Harry P.

Ok, possible stupid question... but if you know you forgot a few details, why not fix them?

Here you go. Jürgen...

If it spurs the others to step up their game, a good thing. But F1 and NASCAR is apples and oranges, they really aren't directly comparable. NASCAR used to be about cars from any manufacturer who cared to participate competing head-to-head with cars from the other manufacturers. Manufacturers competing head to head with their products. May the best brand (and best racing know-how) win. Today it's been sanitized and homogenized to the point where the current NASCAR has absolutely nothing in common with NASCAR as it was. The whole concept of "stock car" racing–brand against brand–has been lost. Some may call that "progress." And I won't argue... it's all in how you personally define "progress," I guess, and it's not my place to tell anyone who enjoys what passes as NASCAR today, that they're wrong. But the original spirit and intent and whole point of NASCAR has been lost.

Spectacular, Sean! And the graphics are absolutely believable and very cool.

If NASCAR was open to real competition, how would you know who would win the race? If a particular team kept winning, and the teams were allowed to "do their thing" (within the safety rules), wouldn't that spur real innovation and real competition among the other teams to try and get back in the winner's circle? Isn't that really what racing is all about? Encouraging innovation? Driving technology? When everyone is forced to drive the same car, there is none of that, because it's not allowed. "Beating" the other guy who's driving the same exact car you're driving? Yawn...

I know.

Car manufacturers love customers like you!

Case in point: "Cabin air filters." For a hundred years we seemed to be able to survive siting inside a car without them. Suddenly we are no longer capable of sitting inside a car without having the air "filtered." Yet we can survive stepping out of the car and breathing the air outside the car? If we drive on a nice day with open windows, are we risking death? Are "cabin air filters" actually necessary? Obviously not. They're a clever little gimmick designed to wring a few more bucks out of customers who think they must be constantly replaced, or you risk death by breathing in the air inside your car!

But my point is that driver and passenger sides can be some degrees different simply by opening/closing the vents that are already in the dash!. Nothing further needed. Technology for technology's sake (not for actual benefit) seems silly to me. All it does is add needless complexity and cost. Good for the manufacturer, I guess. More stuff they can sell as "options" and more stuff they can charge to fix when it breaks.

You're assuming that the proliferation of all this gadgetry all falls under the category of "improvement." Do we really need computer-controlled head restraints? Or could they just design them so that they are placed behind your head in the correct spot without a need for computers to control them? Do we really need cars that have self-closing doors? Really? Do we really need cars with "dual zone climate control?" Is it actually possible to create two distinct temperatures inside a car for people sitting a foot apart from each other? Or could the driver and passenger just open or close the vents in front of them?

More of a decal challenge!

I think the proliferation of more and more electronics of questionable worth is due to the "because we can" syndrome. Every year, engineers keep coming up with new gee-whiz gizmos in a never-ending game of techno-creep. And these gizmos seem to attract people... people always want the latest and greatest electronic gadgetry, whether it actually has any real-world value or not. So more and more electronic junk gets installed in cars... not necessarily because it's an actual, tangible improvement, but "because we can." It's human nature.

Why not drop the overly-complicated, electronicalyl-controlled, ever-more-complex, ever-more expensive, 9-speed (and growing) automatics altogether and go with a simple, reliable CVT? CVT or a stick. Your choice.

So put an air filter on there! Problem solved! Still looks red to me.

I think NASCAR would be a lot more interesting if they had a basic set of rules everyone had to abide by (safety rules, for example)... but otherwise. let the racers be racers. Let them try to squeeze out a few more HP or cut lap times by a second, in any way they could, while of course still staying within the rules. More like the spirit of NASCAR as it was back in the '50s. Just my opinion, of course. Like I said earlier, I am by no means a NASCAR fan... I find three hours worth of identical cars going in a circle to be incredibly boring. But if the cars really had some personality, really were different from one another, and maybe the races were shorter (maybe an hour on TV?), I'd be a whole more tempted to watch it.

Maybe a better way would have been to limit HP to a certain level, but how you got that power should be left to the individual teams, without forcing everyone to use basically the same cars.

I'm talking about the days when "stock cars" really were more or less "stock cars." Over the years NASCAR has slowly but surely morphed from different brands of cars actually competing against one another to where all of the cars today are basically identical down to the smallest detail.

The whole idea of "parity" is what I don't get. It's almost like they are actually trying too hard to "level the playing field." It's as if they made a new rule in baseball that everyone had to have a batting average between .250-.270 or else you couldn't play. Or every pitcher had to have an ERA within a certain range or else he couldn't play.

One thing is sure... today's NASCAR is nothing like what it used to be. It's a completely different thing altogether, in just about every way.

I think this is the "cheeseburger stabbing" story... http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/12519631/update-18-year-old-stabs-toledo-mom-over-cheeseburger

I know this topic has been debated to death here, and I'm not a NASCAR fan or expert in any way... but it does seem to me that today's NASCAR is sort of boring. I mean, all the cars are basically identical. Back when "stock cars" were more or less actually stock (for the most part), and real Fords raced against real Chevys and real Dodges, etc., it seemed to be more fun, with "bragging rights" on the line for the manufacturers. And the average car owner/NASCAR fan could cheer on "his" brand over the rivals. IMO a lot (all?) of that inter-brand rivalry has been lost. I guess NASCAR has "evolved," but it's really a very different thing today than it used to be, for better or worse.

For what reason?

Hard to see how if you're leaning forward and supporting your upper body with your arms, that you're lessening the load on your arms.

OK, I'll defer to you. But what "shocks" are you going to encounter just leisurely tooling around town that you can't just steer around? You're not jumping curbs or blasting through potholes doing the kind of riding Ray is talking about. I have a traditional "racing bike" with the turned-down handlebars and a Trek with traditional-style handlebars. I've put hundreds, if not thousands, of miles on them. I find the more upright riding position to be a lot more comfortable.

Meth labs?