Look at sprints, quarter midgets, your local stock cars, WoO, Silver Crown... it's all the same as it was 40-50 years ago. The only difference is more HP, better tires/suspension and yes, better safety equipment... but that's about it. Those things were implemented to make the experience faster, not more comfortable.
Power steering was invented decades ago... so was air conditioning. Airbags have been around now for 20 years. We know how to make a cushy foam-filled seat and have for many years. We have computer assisted suspension that automatically adjusts to conditions and electronic traction control.
This is only a small mention of the technologies and comforts available today that weren't in say.. 1950. Yet, there are VERY few examples of any classes, organizations or leagues who utilize any of these things. The equipment remains fundamentally just like it was back then. Go look at the seat in a sprint. It’s hard, molded fiberglass with no padding and it’s like that for a reason. Sounds funny, but I wouldn’t even wear underwear when I raced. I needed to be in close contact with the ground and get all the feedback possible. Comforts like power steering insulate you from that critical data… as a driver “reads” the inputs he is getting from his machine. You can even tell if you are running hot in a lot of cases without need for a flashing light… you can feel it. That’s what racing is ALL about… sensory input and reacting to it. There is nothing else.
Like I said, it also takes away the basics of thrill and competition. Racing is very rarely about who has the best car or the most money (on purpose at least). Every single sanction does everything it can to keep emphasis on one thing: driver and human skill. Equipment does matter unfortunately, but racing is still 99% skill and determination and 1% about who has the biggest wallet. People are continually looking for ways to change that 1% to zero, not the other way around.
One last thing; If a driver "could have air conditioning, really good power assisted steering, better g-force minimization etc. (and it somehow didn’t cut down on performance by weight or power train drain)" , then racing would cease to exist for the real enthusiast. It would be overrun with the same group of wannabe metro tools who have just enough credit to buy one of these marvel machines, enter it into a race along with thousands of others who can't drive or compete and the purity of racing would be lost forever. Who the hell would want to go watch that and who among the truly skilled would want to compete along side of them?
Fact is, this exists in a form this very day. Just go to your local track (if you are near one of the larger ones) on the weekends when there is no sanctioned event going on. All you will see are a bunch of guys with money trying to run their bone-stock M5's around the track to see how fast they can get their lap times up to.
sure, it's fun... and if I had the money I'd do it too (I'm way too old for open-wheel these days)...but how many people do you see interested in watching it? There is no competition. It only exists for the enjoyment of the guy doing it as a hobby or for an extra bit of thrill that he can't get on the public roads.
So Nascar would allow the things that would make it much easier for the racers, if it was possible to do so? I don’t doubt that you are right as far as true race enthusiasts loving the viceral nature of racing, and that never changing. I was just wondering if nascar drivers would cease to be considered atheletes if the endurance/grueling factors were minimized.
Freegards