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Legends car racing


Legends car racing is a style of race car, designed primarily to promote exciting racing and to keep costs down. However, the current costs such as $5000 per engine and $400 for a set of tires (every four weekends) means that the "inexpensive" moniker is somewhat in doubt. The bodyshells are 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s, powered by a Yamaha motorcycle engine. The sanctioning body for legends car racing is called INEX. INEX stands for inexpensive racing.

Legends cars are a "spec" series, meaning all cars are mechanically identical, with the exception of three styles of car (standard coupe, 34 coupe, and sedan) available with 10 types of body styles. (New cars are currently offered with seven body styles, however many used cars exist with the "older" styles).

In 1992, Charlotte Motor Speedway (formerly Lowe's Motor Speedway) officials noticed a need for lower cost racing cars with little maintenance time and cost. They found such a car existed, in the guise of the motorcycle-engined dwarf car, a 5/8-scale, steel-bodied and fenderless '35 Ford coupe, which was being manufactured by the Dwarf Car Company in Phoenix, Arizona. As the coupe concept was not exactly in line in what they were looking for, and deeming steel replacement bodywork too costly, they adapted the dwarf car concept to fit their needs, creating cars resembling those of the '30s and '40s which competed in the early NASCAR modified tour races. To this day, the primary difference between the two cars is the legends have fenders over the tires, whereas the dwarfs have no fenders. The first legends car was unveiled in April 1992 at Lowe's by track president and general manager Humpy Wheeler and road racer Elliott Forbes-Robinson. Legends cars are produced by US Legend Cars International (formerly 600 Racing, Inc.) in Harrisburg, North Carolina. They are the largest mass producer of race cars in the world.

Although the cars originated from the US, other countries including Canada, England and Scotland also host championships. Each November, the world finals are held in the US.


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