I'm going to have to disagree. When I think about the ATCC in the era you are talking about (1985-1992) I think about total predictability in the races due to the complete domination of one car, a car that wasn't even sold in Australia. The first car was the Sierra. It's first race in Australia was 1987. After some teething problems it finished the ATCC in sixth position. In 1988 seven of the first ten placings in the ATCC were Sierras, including the first three. In 1989 there were 24 entrants in the ATCC. Thirteen of those drove a Sierra. Again Sierras filled seven of the top ten placings (the other three were Skylines) and finished first, second and third. Then came the Skyline GT-R, a car that was so dominant they introduced the three sprint race format so they couldn't get so far ahead. This car with a six cylinder engine and twin turbo produced over 600hp, as much as todays V8 Supercars while a V8 Commodore was lucky to find 450hp (Falcons were so ineffective in Group A trim that they were never raced. Ford teams used Mustangs until the arrival of the Sierra). Combine this with four wheel drive and four wheel steer and this car was unstopable. It won the ATCC in 1990, it's first year, again in 1991 and 1992 and there was only the one factory team and one privateer running these cars. Incidently, the privateer GT-R quite often finished ahead of the top Sierra teams and more often than not, the top Commodore teams.
In about 1989, CAMS decided that this Group A formula wasn't working and something had to be done. Crowd figures were down, TV ratings were down and top teams were sitting out many races, even the Sandown 500, because it wasn't worth the time and money to get walloped by the same car every race. CAMS was put under pressure by Ford and Holden to create a series that was relevant to what they were selling. They came up with what we now know as V8 Supercars.
For me the good old days were the days of Improved Production and later Group C racing. Mustangs, Falcons, Monaros and Camaros all raced against each other in Improved Production and all were highly successful racing cars. They were loud, fast and sideways and the racing was unpredictable. In 1973, Group C was introduced. Falcons, Toranas and Commodores all raced in Group C. RX7s and Bluebirds were fast enough to get good results at times but the quality of the racing was sometimes compromised by first Ford then Holden pulling funds from their racing programs. But, factory money or not teams still built Commodores and Falcons with huge flares and wiiide tyres. These cars were called the Big Bangers for a very good reason.
Make no mistake, Group A nearly killed mototsport in Australia and the general public and the media have only just noticed in the last five years or so that perhaps motorsport might be worth another look.
