What kind of car was Dad's car when he came to the school early in the movie? Was it the same as a stock car? And what kind of car are these "stock cars" that are being driven nowadays/in this movie 10 years ago?
(Obviously I'm someone watching cuz I like Apatow and comedy, not because I like cars/racing.)
I googled but I couldn't get a clear answer to what a stock car might have been at this raceway at this time.
Dad's car was just a stock appearing 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu. Under the hood might have been souped up but it wasn't a "stock" car for racing on a circle track.
The cars being raced in the movie were "stock" cars but they are nothing close to stock. The original name was used for cars in the 1950's when NASCAR was starting out. They actually were fairly "stock" appearing cars that you could buy off the showroom floor. The saying for the manufacturers and car dealers back in the 1950's and 1960's was "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." The cars being raced however, started deviating further and further from "stock" throughout the 1960's and 1970's until by the 1980's the only thing that was close to the car you could buy in the showroom to what was being raced was maybe the car's name (i.e. Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Ford Thunderbird, etc.) They are all tube frame with a body hung on them with engines/drivetrains that aren't anywhere near being street legal. Most of the cars are front wheel drive nowadays while the race cars are all rear wheel drive and even had carburetors still up until recently.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks. Sounds like you know a lot about this stuff. So, Dad's car was a Malibu, but the cars in the racing could be a bunch of different models. They didn't race the same model against multiple instances, and the model doesn't matter anyway because when you say tube frame and all that I'm guessing that everything under the body really has nothing to do with the car as it came out of the factory.
To me all the cars racing looked the same so I thought they were the same model and I wondered if that had something to do with being stock. (See, it's like someone who can only count to 10 trying to take a calculus class...)
I haven't really kept up with NASCAR in quite some time. I used to watch it a lot in the 1980's. The focus was on the cars and the drivers back then, now it's mainly just about the drivers. In the '80s the cars were purpose built race cars, but each manufacturer had their own engines and the cars still resembled the ones you could buy in the showroom. Plus, there was more competition as Ford, Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and even Buick raced. Chrysler (the parent company of Dodge and Plymouth) was real strong in the 1950's - 1970's but by the 1980's was pretty much out of racing by then. They came back in the late 1990's but got out again a few years ago (although I have heard they might field a car again).
The cars in the movie all looked the same because they all have a standard template that NASCAR enforces. This has been in effect for quite some time (at least since the 1990's). So while they can individual looking "headlights" and "grilles" they are basically all the same body. The headlights and grilles are just stickers applied to the bodies. So while Ford might be racing a Taurus and Chevrolet a Monte Carlo, they are all the same body more or less. The engines and chassis are individually tuned by the different teams but the engines have to be within a certain cubic inch limit. The cars have to meet a weight specification too so no lightweight "cheaters".
The cars are set up differently depending on the track by the various teams as well. Short ovals and super speedways (like Talladega) dictate different criteria on suspension settings and gear ratios for the transmission/differentials).
Hopefully this helps out some. NASCAR was really interesting and fun from the 1950's to the 1980's but the move to the intense focus on the drivers and less on the manufacturers making better cars as a result of racing kind of took the steam out of watching it for me. There has always been the celebrity of a great driver (i.e. Richard Petty), but seeing the car companies duke it out was great. Each manufacturer would try to outdo the other on the track (look up the Winged Warriors on the internet from 1969 and 1970).
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
Thanks. I have little interest in cars and even less in racing, but now I understand why the cars look the same, and that was what I was wondering about. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.
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