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American Iron Dashboard Poll


tacovini

Which Non-S197 Mustang driver has the nicest dashboard design?  

16 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Non-S197 Mustang driver has the nicest dashboard design?

    • Wehmeyer, Patrick 1990 Ford Mustang Red
      6
    • Thomas, Jim 1990 Ford Mustang White/yellow
      3
    • Wanstreet, Leo 1989 Ford Mustang Blue
      0
    • Watson, Albert 1993 Ford Mustang red
      2
    • Bain, Tj 1985 Pontiac Firebird White
      4
    • Ball, Landon 1991 Chevrolet Camaro Red
      0
    • Stukas, Will 1993 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Black
      1


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I believe there is a basic appearance rule in american iron. is there not? is there a difference between requiring that the outside of our race cars look presentable and asking that the interior is also same?

 

the reason for the rule? money and marketing is my guess. nasa is always trying to sell new sponsorships and provide new contigencies. part of that is providing those customers and potential customers a product they will want to use in their marketing. looking good is part of the package.

its a reality.

 

btw...particularly at road atlanta i regularly see "fans/enthusiasts" walking thru our paddock area. they look over the cars, take pictures, pose for pictures with the cars and so forth. about every other time i am at road atlanta i end up with a 6 or 7 year old sitting in my driver's seat while dad takes his picture with a goofy, cant believe it, grin on his face.

 

dont sell short who's looking at your race car.

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I believe there is a basic appearance rule in american iron. is there not?

There is. 50/50... Pretty sure seeing a dash from 50 ft at 50 mph is a non-issue. As for new sponsors wanting a factory or full dash for marketing, we have Robin Burnett's 2008 national championship Steeda Mustang now. It is a great looking car and has been in a significant amount of Steeda marketing literature.(Due to Robin, not us) I don't recall ever seeing a picture of the interior (or at least the dash) in any of their photos.

 

Here's some examples from Steeda. http://www.steedablog.com/2009/05/robin-burnett-%E2%80%93-steeda-2008-american-iron-champion/

 

j

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i know the car. ive got lots of pictures of it including one that was a steeda ad. you can say that it has no value to a potential sponsor and that is a valid opinion from your point of view. nasa has a different point of view and i am just guessing that it gives them more confidence when trying to sell the series to sponsors.

 

btw...isnt the dash rule a 50/50 like rule?

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I understand your point Rob. I just think the rationale is a bit flawed in a class like ours. If that truly is the reason, it would be nice to hear it from Ryan or John. An unexplained, seemingly arbitrary rule revision from Todd just frustrates some of us with perfectly functional, acceptable looking, illegal dashes. The rule, as written, just produces ridiculous crap like we did for nationals. Certainly NOT a marketing opportunity. If they intend on requiring OEM dashes to attract more manufacturers, I don't think my 22 year old platform is what they would be interested in anyway. Looks like I might as well uncork it and jump to ST the way so many others have done recently.

 

Just curious, how many pics of Robin's dash do you have?

 

j

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ive never even looked inside robin's car. i understand that the rules seems to bite your..... and has.

 

i would not hold your breath for nasa officials to talk publically about money. some of us realize that nasa is a business and its about profit. with that, though, nasa doesnt make a habit of broadcasting things that relate to company income to us.

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ive never even looked inside robin's car.

Thanks for helping make my point.

i understand that the rules seems to bite your..... and has.
Darn, I thought I was really hiding how I felt.

 

No question NASA is a business venture and the regions are essentially franchises. Nationals may be making a significant amount of income from sponsors, but I don't think the regions are. That makes us, the people showing up to regional races paying entry fees, their customer. Most business models don't do well by alienating a solid customer base while catering to a sponsor that provides them limited local benefit.

 

Or maybe I'm delusional and OG, Toyo, Holiday Canopies, and the others are really paying all of Dave and Matt's bills.

 

j

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I believe there is a basic appearance rule in american iron. is there not? is there a difference between requiring that the outside of our race cars look presentable and asking that the interior is also same?

 

the reason for the rule? money and marketing is my guess. nasa is always trying to sell new sponsorships and provide new contigencies. part of that is providing those customers and potential customers a product they will want to use in their marketing. looking good is part of the package.

its a reality.

 

btw...particularly at road atlanta i regularly see "fans/enthusiasts" walking thru our paddock area. they look over the cars, take pictures, pose for pictures with the cars and so forth. about every other time i am at road atlanta i end up with a 6 or 7 year old sitting in my driver's seat while dad takes his picture with a goofy, cant believe it, grin on his face.

 

dont sell short who's looking at your race car.

 

Rob,

 

I think you are speculating a little on the origins and purpose of the rule. Like is the case with many of these types of things, i believe it started as not too bad of an idea, that possibly in a very general way, cars that appeared more like a production car could influence, ford or GM to provide more support for the series. But in implementing it into the rules and the nessassary compromise to make it practical the original goals were not able to be achieved. So rather than reasonable people just dropping it, we are left with a rather silly rule. It would have made far more sense to say all new cars built after x date should retain the producion dash with some exceptions for older cars. Most of us with new cars have the producion dash and it is no big deal. We too get guest looking at our cars, we get prospective racers looking at our cars, they don't care about the dash, I am sure ford finds it nice that the 75 looks kinda production like with the dash but even that I am sure is a very small deal to them. I am sure they love the fact that Dean's 50 looks just like a production car. I have talked to jwl personally about this and this is the impression that I walked away with, not a direct quote by any means. So in the end for a 1990 fox body, f body GM this rule serves no real purpose.

 

Thanks

Mark

 

This is my personal opinion as a racer and has nothing to do with my role as a director for the central region.

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well...what is certain is that i am not trying to change your mind. you have a position that you have had for quite some time. nothing i say is going to change your mind. right? i was trying to possibly explain the issue which has to be speculation because i am not in the inner circle. i know nothing. i am guessing.

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All I know is nothing says "marketing/sponsorship opportunity" like the butterscotch colored dash in my AI car.

 

All the 87-93 cars need the classic porno red dash,

 

the 99-04 mustangs need a butterscotch dash

 

and the 05+ mustangs need a nice dash made from solid lead.

 

 

j/k

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All the 87-93 cars need the classic porno red dash,

 

the 99-04 mustangs need a butterscotch dash

 

and the 05+ mustangs need a nice dash made from solid lead.

Now these are rules with some real purpose. TODD are you listening?

 

j

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