For the last 20 years the race winners of Australia's premier touring car category have been behind the wheel of either a Holden or Ford.
So after 20 championships, 566 races and 295 qualifying sessions, a question does linger.
Who won overall? Ford or Holden?
The answer is clear-cut, and sorry Blue Oval fans, it's 'The General' that has won this war.
Holden outstrips Ford in every
V8 Supercars statistic that matters, from race and championship wins to the posting the fastest laps of the weekend.
Here's the breakdown, stretching from the first race of the two-manufacturer era at the long-gone Amaroo Park circuit in 1993 through to the Winton round of the 2012 championship.
POLE POSITIONS
Winner: Holden (166 to Ford's 129)
Jamie Whincup has been the most prolific pole-sitter of the era, notching up an incredible 38 across his time in the category although his numbers benefit from the 2010 change to each race having a qualifying session.
Of his 38, 12 poles were scored aboard a Ford, but the lion's share have come in Holdens.
PODIUM POSITIONS
Winner: Holden (497 to 392)
The most fascinating thing about this statistic is that it is one of the most even splits of all the results.
Holden have only had 10 percent more drivers on the podium than Ford, which is a surprise given the fact that there have usually been numerically more red teams than blue near the top of the results over the past 20 years.
RACE WINS
Winner: Holden (349 to Ford's 217)
This statistic is the one where Holden holds the biggest advantage, 62 percent to 38.
A look through the record books shows that there have been periods of a manufacturer dominating throughout the past two decades. More often than not, it was Holden.
One of the best illustrations of this is the 2000 season, where it took until the second last event of the season for Ford to post their first round win with the unloved AU.
There were some dark times for Holden too, though, mostly in the early days of the two-manufacturer era. In 1993, it took until the seventh round of the series at Mallala before a Holden won a race, while they took their first round win at Barbagallo a week later. 1995 was just as bad for the General, with Ford locking up all but two out of 10 round wins for the season.
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Winner: Holden (10 to Ford's 9)
Despite the upper hand swinging back and forth between the two makes, the number of championship wins is the closest statistic of all.
For every era of domination by one there have been wins by the other to cancel it out.
For the Holden Racing Team's dominant run in the 2000s, there was Stone Brothers Racing's trio of titles from 2003-2005. For TeamVodafone's current era of dominance in Holdens, there was their wins in the team's previous life under the Blue Oval.
I'll be on tonight
anyone wanna meet up and show me what's changed haha
damn it..
