This guide breaks down the fundamentals: how to approach driving it, what to look for in setups, and the key habits you’ll need to develop to survive and thrive behind the wheel.

Driving Characteristics

Before diving into setup or tips, you need to understand what makes this car unique:

• Raw Power: Nearly 850hp with very little aero grip. Wheelspin is your biggest enemy.
• Weight & Momentum: At ~3,700 lbs, this car is heavy. It doesn’t stop or change direction quickly. Momentum conservation is critical.
• Bias-Ply Tires: Unlike modern radials, these have less grip, respond differently to heat, and reward smoothness. They also wear quickly if abused.
• Aero Era: With minimal downforce, dirty air is less of a factor than modern Cup cars. Instead, balance and mechanical grip rule.

In short, the car is fast in a straight line but very unstable in the corners. Every lap is about managing power vs. control.

Beginner Driving Tips

1. Throttle Discipline

The throttle is the hardest thing to master in the ’87 cars.

• Ease on gradually. Slamming the throttle will immediately spin the tires.
• Modulate mid-corner. Unlike modern cars, you can’t always flat-foot the gas on exit. Learn to roll on power smoothly.
• Practice half-throttle exits. Especially at tracks like Charlotte or Atlanta, partial throttle is faster than spinning the rears.

2. Braking Approach

Brakes on the ’87 car are not like modern Cup cars — they’re weaker, and the car is heavier.

• Brake early. Expect long braking zones. If you’re overdriving corners, you’ll cook your tires.
• Use less brake pressure. Lock-ups are common; bias-ply tires don’t recover well from flat-spotting.
• Trail brake lightly. Bringing the brake into the corner helps keep the car stable, but too much will overload the fronts.

3. Cornering Technique

The car doesn’t “stick” like a modern stock car. Think old-school oval racing.

• Diamond the corner. On many ovals, the fast line is entering high, cutting down mid-corner, and drifting back up on exit.
• Be smooth on the wheel. Jerky inputs upset the car instantly.
• Respect the rear end. Oversteer is constant; small corrections are better than big saves.

4. Tire Management

Tires are your lifeline in the ’87 car. Abuse them, and you’ll be seconds off the pace after just 10 laps.

• Save in practice. Run long stints and focus on consistent lap times instead of hot laps.
• Back off early. The fastest drivers are often the smoothest, not the most aggressive.
• Heat cycles matter. Bias-ply tires respond differently to temperature; keep them cool by avoiding slides.

5. Drafting & Racecraft

Because of the raw horsepower and low aero grip, drafting plays a huge role.

• Stay tucked in. The draft gives huge straight-line speed boosts.
• Plan your runs. Passing isn’t always about diving into corners — time your slingshots down the straight.
• Anticipate chaos. With limited grip, multi-car packs can become accidents quickly. Be patient.

Setup Advice for Beginners

The 1987 Cup car is notoriously difficult to set up. Start simple and work with broad strokes:

1. Tire Pressures

• Fronts: Keep slightly higher pressures for stability (helps turn-in).
• Rears: Lower pressures can add grip on exit but may increase tire temps.

2. Camber

• Negative camber on the right front is critical at ovals — it helps the car hold banking.
• Don’t go extreme; too much camber overheats the tire quickly.

3. Springs & Shocks

• Softer front springs = more bite, but less stability.
• Stiffer rears help with stability but reduce drive off.
• Beginners should keep defaults close to baseline and tweak gradually.

4. Gear Ratios

• Shorter gears = faster acceleration but more wheelspin.
• On high-banked superspeedways, taller gears may help tame the throttle.

5. Aero Balance

Minimal by modern standards, but spoiler angle can make a difference.

• More angle = stability but drag.
• Less angle = speed but twitchy handling.

Mindset for Success

Driving the 1987 NASCAR Cup car is as much about mindset as skill:

• Patience wins. Overdriving will shred your tires and send you to the wall.
• Smoothness is speed. Every input — steering, throttle, brake — must be gradual.
• Long runs matter. This isn’t a hot-lap car. The best drivers are the ones who manage pace over 30–40 laps.

The 1987 NASCAR Cup car is one of iRacing’s most unforgiving yet rewarding challenges. It embodies old-school stock car racing: raw horsepower, sliding bias-ply tires, and the need to drive with finesse instead of brute force.

For beginners, the keys are discipline, smoothness, and tire management. Treat it with respect, and it will teach you lessons that carry over into every other car in iRacing.

The post Beginner Setup & Driving Tips for the 1987 NASCAR Cup Car appeared first on iRacerHUB.com.

There’s a new update coming to the 1987 cars for iRacing. It’s a change in feel and drivability that I think many will enjoy. I wanted to take a moment to explain why and how this type of unique evolution occurs in the vehicles at iRacing.

The 87 car was a popular anticipated addition to the content over a year ago. The launch of the cars (a Chevy Monte Carlo and Ford Thunderbird) came in conjunction with a vintage 1987 version of North Wilkesboro Speedway. There was lots of excitement and the car and track both have delivered a lot of enjoyment across the community. For me personally though, something just wasn’t quite right. Is this really how the cars drove? And if not, how could we try and narrow in on a precise feel and handle that would mimic the cars true physics?

I made some phone calls. First off I reached out to Bobby Labonte. Bobby’s career in stock cars kicks off just after the historical 1987 season. But Bobby had experience in cars quite similar during his first few years in racing and he was an avid member of the iRacing community. Bobby dedicated hours behind the wheel of the virtual 1987 cars and also watched hours of incar footage from 1987 events themselves. He took all this information and formed an opinion of the virtual car vs the real world version. His opinion was similar to my own. The sim car was wicked loose to drive. The real World Cup cars were usually the opposite, frustrating, and fighting for turn. The sim car felt as if it was floating across the top of the racetrack. It was really a handful and a contrast to what Bobby and I both saw in the incar footage from that time frame.

So my next idea was to ask a few crew chiefs who had experience with cup racing in the 80s about the cars. I got a ton of information from guys like Gary Nelson and Andy Petree. Gary worked with Bobby Allison, Geoff Bodine, Kyle Petty and many others in those days. Petree had worked with Phil Parsons and Harry Gant back then. They were both full of details, and text messages, and emails. They were eager to share their experiences from those days. One critical area where they added important insight was aero. The numbers I got from both Gary and Petree, along with thoughts from Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty, and Kirk Shelmerdine (and a few others) all lined up. The cars produced a certain amount of front, and a certain amount of rear downforce and back in 1987 it was a bit more than what we currently had in the sim today. While there was some concern on what these numbers would produce in the drivability of the sim, Eric Hudec and the engineers at iRacing dove into the experiment with confidence.

Once we plugged in the real world aero, we needed to test this with real world setups and tire stagger. Again, Gary and Petree both sent me identical information about tire stagger. They provided a target setting for short tracks, for larger 1.5 mile tracks, and also a setting for super speedways that Hudec installed. I got some opinions from the same group on setups, but I also had some real life notes from crew chief Doug Richert. Doug worked with my dad in his championship season in 1980 and went on to work with Neil Bonnett, Buddy Baker, Benny Parsons, and many others in the 1980s . I had nose weight and cross weight at various tracks like Atlanta, North Wilkesboro, Charlotte, and Rockingham. I had some clear ideas on what sway bars were ran, chassis heights, air pressures, spring rates, and some great info on shocks. Working with iRacing staff members Matt Holden and Christian Challiner, we made real world 1987 style setups for several tracks. These would hopefully be used in the official fixed series for the cars.

It was all coming together. But how would all the changes perform together once plugged it into the sim? Well I for one was thrilled with the results. While I’ve never driven a 1987 cup car in competition, I had an idea after watching years of racing what those guys were dealing with. Also my concerns with the original version of the car were on par with Labonte’s, giving me further confidence that we were going in a better direction. So the end result has many layers. We have an aero model better representing the limited wind tunnel numbers from that era. We have air pressures and tire stagger more in line with what crew chiefs were targeting back in those days. We have setup parameters that better reflect the knowledge and ingenuity available in the late 1980s. All of these ingredients should give the iracing customer a better experience of what Cup racing in 1987 was like.

Huge credit goes to the iRacing engineers and developers for embracing this new direction on the 1987 cars. They are always eager to make gains on every aspect of the service. These are the types of projects I love to work on with iRacing and luckily I was able to reach deep into the phone book and get some sound advice on the 87 cars. I think it’s a nice improvement for the 1987 Stock Cars and hopefully something everyone enjoys.

The post Updating iRacing’s 1987 NASCAR Cup Series Cars appeared first on iRacerHUB.com.

The post 1987 Ford Thunderbird and Chevrolet Monte Carlo appeared first on iRacerHUB.com.

iRacing was able to scan Dale Earnhardt’s race winning 1987 Monte Carlo currently housed in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In the trunk of the car the iRacing crew found some notes from Dale’s crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine that shed some light on the car.

The iRacing crew scanned the #3 Monte Carlo until 3am prior to an early start the following day to scan North Wilkesboro Speedway.

iRacing was able, with the help of Chase Elliott, to get a hold of one of Bill Elliott’s 1987 Ford Thunderbirds to scan as well.

The two cars are expected to release in June.

The post 1987 Monte Carlo and Firebird coming to iRacing appeared first on iRacerHUB.com.