News>>meet The 2013 Nascar Charger

During the past weekend's NASCAR race in Las Vegas, Dodge officially unveiled the new Charger stock car that will be campaigned for the 2013 season. Like the 2013 Fusion stock car that Ford recently debuted, the new NASCAR Charger is designed to have a much closer resemblance to the street version.

How did they do?

-Mike Garrett

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1

it could be the angle but it kinda looks cartoony. like speed McQueen from the pixar movie cars.

2

Is it me or it looks a lot like Lightning McQueen from Cars haha

3

I agree. it looks a bit weird. Can it meet the rules and regulations though?

4

Are there any speedhunters car spotlights on any modern day nascars ? If so a link would be nice please as ive struggled to find any. If not, would it be possible to get a spotlight into their modern technology (engine, aero, etc.). Many thanks guys and keep up the brilliant work !

5

it's lightning mcqueen!

6

i think its just the red rims haha

7

And maybe it's just the angle, but the picture kinda looks a vertically stretched...

8

looks like a cartoon version of the normal charger.

9

Its weird, the normal car have bigger wheels that the racing version.

10

looks like a red brick, no offence :D

11

So Dodge will make it 4 manufacturers in the sprint cup then? From this angle at least, the car looks somewhat squashed, i.e. too tall and not long enough. Mind you, it may just be the photo angle.

12

Two words come to mind.



Fuck, Yeah!

13

looks very cartoonish.

14

looks cool shortened. maybe produce a two door model for the public...

15

@Ian. You beat me to it! Was just about to post a picture of Lightning McQueen.

16

Good, now Chevy should use the camaro to resemble their nascar

17

the picture is stretched, that's why it looks so cartoony. here's the same pic, but with accurate proportions: http://www.redlinedodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/6973100957_afd628ccf9_b-550x320.jpg

18

They both look unworthy of the beloved Charger name!

19

god american "motorsports" are embarrassing. americans have to know the rest of the world is LOLing at how frekkin stupid and lame their ideas of racing and racecars are.

20

Ditto the other Lightning McQueen comments. Maybe the picture has been resized in a way that makes the Charger look squat?



Anyway, it's a change in the right direction (I never thought I'd say this about modern NASCAR! The new Fusion looks especially good for a silhouette racer). Now, how's about adding a few more road courses? The NASCAR races at Sears Point (Infineon) and Watkins Glen can actually be fun to watch at times, with these beasts lumbering around the track.

21

Chode mobile?

22

doesnt really look aero dynamic :l

23

fail @ resize

24

I am very glad to see them get close to the production version!

Now, make them use production engines and we are getting somewhere.... :-)

25

its shortened. look at the window behind b-pillar,

looks like a cooler two door version of the charger

26

Its so ugly.

27

At least a stock car will actually look like the STOCK car.

28

It looks a little dodgy... (If you see what I did there..)

29

wow, not a bland boring shell with the whole car painted on. Very nice job Dodge!! It does look like lightning mcqueen though lol. I wouldn't mind articles on Nascar car builds. I'm sure you could get full access easily on some parts of those rides, it's not state of the art compared to F1 or even WRC levels. Probably good info that could be translated to a grassroots level though and knowledge is power.

31

Definitely a resize error.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120311/NASCAR/120319982



Still would prefer an early 70s Cutlass or 80s Regal.

32

its just the photo bein squashed...*awkward* lol

33

looks so gay =/

34

"pstar said:

god american "motorsports" are embarrassing. americans have to know the rest of the world is LOLing at how frekkin stupid and lame their ideas of racing and racecars are."



That must be why Formula 1 engine builders went to visit Roush motorsports when they build a motor that has over 1500fps. If that were true NASCAR wouldn't be as popular as it is. NASCAR follows the same motto as America. They try to squeeze every bit possible out of what their roots come from, never ditch the plan till its a 100% fail. It shows loyalty in motorsports, unlike how other countries will ditch a plan the first time it fail. NASCAR is just the American way of motorsports, don't hate Old school can teach you kids a thing or two.

35

"If that were true NASCAR wouldn't be as popular as it is" ...lots of things that suck are popular. like fast food and top 40 radio. most americans have poor taste.



"They try to squeeze every bit possible out of what their roots come from, never ditch the plan till its a 100% fail. It shows loyalty in motorsports, unlike how other countries will ditch a plan the first time it fail. NASCAR is just the American way of motorsports, don't hate Old school can teach you kids a thing or two." ...stock car racing didn't even show up until after world war2, you trying to tell me americans never raced before that? and for the first 2 decades stock car racing was with actual production body and engine modified STOCK cars. There is nothing "heritage" about a rollcage, covered in a plastic fwd sedan shell and coated in bumper stickers. Americans cant even make a decent livery. Pathetic

36

how UGLY is that?!

37

NASCAR is not racing. NASCAR is driving in bumper to bumper traffic, trying to figure out how to screw the driver in the next car, before someone wrecks and everyone has to stop racing and line up behind the pace car. The lowest common denominator in American society can relate to this, because they do the same thing every morning and afternoon, while driving in rush hour traffic to and from work.

Real racing is boring to watch, it involves skill and strategy and turning left and right.

But idiots want to watch crashes that are engineered into an event by putting double or triple the number of cars on the track as the capacity, and bunching up all the cars in one group at any and all opportunities.

39

NASCAR will be live action CARS

40

"...stock car racing didn't even show up until after world war2, you trying to tell me americans never raced before that? and for the first 2 decades stock car racing was with actual production body and engine modified STOCK cars. There is nothing "heritage" about a rollcage, covered in a plastic fwd sedan shell and coated in bumper stickers. Americans cant even make a decent livery. Pathetic"



er, correct me if im wrong, but stock cars got their start in the 1920s, during our prohibition.

it's only of late that NASCAR went aero-crazy, because up until the early-mid 90's, the bodies of the cars, were the bodies of the street version. and until the mid-late 70's at earliest. the race cars were pulled straight from the production line, the interior was yanked, a halo cage (at most) was thrown in, and we went racing. i dont see a whole lot of "heritage" in any other type of racing. F1? please. WRC? as if. D1 doesnt even count, because it only started about 20 years ago. i'll agree with you on our inability to come up with a decent livery for stock cars, but it stop with NASCAR. our Formula Drift liveries are spectacular.



let me ask you, what "heritage" do you have?I'im assuming you're British, but i dont think any category of racing got started over there.

41

A terrible picture of two of the fugliest cars found on a track, or road anywhere in the world. The Charger is a bucket, and NASCAR is the lamest "sport" on the planet. Even the rednecks who love it have to be completely shitfaced to tolerate it. I'm sure once you have killed enough brain cells, or your brain is working at a sufficiently diminshed capacity, because of inbreeding, or birth defects that the shiny moving objects are pretty exciting. It's sickening that this sport attracts any demogrphic over the age of 10.

42

@pstar Typical European elitist attitude. I'm just going to assume you're a Formula 1 fan because it's generally F1 fans that hate on NASCAR. If you have such an issue with stock cars not being close enough to production cars, what the hell are Formula 1 cars supposed to resemble? They are literally the furthest thing from any type of road car, out of any type of auto racing in the world. Not to mention the racing is a complete snoozefest. I've tried to become interested in F1, but when you're lucky if you see 1 pass every 5 laps it gets old pretty quick. At least NASCAR provides exciting racing for a majority of the race.

43

NASCAR's orphan child. Dodge is going to have to throw a lot of money at some team to run them.

44

@Mr REAL RACIN US FAN, Do have any idea how difficult it is to drive a stock car competitively? It's a 3500LB, 850hp monster of a car that slides all over the track and barely stays planted in the corners. I've driven stock cars, and I can assure you it's much more difficult then driving in a pack and turning left. The reason there's so many wrecks in NASCAR is because of how difficult it is to keep the cars off of one another, and how difficult it is to get the setup just right. Saying there is no strategy or skill involved is just completely ignorant. There is a ton of strategy to NASCAR, making the right calls on pit road at the right time, positioning yourself on the track to be near the front at the end, getting the car setup perfect (which is a huge factor) and finding the fastest line around the track are just a few. It's obvious that all you haters haven't watched more than 5 minutes of NASCAR in your life and don't understand a thing about the sport.

45

@ Matthew Jones - Dodge is already in the Sprint Cup, there are only three Dodge branded cars competing though. And Penske Racing are moving to Ford next year so Dodge's future is uncertain at this stage...

46

I think it should be a mandate that the manufacturer has to base their race engine off of their street engine, so if the biggest engine they have in their street car is a 6 cylinder, well then they are gonna have to build up the 6 (possibly turbo it) so it can compete in nascar. I mean its kinda dumb when there is a camry nascar... umm I have never seen a camry with a v8 and I have never seen a fusion with a v8 either, so how is it possible that their "stockcar" camry/fusion can have a v8...

47

Well, at least it looks better than them Toyotas in NASCAR...xP

48

Nothing can beat the NASCAR from the past.

THAT were real cars with the same engines mounted that they used on the street-legal versions.



These modern crap cars aint got nothing on them. A polyester shell that looks like a Dodge Charger can't hide it's real identity.

49

With all the aerodynamics of a brick!



I'd like to see some features on pre-1990's NASCAR, you know, before it sucked as much as it does now.

50

Thats a great change in appearance! Now if they can get back to using motors like the production cars, I'd be watching it, at Watkins Glen where they hit the twisties! AWFUL PICTURE! thanks to starbreaker for the original pic.

51

Gooberty, Gooberty, Gooberty, Let's Go Wrecking!

52
smithcharls85

Stock car racing is my favorite race and whenever I get some time from my busy schedule I start watching NASCAR races. But I can’t understand what is NASCAR charger.
 
<a href="http://www.nascarracingschedule.net/">Nascar Results</a>

53

The did at one time, they outlawed the HEMI, go back and look at the old stock car racing magazines and you can figure out why Chrysler products were pushed out of Napcar back then.

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