28 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Here's an article that was posted to hotrod.com back in 2010 about Smokey's incredibly sophisticated #13 1967 Chevelle that NASCAR never allowed to turn a lap. It's a terrific read and make sure you view all of the images.
 
 A Technical Exposé Of The Most Innovative Stock Car Ever

 

[Samiam]

Looks OK to me.  

[Tim Neja]

Yeah – it's "close enough"!!

[Eddie Fleming]

Anything about Smoky is probably cool but they did not really tell us much of anything about the car. 

[Cheater]

Eddie,

 

Yeah, but there was enough shown in the pics to get my attention.

[Dave Crevie]

Don't forget Smokey's '67 Camaro Trans-Am car. Vic Edelbrock bought the car at the "garage sale," and restored it. It is a treat to listen to him tell about all the details and tricks they found. I have a bunch of photos I took of it, maybe I can find them and scan them for posting. 

[MSwiss]

It is an attractive car.

 

I don't know enough about Smokey to get a sense of how much of the "innovation" he did, was exploiting the rule book, and how much was just flat out cheating.

 

But the admiration for some of the 1/1 cheaters is something I just don't get.

 

That "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin" is utter BS, especially when it filters down to slot racing, where most are just trying to enjoy a hobby.

[old & gray]

It is an attractive car.

 

I don't know enough about Smokey to get a sense of how much of the "innovation" he did, was exploiting the rule book, and how much was just flat out cheating.

 

But the admiration for some of the 1/1 cheaters is something I just don't get.

 

That "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin" is utter BS, especially when it filters down to slot racing, where most are just trying to enjoy a hobby.

 

Mike,

 

The ‘tradition’ of cheating to win could have started with many the original NASCAR racers and their attitude toward rules on the producing and distribution of alcohol. While the economic and social forces behind their avoidance of these laws are far beyond this discussion, there is a possibility that the attitudes of the participants shape the rules, rather than the rules shaping the participant’s attitudes.

[Mike Patterson]

I don't think Smokey was a cheater, he was more of an exploiter of gray areas. Today it's called "thinking outside the box." IMO, he's partially responsible for the NASCAR rule book today, where everyhting is specified down to 0.001".

 

God bless him. We need more Smokeys.

[MSwiss]

Mike,

 

Your definition of grey must be different than mine. LOL.

It was eventually discovered that Yunick had lowered and modified the roof and windows and raised the floor (to lower the body) of the production car, essentially producing a 7/8 scale car.

The above sounds like baldface cheating to me.

[Eddie Fleming]

The above sounds like baldface cheating to me.

 

I can't argue with that Mike. And at the time GM was feeding Smoky and others parts and support while saying they were not involved in racing??

 

That was a time that makes for some very interesting characters. Many of then not what you would want your kids to emulate. like most of us those characters had their good side as well as the bad.

[MattD]

There were a lot of cars from that era that had modified bodies that weren't noticeable. Call it cheating or whatever you want, no doubt guys went outside the rules. I think it was more like they were trying to find areas overlooked by the rules where they could get an advantage that would have been illegal if the rule makers had realized it. Today we call it loopholes.    
 
The funniest story about cheating belongs to either Smoky or Petty, I forget which. NASCAR comfiscated the fuel tank for being oversize.    They then started the car and drove away back to the hauler. The car had the hollow roll bars incorporated into the fuel system and had plenty of fuel to run the car without the gas tank. This could have been Junior Johnson, who also built a 7/8 scale '66 Ford.
 
I'm always reminded of Chad Knaus and the 48 team bringing a car through the templates they use today and passing in all areas. Tech guys looked a little farther and found an area that was within guidelines, but only by a minimal amount. It was some change no one else had thought of. They told Chad, that it was legal by the templates, but they never wanted to see it that way again. He had found some loophole to help aero that NASCAR had overlooked. NASCAR does not like anybody that can outthink them.

[Cheater]

Swiss,
 
Smokey would have told you that there wasn't anything in the rulebook that said he couldn't do those mods. In his era, if the rules didn't say you couldn't do something, you could.
 
There's at least one good book written on this subject, "Cheating: An Inside Look At The Bad Things Good NASCAR Winston Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed," by Tom Jensen. If you think Smokey was the only guy working well outside the rules, think again. Smokey was just one of the most creatiive and inventive and that's why he's so revered.
 
But so many others in NASCAR tried to sneak everything they could by the tech inspectors. There was Junior Johnson's infamous 'Yellow Banana' Ford, the Pettys were notorious for the things they did, the stuff Chad Knaus did, and the list goes on and on...

The Greatest Cheats in NASCAR History
 
Some quotes...
 
Chris Myers, racing broadcaster: "If you don't cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don't get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope."

Richard Childress: "I think you have the same thing in Formula One and you have the same thing in Champ cars, Indy cars, drag racing. I think it's competitiveness. We've always used the term 'trying to get a competitive edge' instead of cheating."

An unamed crew cheif from back in the day, "It’s our job to cheat. It's NASCAR’s job to catch us."

 

This one is probably apochryphal: "What do you call the racer at a NASCAR race who isn't cheating? Loser."

[MSwiss]

Of course there has and will always be widespread cheating in 1/1 motorsports. I just don't like that it has filtered down into slot racing.

I always bring up a well-liked slot racer with experience 1/1 racing against Rusty Wallace and Ken Schraeder, in their pre-NASCAR days. Whether it was Flexis or vintage Russkit cars, when he got caught he was hardly embarassed.

PS: The above is why I feel fortunate my slot racing heyday was racing G7. Virtually no way of cheating, equipment wise.

I never felt I lost to a cheater.

[Cheater]

... with many the original NASCAR racers and their attitude toward rules on the producing and distribution of alcohol.

Quoting another great book, "Real NASCAR - White Lightning, Red Clay, and Bill Bill France," by Daniel S. Pierce, an NC college history prof...

"Indeed, this standard story can be encapsulated in one sentence: In the 1930s bootleggers got together and started racing in cow pastures... and promoters – primarily Bill France – came along and saw its potential, organized the sport, promoted it, and took it to the rest of the South and then to the nation at large.

"Great story. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, parts of this founding story are largely untrue, other parts may have happened but are grossly exaggerated, and all of this story oversimplifies and leves out signifiacnt information."

In simple terms, yes, some of the early NASCAR racers were involved in the illicit moonshine trade, but not as many as many seem today to believe. The moonshine cars were hopped up for speed but they were also heavily modified to carry lots of weight, which isn't always good for a racing car.

The builders who modified cars for the rum-runners were asked to build race cars once the races began being held, but I think in most cases they were separate cars, not the the cars used to transport hooch. Certainly illegal alochol money was involved in those builder's success and business stability and probably in the ability of some racers to have race cars built for them..

Pierce makes a strong and reasonably well-documented case that many of the early NASCAR tracks were financed by investors flush with the profits from the moonshine business, as the banks wouldn't loan for race tracks and the promoters usually didn't have deep pockets; Bill France certainly didn't.

From my perspective, the moonshine distribution business largely just triggered an interest in fast cars among the blue collar 'good ole' boys' in the South, an interest that had already been generated before and after the war by the midget racing that was so big in other parts of the country (but not so much in the South).

Moonshine money seems to have had its greatest impact after Bill France (and a couple others) began to organize the amateur, fragmented racing activties of the Southern mill workers and farmhands into a semi-coherent whole. From my perspective, bootlegging money didn't create stock car racing but it almost certainly substantially financed its growth once the sport was no longer in its infancy.

[88honcho]

[Dave Crevie]

My impression of Yunick was that he got more pleasure from sneaking something passed the scrutineers than from winning with an illegal car. I saw pictures of the Camaro with the paint stripped off and it looked like a patchwork quilt. I could see how he shrunk the car down.

One interesting thing Vic found, was the gas tank  had many broken party balloons inside. It seems that Smokey would put filled balloons in the tank so it wouldn't take more than the legal amount of fuel, then popped them after the car had gone through tech. 
 
A lot of us cheated in racing. I found on my old Plymouth Road Runner that I could connect the windshield washer into the vaccuum spacer between the carb and manifold. I could fill the washer tank with model airplane fuel, which was the same color as washer fluid, and use the windshield washer pump to spray the fuel into the intake. Good for several tenths.

There are a few more I could tell.

[MSwiss]

Dave,

I hereby decree that Roadrunner is not allowed in the parking lot at C/R.

Of course, if you want to park it at Taco Bell, I'll take a look at it to see if it may now be C/R compliant.

[Phil Hackett]

When it is possible to get into the NASCAR garage area it's always a fun trip over to the "Tech Office" where confiscated parts are displayed complete with what team's part it was, the NASCAR rule it violated, and other assorted info. It's been a while but anyone can inspect those parts to see what was done. Racing will always have people who push-the-edge or investigate the grey area. 

 

BTW, an excellent book on "cheating", except it wasn't, is BEAST. It reads like an international spy/intrigue novel. A very worthwhile read.

[old & gray]

My impression of Yunick was that he got more pleasure from sneaking something passed the scrutineers than from winning with an illegal car.

 

Some people enjoy pushing the limits just to push people's buttons. For a later example (1980) of "there isn't a rule so I'm not breaking one." Look up the Batmobile in Syracuse NY dirt track race (a true one race wonder).

 

I found on my old Plymouth Road Runner that I could connect the windshield washer into the vacuum spacer between the carb and manifold.

 

Some people would install a T-fitting in the fuel line and pump nitro into the fuel mix with the electric pump in the windshield washer reservoir. When you shut off the pump at the finish line the fuel in the carb reads as pump gas.

[Cheater]

Phil,

 

That 'Beast" book is one of my recent favorites.

[Phil Hackett]

Yes, it's one my faves... I like the lengths Penske went to keep the motor program secret... even from his own organization...

[Mike Patterson]

It was eventually discovered that Yunick had lowered and modified the roof and windows and raised the floor (to lower the body) of the production car, essentially producing a 7/8 scale car.

I think he may have narrowed it, as well. And I would say it's closer to 3/4 actual size. Notice how large the 15" wheels look in relation to the body. And it might have been sectioned, too, judging by how low the roof is. But the proportions are still look right.
 
And I'm surprised that no one has brought up Bill Elliot and the Tony Cicale "adjustable" Thunderbird.

[MSwiss]

But the proportions are still look right.

Just a guess, the rules weren't worded "the body must just look correctly proportioned."

[Dave Crevie]

Mike,

 

The Roadrunner is long gone. And I certainly was not at the top of the list of NHRA cheaters. It was a habit I carried with me into road racing, where, once again I was far from the most flagrant violator.

 

In fact, one year it was rumored that the entire FF entry at the June Sprints had "funny" motors. It seems it had become common practice to overbore the block, then shorten the stroke so that the volumn check came out right. Shortly thereafter the SCCA changed the method of checking the cylinders, making any change in the stroke obvious.

 

Eventually I just decided that the effort to cheat just did not pay off. Plus I had an excuse for not winning. The winners had to be cheating.