I kinda miss that classic look.

[Toast]

Watching the Daytona 500 i noticed that the cars have switched to digital gauge panels.

It makes sense, but there's just something about the look of a dash array of gauges with bright red needles, I'm gonna miss it. 

[disabled modeler]

I miss the golden years of it....60s and early 70s era cars...once they started to look all the same I lost interest for the most part.

[bbowser]

I'm with you.  Like the new street cars, just something else electronic to go wrong .  If you lose the battery, do you lose all instrumentation as well as track bar adjustments?

[Lizard Racing]

There is a lot to say for the "spec" cars used today: ease of manufacture and repair as well as easier for NASCAR to control.

But I still miss the "stock" from stock cars.

[Darbo]

Same with the digital dash panel, especially after watching the truck race with the big cluster of gauges!

[THarrison351]

I'm with you.  Like the new street cars, just something else electronic to go wrong .  If you lose the battery, do you lose all instrumentation as well as track bar adjustments?

I think the cars of the last few years gauges were all electric to start with, because sometimes their gauges would fail during the race and the needles would stay at 0.

[DanR]

I miss the golden years of it....60s and early 70s era cars...once they started to look all the same I lost interest for the most part.

I felt like that finally happened by the end of the 90's / early 2000's. Even the Taurus and the Monte Carlo were distinct enough that you could easily tell them apart. I do like the current Camaros and Mustangs that they're driving - they're not entirely distinct, but I think they look pretty cool.

[vintagercr]

I really don't follow it much anymore.  They look like cookie cutter cars and every time someone gets and advantage they throw in another rule.  I like the 60's and 70's stuff

[disabled modeler]

I felt like that finally happened by the end of the 90's / early 2000's. Even the Taurus and the Monte Carlo were distinct enough that you could easily tell them apart. I do like the current Camaros and Mustangs that they're driving - they're not entirely distinct, but I think they look pretty cool.

To me even then they looked too much alike...LOL...

[Force]

One can say much about the modern era NASCAR racing, but I don't know if putting "stock" back to this type of racing is the right way to go to make the racing more interesting.
How fun would it be to see I4 or V6 equipped (or even hybrids) front wheel drive Toyota Camry's and Ford Fusion's competing against the V8 rear wheel drive Chevrolet SS, the cars would be a lot smaller than the current NASCAR cars (look at a Camry, Chevy SS or Fusion Pace Car and compare them to the race cars behind in line next time) and be 4 door sedans.
I think I prefer it as it is.

[DumpyDan]

Well said everyone

[martinfan5]

One can say much about the modern era NASCAR racing, but I don't know if putting "stock" back to this type of racing is the right way to go to make the racing more interesting.
How fun would it be to see I4 or V6 equipped (or even hybrids) front wheel drive Toyota Camry's and Ford Fusion's competing against the V8 rear wheel drive Chevrolet SS, the cars would be a lot smaller than the current NASCAR cars (look at a Camry, Chevy SS or Fusion Pace Car and compare them to the race cars behind in line next time) and be 4 door sedans.
I think I prefer it as it is.

And well said.

[Force]

Of course the old NASCAR racing from the 60's and early 70's were the best but those times will never come back as that type of cars not are made today and most likely never will be again...so I think we have to accept that the times are like they are and make the best of it.
I don't have the answer to how NASCAR racing would be more interesting but I think it's viewable and quite exciting now...in two of the last four races the 1st and 2nd place has been decided by photofinish and the cars were 0.01 second appart, (Hamlin and Truex Jr at Daytona and Harvick and Edwards at Phoenix) and all three brands has won races, Toyota one, Chevrolet two and Ford one.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Force

[JTRACING]

I don't like the digital dash board.  I think it should be the drivers choice as to what type of gauges they wanna use instead of having that forced on everyone. 

the sport is not what it was. We need a new series of stock car racing to compete with the nascar circuit.

[KeithJackson]

The only way that I can see a digital dash being okay is if you could program the gauges to display in different colors for different things.  Will the numbers turn red when you "redline it"?  Have the numbers change color if they drop below or go above a certain level.  Otherwise, I would think that it would make it harder to see and read a number and then figure if it is too high or low.

 

[Force]

That idea is pretty much like they had the last couple of years with the Autometer gauges, the light in the gauge flashed red when the reading was too high and stopped flashing when it was back to normal.
So it's possibly still like that now with the digital dash.

[iamsuperdan]

I'll be the odd one out here.

The digital dashes are a huge improvement over the traditional gauges. Everything is much easier to read at a glance, and the digital readouts are programmable, meaning that the driver can choose which information he wants to be prominent and which info can be off to the sides. The various displays are indeed colour coded so that it can turn red when there's a problem. Shift pints, redline warnings, systems warnings, all easy to see, and the warnings are very visible.

Personally i'd love to grab a similar setup to put in my next project car.