Petty Enterprise, May 1972.

Lots of neat stuff in those pics... a race fans delight!

These are just some of the things I noticed:
the '70 b body next to the '71, taken in '72
'72 Super Speedway cars, #11 & 43, with ultra smooth bodywork and carefully fitted bumpers. These cars were among the first to take advantage of some tricked out bodywork to cut through the air. Note the still-seperate door skins - Nascar did not yet allow one piece/molded side panels.
the Hemi just sitting on the floor.
the 43 car with the black circular padding behind the driver's seat is still around today - the padding is over a circle with a peace logo in the center, a builder's trademark.
the Superbird under the cover in the parking lot - I'm not sure if the rules still allowed a Superbird in '72.
the '71/'72 Plymouth under a cover in the parking lot - '72 was the last year Petty ran both Plymouths and Dodges.
Richard himself working on the cars and in the shop - you won't see any modern day drivers doing that!
a VW Beetle in the parking lot :)
though all the cars in the pics were Hemi cars, '72 was the first year they started using 340 engines (supposedly all the Hemi cars used painted rims, while the 340 ones had chrome rims)

These are really neat pictures of the way teams used to operate. Petty at the time was THE team, with the best of everything. Can you imagine a top team today letting their cars travel on a trailer behind a truck, with only a cover for protection?
 
I thought they started using the 340 in '71, with the rule for '71 and '72 that to use the Superbird and Daytona you had to run the small-block at 358" or less. Obviously, I'm not old enough to remember so it's more a question of what I've read over the years and my interpretation thereof.

These pictures remind me of just about everything I hate about NASCAR today. I loved catching re-runs of races from this era on late-night TV back when I still could. I have absolutely no desire to watch a current race.
 
Dr.Jass said:
I thought they started using the 340 in '71, with the rule for '71 and '72 that to use the Superbird and Daytona you had to run the small-block at 358" or less. Obviously, I'm not old enough to remember so it's more a question of what I've read over the years and my interpretation thereof.

These pictures remind me of just about everything I hate about NASCAR today. I loved catching re-runs of races from this era on late-night TV back when I still could. I have absolutely no desire to watch a current race.
Click to expand...

It was '71, but the max displacement for anything with wings was 305c.i.
 
The '71 Dodge Daytona run by Dick Brooks at the Daytona 500 was the last appearance of a wing car on the super speedways. It used the 340-based 305. It led a few laps, but Richard has been quoted as saying that no matter how good the slippery wing cars were and how good the 305 would be, with the reduced power of the small block engine vs the Hemi, there was no way they even considered the small block.
I don't believe Petty Enterprises used the 340 until 1972, after Nascar basically legislated the Hemi out of the sport for the second time. Other teams may have used it but I'm pretty sure PE stuck with the Hemi for '71 and considering that the pics in this thread are about PE, that's where my comments are aimed. They may have used it for testing during the '71 season.

I love those old races too Doc, but some teams - like the Petty teams - were so far ahead of the others, it became a matter of how many cars could stay on the lead lap 'cause none of them could beat the bigger teams. Other than the nostalgic-feel-good of watching those vintage racers and cars in a so-different era, the races themselves were snoozers. The drivers however, were anything but un-interesting, unlike today's crop of politically correct sponsor-driven androids.
 
No doubt about the drivers, but the cars were different too. Back then, you couldn't just hang "Ford" sheetmetal on a "Dodge" chassis as they were significantly different and the teams that dominated had learned to work with what they had. Today, everything's so close in design you probably wouldn't have to change anything but the sheetmetal and the valve covers to make a Toyota into a Chevy. None of the cars are based on showroom anything, nor are any of the engines.

When I was a kid, the local circle track's "Late Model" class was infested with ponycars: Barracudas, Challengers, Camaros, Firebirds, Mustangs and the occasional psychotic AMC guy (who was actually pretty competitive). They didn't have a tube chassis and they didn't have Wide 5 hubs. They had to run a production-line engine and a production-line transmission, as well as a factory rear axle. The body had to be factory, with allowance for wheel clearance for front and rear spolers. I know a guy whose Dad cut up a factory 4-speed AAR 'Cuda to circle-burn it; that's how my friend Kevin famously found an original AAR hood in the woods behind his house. Today's late models? They all run a Chevy engine in a nearly-identical chassis on Wide 5s with identical bodywork. They all have floater quick-change rear axles. The only differences are the paint, grille, headlamp, and taillamp decals between them (and several of them run as Fords or Dodges). Yawn. If I find myself at the races, I watch the Super Stocks (still based on street cars, mostly GM G-bodies), the Slammers if there are enough participants to hold a race, and the 4-banger class. "HERE COMES THE LATE-MODEL FEATURE!" is my signal that I can finally go empty my bladder.

If I want to watch purpose-built race cars, I'll watch Formula One or NHRA where they at least embrace technology.
 
one of the things we agree on greatly doc...tho...id MUCH rather watch lemans or anything still loosly based on the old imsa/scca style of BUILT FULL BODY race cars pushing the tech as far as they can....F1 has gone in the shitter imo with all the nascar like restrictions and most of them running the same engines last i knew.........gtp? is where the tech is now..for a while the benz's were running circles around everyone with a diesel!!!!
 
That's why I have no interest in racing in our street stock class as it's all metric chassis GM crap.

I race in the truest form of STOCK CAR racing left.

And proud of it. :)
 
I'm sure it's the same there, but here it's a huge step up to go from the Slammer class (about equivalent to yours) to the Super Stocks money-wise. Yes, most of the Super Stocks are mostly based on GM Metric cars even though they can run Cavalier bodies, etc. Sadly, the Slammer class here is essentially dead. If they get 6 cars, it's a miracle.
 
The slammer class is dead. They killed it last year. The shitty thing about it is, killing the class never came up in the winter meatings. The guys who had slammers and a few who built new ones showed up for the first night and were told "theres no class for you this year but we will let you run with the street stocks if you want."
 
Stretch said:
The slammer class is dead. They killed it last year. The shitty thing about it is, killing the class never came up in the winter meatings. The guys who had slammers and a few who built new ones showed up for the first night and were told "theres no class for you this year but we will let you run with the street stocks if you want."
Click to expand...

Shitty deal. Why do people behave that way?
 
The Slammers could never compete in Super Stock, or Street Stock, or whatever they're calling it this week. Sadly, that was always the most enjoyable class to watch. I guessed it was coming the way things were happening, but the way they went about it really does sound pretty underhanded.
 
John Osterman never liked the Slammer class. He thinks the 4cyl cars are a better show. He was electied Presidant of the DCRA and he killed the class without a vote. He didn't get re elected this year. LOL
 
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