history of the K-Car from the MOPAR enthusiast site, ALLPAR.com:

Sometimes hailed as Lee Iacocca's baby, the K-car was already in the works when he came on board. Chrysler had introduced the first mass-production front-wheel-drive American subcompact car, the Omni/Horizon, in 1978. The K-car was to be the second 6-passenger front wheel drive American car. (The first was GM's notoriously troublesome X-body, the Citation/Phoenix/Skylark/Omega.)
The K cars appeared for the 1981 model year as the Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant. A two door coupe, four door sedan, and four door wagon were available. Base power was provided by a 2.2 (135 cid) in-line-four fed by a 2 barrel electronic feedback carburetor with a progressive opening (opening first the primary bore and then, as the pedal was depressed further, the secondary bore), churning out 82 hp and 111 lb-ft of torque. Transaxles were a 4-speed floorshift manual or a 3-speed automatic. The car did 0-60 in the 12-13 second range, far quicker than the Toyota Corolla. A 2.6 Mitsubishi motor with hemispherical heads was optional, and cars bearing this motor - for 1981 at least - were adorned with the badge "2.6 HEMI." It should be noted that when Chrysler introduced the 2.5 liter engine based on the 2.2, it produced about the same power as the Hemi 2.6.
1981 cars had no roll-down rear windows. They weighed about 2300 - 2400 lb, and cost $5,880 for the base model.
Early sales of the K were poor, due to some bad planning on Chrysler's part. Ads touted the K's low price, but Chrysler was building cars with options like automatic transmissions, A/C, and upgraded wheels. People flocked to the showroom but did not buy; they expected the price they had seen advertised, and found cars costing hundreds or thousands more. Chrysler quickly realized their mistake and started building bare-bones Aries and Reliants, and sales took off, giving the Reliant and Aries their best sales year ever though, to be fair, this was before the Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge 400 were (and seemingly for no justifiable reason) added to the mix.

Y'all correct me if I am wrong, but the Volare, etc. were still all rear wheel drive, correct, with the 1981 K-Cars being the first Chrysler front wheel drive models?

Again from the ALLPAR Chrysler enthusiast site :

The Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare were introduced in the fall of 1975 as 1976 models, and were followed quickly by the 1977 Chrysler LeBaron. They were the successors to the A body Valiant and Dart (along with their like-bodied but other-named friends). The A body continued on through the 1976 model year alongside the new models and was then dropped. Gas mileage was initially rated by the EPA at 18 city, 27 highway (slant six, manual transmission, sedan or coupe).
The Aspen and Volare were produced under those names for 5 model years, 1976 through 1980, when the cars were tweaked and renamed to Dodge Diplomat, Chrysler New Yorker / Fifth Avenue, and Plymouth Gran Fury, with a similar Imperial confusing matters further. The newer vehicles had a much higher price class, with an almost identical drivetrain, suspension, and body.
The Aspen/Volare were replaced as standard family cars, by the six-passenger, four cylinder, front wheel drive K body Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant starting with the 1981 model year. Because it was designed to have, at most, a 2.6 liter four-cylinder, the front-drive Reliant managed to have almost as much interior and trunk space as the Volare. Technology had finally moved on; but many people preferred the feel of the Volare and Aspen, the culmination of decades of rear-wheel-drive innovation.

The Aspen and Volare were designed to look more luxurious and upscale than the A body models, following the success of the Ford Granada. It was also intended to attract economy-minded people who would normally buy more expensive B and C bodies, following the success of Chryslers own Valiant Brougham.
Aspen and Volare two-doors had a 108.7 inch wheelbase (similar to the 108" Duster and Dart Sport), while four door F bodies got a 112.7 inch wheelbase, making them slightly bigger than the Dart and Valiant, which rode a 111" wheelbase (the LeBaron two doors and four doors both rode on a 112.7 inch wheelbase). The station wagon (on the 112.7" wheelbase) was new to the compact line, the Valiant and Dart wagons having been dropped in 1966. The Volare had extra sound deadening material, door seals, and body insultation, an upper door chrome package on the sill under the outside mirrors, and thicker carpeting.
The Aspen/Volare were hot enough to get a true luxury version, above the Chrysler LeBaron. The Monteverdi Sierra boasted a redesigned front suspension and radically different sheet metal that gave it a decidedly European look; the interior was redone as well, though the basic dimensions and drivetrain were the same. The 318 was standard on the Monteverdi Sierra, the 360 optional.

1977 Plymouth Volare Pre K-car

First kit car I ever saw was one Rick Mast showed up with at Southside Speedway - #22. We'd never heard of him and he didn't fare too well against the Tant/Mitchell and Zervakis Chevelles!

Jim, I remember Chuck running one night at Wilson in the 70sand looking very good for his first trip there. Have no memory of what he was driving, though.

Some pretty interesting Ralph & Dale Earnhardt stuff in this Chuck Piazza interview:

It's a mystery why NASCAR refused to allow the LeBarons to compete in Winston Cup? The cars were lengthened to meet specs but, like you said Billy, ran ARCA but never in Cup.

The 1970 Ford King Cobra was tested by Holman & Moody, and had promise of competing with the Mopar winged warriors but when Bunkie Knudsen was fired from Ford, so died the King Cobra. Only a limited number of the prototypes were built, Bud Moore bought two King Cobras from Ford, one Moore may still own, the other was sold to a private collector.

I also found some more interesting information on the Olds Cutlass 442 or Supreme; what I read was that the Olds didn't get the factory backing like Ford and Chrysler in the late 1960's early 1970's and since it is a GM product (Chevrolet wasn't backing cars either) the Olds 442 just couldn't compete. Again, what a shame to miss out on an awesome design built for speed.

Bud kept a yellow King Cobra under a car cover right in the main area of his shop. He always unveiled it for any first time visitor to Bud Moore Engineering. He always told me only 3 were built.

Looks like a 280Z in the front