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Beautiful Female Race Car Drivers


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I have seen a short preview of that. I am not a big fan of hers, I just think that she's all hype and zero production.

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Danica Patrick is doing better than the median or average for others in her job. The problem is that as a woman, and a pretty one, all eyes are on her. And, she is good, but not exceptional, in her field.

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-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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If you are thinking of the Super Bowl commercial that shows her in a training run, looking muscled up like a body builder, well, that is "photoshopped" (I don't know the equivalent software package for video, sorry). They put her head and face on a man's body for that shoot. She has a quite feminine body shape.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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She certainly gets opportunity and other more deserving drivers simply because of her big sponsor. I keep hoping that they'll get tired of the non results, but she gets lots of coverage and after all, that's all that matters.

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I was disappointed when she went to NASCAR from Indy car racing. Although NASCAR has lots more viewers and people attending events than Indy car racing, I would rather have seen her do Formula 1 (3 liter open wheel, mostly European but world-wide) as a supplement to her Indy car (4 liter open wheel, nearly all USA [Canadian race or two?]), or even GT racing. But NASCAR is where the money is.

My feeling is that in the 1950s and 1960s when there were lots of oval dirt tracks all over the country where people would race actual production cars that had been specially prepared in fun and reasonably safe races for local families to enjoy, and when pro racing used prototypes that often resulted in improved production designs, NASCAR was a great venue. But since it morphed into throttle-plate limited "funny cars" (tube frames with ultra-light replicas of production cars on them) in dangerous, high speed drafting contests, well, this is a sport but I don't enjoy watching it. Due to the fact that it doesn't seem to produce technology that is useful outside NASCAR anymore, and it seems to be far more dangerous that other forms of racing, the sport has become something that NASCAR tries to manage to make things safer and more interesting to watch, with little noticeable success in recent years.

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-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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It seems that the crowd at the races and the viewers at home are less and less. All the sanctioning body wants are races with more passing and trying to make the champion be crowned through a playoff like system like the NBA or NFL. Somehow down the line they lost touch with their fans. Probably had a lot to do with the passing of Bill France. I used to go to a few races and watch most all of them on TV but not so much anymore. Now reading the results on line are enough. I have worked at race tracks around Oklahoma as either a flagman or track announcer for right at 20 years. All of the tracks I worked at were dirt tracks featuring Sprint Cars and Modifieds. Real grass roots racing. I stopped a couple of years ago and even though I've been offered the opportunity to come back I haven't. Maybe I've just used up all of my tickets for racing.

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Yeah, what you call the grass roots stock car racing and NASCAR parted ways when NASCAR started letting them run funny cars instead of stock cars. The only way to have lots of passing is to have diversity, where some cars are better at some parts of the track than others. With funny cars, you have homologated race cars; the throttle plates that equalize horsepower and the limits on weight and chassis mean that all the cars are identical out on the track, whether they be Toyota, Ford, Dodge, or Chevrolet on the body.

Big change? Require that all cars be based on production platforms and body shapes. Yes, they can use carbon fiber, but that carbon fiber fender/hood/door/top/rear must conform to the body shape of the same specific production model. Hey, I think that there's a lot of carbon fiber in my CTS-V! Also, require that the engine castings, including block, heads, and crankcase, be taken from factory production for modification by NASCAR rules, as was, for example, the "Mystery 427" raced by Chevrolet one year. That motor was apparently a modified 409 (custom crankshaft). Have separate classes (not run in the same race) for turbo motors and supercharged engines, use different displacement limits, and thus fragment the classes a bit, like in GT racing. Perhaps the big Sunday NASCAR races will just be the hairiest class, but the thrill will be back. You could see a race with *real* Mustangs and *real* Camaros, perhaps.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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It's bizarre that they run rear wheel drive slab sided V8 race cars but you can't walk into the showroom and find anything like that there.

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You *can* buy a CTS-V or a V8 Mustang.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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I guess with the Chevy SS, you'll be able to buy a 4 door rear drive V8 that kind of looks like what they race.

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Hey, what is the CTS-V, chopped liver??? It's got 100 hp more than the Pirelli World Challenge Cup racers that have held the manufacturer's championship for years, because the Pirelli World Challenge doesn't allow superchargers.

Nowadays, you have a whole line of V-Sport cars. Then, there's these:

  • Chevrolet SS, with its 415 hp 6.2 liter V8, which looks like it's out there to homologate a production stock car entry for NASCAR.
  • Camaro ZL1, which is available in coupe and CONVERTIBLE, with its LSA drive train.
  • Corvette Z06 and perhaps another configuration with 7.0 liter normally-aspirated V8, and whatever else they think they want to put out there to play whack-a-mole with the competition
  • Mustang GT500, with its 662 hp supercharged 5.8 liter V8, also available in either coupe or convertible.
  • Dodge with several models offering 370+ hp
  • You check the imports, beginning with the Mercedes AMG line and the BMW M series

Because none of these cars must adhere to the rules of the SCCA, NASCAR, Pirelli World Cup, or whatever, many of them can more than match the race cars with just a little preparation, like tightening up wear-and-tear items and tuning things like tire selection, shocks and struts, stabilizer bars, etc. Some of the less track-designed cars will need "towing package" or "heavy duty" radiators and transmission/oil cooler options added.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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But we're talking NASCAR and the cars they run in Cup. They don't run Cadillacs, Corvettes or even Dodges anymore. They run Chevy SS, Ford Fusion and Toyota Camerys. While they do run Camaros and Mustangs in Nationwide but not in Cup. There are lots of V8 cars out there, they're just not in Cup.

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Actually the CTS-Vs that they run in the Pirelli Championship Series are real CTS-Vs with modifications. The engine is a normally aspirated 6.2 liter LS, just like the blocks used in the Escalade, CTS-V, and 6.2 liter Corvettes, but race-prepared within Championship Series rules. The engine is lowered, and the suspension setup is a secret. Everybody has to run Pirelli racing slicks because Pirelli is the main sponsor. I think what we used to call the Grand Am series ran a lot of the same same tracks in the USA and Canada.

But, no, NASCAR doesn't run real stock cars anymore, as far as I know. And they are all custom-built tube-frame racers, with custom aluminum and carbon fiber skins with paint and decals to make them look like a Chevy SS, Ford Fusion or Toyota Camry. The weight and chassis specifications, and the throttle plate, make the track performances identical. I think that the competitive secret games are in tire construction and compound, and gas mileage tricks, and the real competition is in the pit crews.

I never followed NASCAR enough to know about them still running real Camaros and Mustangs. Frankly, I'm amazed. Since Camaro went to a sophisticated rear suspension some years ago but Mustang didn't (until this year) I figured that they weren't competing on the track.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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The Mustangs and Camaros they use are like the Cup cars, tube chassis, bodies that are basically the same under a template.

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