,
Tony Stewart's pre-front splitter era NASCAR was on display. I never got the chance to look at one of these things up close so I thought it was pretty cool.
It looks like the car is built on a square tube ladder frame chassis with round tube on top of it. The steering linkage isn't far off from an American truck's either. An Auto Verdi 6 stage dry sump pump handles lubrication duties running off a Goodyear HTD drive belt off the nose of the crank. The water pump is run off a giant pulley off the crank and the power steering pump and alternator run off of the water pump pulley. All of the pulleys are made by CV Products from hard anodized aluminum and all of the belts are Goodyear ribbed belts. I suspect the blue and red quick release fittings on the upper radiator hose are used to evacuate cold coolant and fill with heated coolant through the engine before start up. They might also double to pressurize the cooling system before starting a race. On top of the carburetor is a dry carbon air box that is fed from the cowl at the base of the windshield. There really isn't anything too fancy under the hood, but I'm sure the magic is in the recipe.
The upper and lower arms are hand fabricated. These cars are heavy so all of the suspension components appear to be super heavy duty.The shock is separate from the massive Hyperco spring. The monoblock AP Racing brake caliper is pretty trick looking. You can't see in the picture here, but the brake rotor isn't very large in diameter since the steel wheels are only 15″, but it is ultra thick. Rope tethers attempt to prevent wheels and uprights from flying off the car in case of collisions.
Right behind Tony Stewart's car was Michael Schumacher's 1991 Benetton Ford which was powered by a Cosworth HB 3.5L V8. This car reminds me of the simpler F1 car when aero played a lesser role and the cars weren't so stuck to the ground. F1 races were a bit more exciting to watch back then.
