History

Originally built in 1987, but when rebuilt, this car conforms to the 2012 Sprint Cup rules. It was actually raced by Germain Racing Team as a Toyota. When we purchased it, we had the body change to conform to Chevy specifications, and had it wrapped as "Smoke's" OFFICE DEPOT race car. All else remains just as it came off the track.

Sprint Cup Series cars (often called "Cup cars") adhere to a front engine rear-wheel-drive design. A roll cage serves as a space frame chassis and is covered by a 24-gauge sheet metal body. They have a closed cockpit, fenders, a rear spoiler, and an aerodynamic splitter. Fielding a car for one season usually costs $10–20 million. Each team may build their own cars and engines (per NASCAR's specifications) or purchase cars and engines from other teams.

The cars are powered by EFI V8 engines, with compacted graphite iron blocks, and a pushrod valvetrain actuating two-valves per cylinder, and limited to 358 cubic inches (about 5.8 liters) displacement. However, modern technology has allowed power outputs near 900 horsepower (670 kW) in unrestricted form while retaining the conventional basic engine design. In fact, before NASCAR instituted the gear rule, Cup engines were capable of operating more than 10,000 rpm..A Sprint Cup Engine with the maximum bore of 4.185 inches (106.3 millimeters), and stroke of 3.25 inches (82.55 millimeters) at 9,000 rpm has a mean piston speed of 80.44 fps (24.75 m/s) (roughly that of a Formula One engine). Contemporary Cup engines run 9,800 rpm, 87.59 fps (26.95 m/s), at the road course events, on Pocono Pennsylvania's long front stretch, and at the .526-mile short-track Martinsville Speedway. At the backbone 1.5-2.0-mile tri-oval tracks of NASCAR, the engines produce over 850 hp running 92-9400 rpm for 500 miles, 600 mi for the Coca-Cola 600 Charlotte race.