2019 Virgin Australia Supercars ChampionshipTouring Cars 

  • Thread starter Spacegoat
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Slade's livery. More of the same but I'm fine with that. Still one of the better looking liveries on the grid, imo.

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For me (someone who is no way near as up to date on all the latest car models as everyone else here) it doesn't look too bad.
Sure that wing is absolutely massive, but as long as its fast, that's all I'm worried about.

I said to someone the other day.... Winning always looks good :D
 
05XR8
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It's not too far off the S60 profile. Might be an awesome handling package.
But yeah, I think if this particular car was badge a Ford Probe, no one would be the wiser.
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I’ve been following Motorsport for over 35 years now & they have to be the biggest rear wing endplates I’ve seen on a car other than a hill climb special, Le Mans prototype or an open-wheeler.
 
Still having my brain get used to seeing a Supercar without the extra doors.

As for Heimgartner, don't have him worrying about where he'll be next year or two years from now. Give him stability and no doubt we'll see his talent. Again, hope the Altima IS faster this year.
 
FPV MIC
It also answers the 'where's the drivers name gonna go' question.
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Two names are going to be quite the squeeze come enduro time.

After seeing some of some shots and videos. Think it's less the roofline and more the low and short front end that's throwing the proportions off. Still doesn't look right at all to me.
 
Spacegoat
Two names are going to be quite the squeeze come enduro time.

After seeing some of some shots and videos. Think it's less the roofline and more the low and short front end that's throwing the proportions off. Still doesn't look right at all to me.
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I'm concerned about the diminished visibility just from the number & driver's name. Adding another name, even if it's short, won't help the problem. There is a solution though. 💡 The one-way vinyl wrap they use on bus/tram advertising. Laid over the glass, it's perfectly visible from the outside & see-thru from the inside.

As far as the look of the.....new Ford goes, yes they've had to make concessions for the roof/glass area but, IMO if they've changed the side-on profile of the car in any other way, compared to a Mustang road car, I'd like to know why.

IMO, it's a 2-door fastback shape with a stylised Mustang front & rear. The same opinion for the other makes too.
 
I agree that it’s the front end making the mustang look funny not the glass house. The headlights and grille need to be a little higher up imo.
 
turbofozz
I agree that it’s the front end making the mustang look funny not the glass house. The headlights and grille need to be a little higher up imo.
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Yeah my thoughts exactly. The front end being so low makes the the roof look make higher, if the the headlights and grime were just a few inches higher (like the road car), it wouldn’t make the roof look so big.

To me, the car from some angles looks quite good. In the photos that 05XR8 and FPV MIC, and the thumbnail for the vid that R1600Turbo, it looks pretty decent.
 
Bare with me, but what's throwing it off most of all, is the boot lid.
It's making that part of the car look like this:
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Saggy bottom. Unlike the other racing variants with higher tails.
Also, very differently from the concept art(we all know why).

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Spacegoat
Back end is shorter and lower as well but it's nowhere near are pronounced as the front is. Found this excellent overlay that someone did on Twitter. (Link to the original tweet)

Dyo-qt5XQAE2uvz.jpg
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It does show the low nose very well, but to really show the proper differences it's been done all wrong. He probably should have done it the other way round (with the supercar ghosted) and not worked off of the stretched supercars wheelbase. This way it's throwing the road going Mustang out of proportion as well by being larger than it really is.
Spacegoat
Two names are going to be quite the squeeze come enduro time.

After seeing some of some shots and videos. Think it's less the roofline and more the low and short front end that's throwing the proportions off. Still doesn't look right at all to me.
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Yeah, not sure what they're going to do with the names. They do use smaller text for the two names at the enduros... maybe smaller numbers as well this year???

The low nose does look off but when straight line handling means so much (T8 and the ZB proved that last season) at many of the circuits I'll live with it :D.
 
Yeah the roof line doesn't even bother me. It's the tiny, slopped nose and the narrow butt. Not sure why they couldn't match those proportions from the street car. The only thing they should have worried about was the roof.
 
Someone should do an overlay of all the Supercars. I'm wondering if the nose has to be a certain height, per the rules. If that's the case, the teams could only do so much.
 
Pete05
This really highlights what I was on about yesterday.

Why couldn’t they match the Mustang bodywork outside of the Falcon roof/glass?

Feeling disillusioned :indiff:
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It's all about the control chassis. The ZB had different problems to the Mustang, the rear would almost fit, they still had to raise the roofline at the rear, but the nose was too short on the stock ZB. If you look at these to pictures you can see how much they added to the ZB from the back of the front wheel arch to the front of the front door.

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The Ford has the same issue at the back but the front is the opposite, it's too long, plus the cabin is too short. Check the same 'back of the front wheel arch to the front of the front door' section, the overhang at the front, and also the rake of the front window is less than the standard car.

Mustang-Supercar-parked-Side-view-3.jpg

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One of the other things people don't realize is the difference from this years model Mustang to last years. The nose is actually a lot lower on the new one, albeit nowhere near the Supercar version.

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Sorry I couldn't do as @05XR8 suggested, I'm just not that technically advanced :embarrassed::dunce::lol:
 
FPV MIC
It's all about the control chassis. The ZB had different problems to the Mustang, the rear would almost fit, they still had to raise the roofline at the rear, but the nose was too short on the stock ZB. If you look at these to pictures you can see how much they added to the ZB from the back of the front wheel arch to the front of the front door.

View attachment 798039 View attachment 798038

The Ford has the same issue at the back but the front is the opposite, it's too long, plus the cabin is too short. Check the same 'back of the front wheel arch to the front of the front door' section, the overhang at the front, and also the rake of the front window is less than the standard car.

View attachment 798041
View attachment 798042

One of the other things people don't realize is the difference from this years model Mustang to last years. The nose is actually a lot lower on the new one, albeit nowhere near the Supercar version.

View attachment 798043

Sorry I couldn't do as @05XR8 suggested, I'm just not that technically advanced :embarrassed::dunce::lol:
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Great post & really points out why our eyes & brains aren’t liking what we’re seeing. 👍

I guess it’s a problem caused by the Control Chassis & the current cars being so different to the cars it was designed around.

It’s defintely time for a major change/update or, do away with it altogether.

It was brought in to reduce costs & save the Teams money.
I’d argue it hasn’t really done that at all. Not on the scale being projected at the time.
 
Pete05
Great post & really points out why our eyes & brains aren’t liking what we’re seeing. 👍

I guess it’s a problem caused by the Control Chassis & the current cars being so different to the cars it was designed around.

It’s defintely time for a major change/update or, do away with it altogether.

It was brought in to reduce costs & save the Teams money.
I’d argue it hasn’t really done that at all. Not on the scale being projected at the time.
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Thanks :cheers:.

We'll have to wait till 2021 unfortunately, but I think/hope this may help: https://www.speedcafe.com/2019/02/0...anufacturers-council-for-next-gen-discussion/

That's if we still have Holden :nervous:. https://www.carshowroom.com.au/news/gm-considering-exiting-australia-selling-holden-to-inchcape/
 
FPV MIC
Thanks :cheers:.

We'll have to wait till 2021 unfortunately, but I think/hope this may help: https://www.speedcafe.com/2019/02/0...anufacturers-council-for-next-gen-discussion/

That's if we still have Holden :nervous:. https://www.carshowroom.com.au/news/gm-considering-exiting-australia-selling-holden-to-inchcape/
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Why wait until 2021 though? If a decision is handed down soon, we can have the next generation on track this time next year.
If they too & fro, sitting on the fence, it’ll be too late & waiting till 2021 is what we’ll do.

I’ll bet my little toes there are those in the Ford camp that, despite what they’re saying publicly - towing the Company line, they’re as uneasy with the look of the Mustang as some of the fans are saying.

On the other side of the fence we have a Camaro waiting in the wings. That is if it can be made to look like a Camaro. Not a Camaro with a Commodore roof.
I could be wrong but I think Walkinshaw said, “Not if it has to be ugly”, or words to that effect. I don’t blame him one little bit.

Add to that, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the reasons Nissan pulled the plug.
Maybe they asked the question of a GT-R for Supercars, with the potential of a turbo motor & were told if it can be made to fit the current chassis.
If they ran a CAD program & it spat out the ugliest Godzilla ever seen, the balloon of enthusiasm could’ve burst right then.

Lastly, the Holden to Inchcape rumour. Just do it.
Holden is a name plate only now & not a single trace of its origins can be found. Not a trace.
They may as well keep the badges the imports come with & stop trying to ride on the coat tails of Holden’s once key manufacturing principals.
 
Pete05
Why wait until 2021 though? If a decision is handed down soon, we can have the next generation on track this time next year.
If they too & fro, sitting on the fence, it’ll be too late & waiting till 2021 is what we’ll do.
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At a guess I'd say costs to the manufacturers/teams. At this stage we've got a one year old car and a car that hasn't even raced yet, and an older discontinued Nissan. I doubt the manufacturers/teams of first two would want pony up the $$$$'s again so soon, and Nissan certainly aren't going to.

Pete05
I’ll bet my little toes there are those in the Ford camp that, despite what they’re saying publicly - towing the Company line, they’re as uneasy with the look of the Mustang as some of the fans are saying.

On the other side of the fence we have a Camaro waiting in the wings. That is if it can be made to look like a Camaro. Not a Camaro with a Commodore roof.
I could be wrong but I think Walkinshaw said, “Not if it has to be ugly”, or words to that effect. I don’t blame him one little bit.
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I don't blame them either, I also think you're right about the Ford guys, there's probably quite a few winking sphincters after all the social media backlash. I also think that this is where the Supercars rule makers made their big mistake. They knew they were going to let coupes in, so the Gen 2 rules should've been adapted for them. We all knew that, how come they didn't :banghead:.

Pete05
Add to that, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the reasons Nissan pulled the plug.
Maybe they asked the question of a GT-R for Supercars, with the potential of a turbo motor & were told if it can be made to fit the current chassis.
If they ran a CAD program & it spat out the ugliest Godzilla ever seen, the balloon of enthusiasm could’ve burst right then.
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I don't think we'll ever truly know the reason, I read that they didn't want to develop another Gt-R race car, but I can't see a big enough market here for the GT-R anyway. Personally I'd love to see it along side the Mustang and Camaro (or should I say behind the Mustang and the Camaro :P)

From Nissan Australia:
''Nissan says it was not viable to race its GT-R sports-car in the V8 Supercars series because it already competes in two other series internationally — and developing a race car for a third set of regulations was prohibitively expensive.''
https://www.news.com.au/technology/...n/news-story/9b700b9947ea9cecf9fa577bc7fe4371

Pete05
Lastly, the Holden to Inchcape rumour. Just do it.
Holden is a name plate only now & not a single trace of its origins can be found. Not a trace.
They may as well keep the badges the imports come with & stop trying to ride on the coat tails of Holden’s once key manufacturing principals.
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The problem I see here is that along with the rumour of Inchcape is the possibility of Opel branding and dropping the Holden name altogether. That could possibly be the end of Supercars as we know it altogether. TCR and F5000 it is then, I guess¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Lots of good points there & you’re right. Supercars have been blind to their own 2-door future.

I must have missed Nissan’s reasons for not going down the GT-R path locally.
I think their only other family option was the Infiniti Coupe. More chances of a hero car there than the Altima.

Opel? No way. The current Commodore is already an only child. The PSA group own that platform now and the brand for that matter.
The next ‘Commodore’ (if there is one) will have to come from somewhere else within the GM family of brands.
All the money GM/Holden spent on developing the ZB for a car that, last I heard, was in a production halt.
They might be able to get a ZB Series ll out of some minor cosmetic updates to front bumper/grille & taillights, but if they’re still selling the car in 4-5 years, it’ll be seriously long in the tooth & in serious need of replacement. But with what?

I see Cadillac development mules around so often, I think they’re mad if they don’t go down that road with the next gen models.
Don’t bother trying to call them Holden. Call them for what they are & aim them upmarket in low volume numbers. Cadillac is a prestige brand.
 
Should have been MARC Cars as V8 Supercars' saviour. The things are built by Pace Engineering. Same people that were building the V8 chassis.

They showed a Focus and Mazsa3 could run with a V8 and not be laughed at. Also, the GTC platform ran with three German manufacturers in South Africa(all running turbos fours no less). Ironically, 5 Manufacturers right there.

That was the time to jump on it, when manufacturing was known to be ceasing in Australia.
 
FPV MIC
One of the other things people don't realize is the difference from this years model Mustang to last years. The nose is actually a lot lower on the new one, albeit nowhere near the Supercar version.
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No, I definitely wasn't aware that the front end on the '18 Mustang is so much lower than the previous one. :crazy: Still much prefer the previous one's styling.
FPV MIC
TCR and F5000 it is then, I guess¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Shame that outside of the Bathurst 12hr. GT racing hasn't really taken off down here. TCR just might have come around at exactly the right time.
 

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