
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995                   TAG: 9504080020
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AUTO EXECS DEBATE CAR SPECS

It wasn't quite the stuff of television talk shows, but the debate became contentious at times Tuesday when Ford's Dan Rivard and General Motors's Herb Fishel joined the same teleconference to talk about the age-old battle between Ford and Chevy in NASCAR Winston Cup racing.

Rivard and Fishel are the manufacturers's top racing executives. And after congratulating each other on their respective successes (Fishel cited Ford's Indy car victories and Rivard complemented Chevy's NASCAR wins), Rivard wasted little time in becoming more confrontational.

He pointed out that the shape of a NASCAR race car is supposed to be based on the shape of a production vehicle. The new Monte Carlo race cars, Rivard said, have some significant differences from the production Monte Carlos.

``It's such a competitive series, very minor changes can mean a whole lot. That there are some major variations in the Monte Carlo, that's for NASCAR and Chevy to deal with.''

It's not that the Ford teams are slacking off, he said. The top qualifying Ford is 3.276 mph faster, on average, than last year. But the top qualifying Chevy is 4.581 mph faster, and that's 1.305 mph faster than the Ford.

``They're to be congratulated for that,'' Rivard said, taking pains not to criticize NASCAR. ``We're just going to have to work harder.``

But after Fishel talked about the shortcomings of last year's Lumina as a race car, and downplayed the significance of aerodynamics in the overall picture, Rivard again went on the offensive.

``The Lumina was really competitive with us,`` Rivard said, pointing out that it had won several manufacturer's championships. ``And as to the Monte Carlo being a better car, I wonder why the Monte Carlo fits all the NASCAR templates [which measure the body shape of race cars] but two, but those two give quite a large advantage ... ''

``As far as those templates you keep referring to ... exceptions were made in the best interest of safety and the sport,'' Fishel responded. He said the only changes were to widen the rear end so the NASCAR-required spoiler would fit.

``Those exceptions also happen to be in the right direction for maximum aerodynamic performance,`` Rivard said.

Keywords:
AUTO RACING

by CNB