Virgin Australia Supercars Championship - Archive

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Holden or Ford

  • Holden

    Votes: 209 36.2%

  • Ford

    Votes: 175 30.3%

  • Ford and Holden

    Votes: 64 11.1%

  • Nismo

    Votes: 74 12.8%

  • Erebus

    Votes: 7 1.2%

  • Nismo and Erebus

    Votes: 6 1.0%

  • Volvo

    Votes: 43 7.4%
  • Total voters
    578
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Or it could be on the way to COTA, though COTA would probably want to be the first American round of the season.
 
Most definitely. My thinking is, if they fly away to the states after the AGP, it'll be cool enough. Though the CEO of COTA spoke about college graduations(Students would be testing in April) so an earlier date may conflict with potential sales I guess. Two events in April and then head to NZ then Tasmania and then the Aussie loop.

Road America gets my vote so fans can see the cars stretch their legs. Laguna Seca seems like the logical choice for viewers because of the corkscrew.

Think we'll see BJR running three SRT-8s next year?
 
GRM was in talks with them last year, and this year, this seems to die out then come back, hopefully a team can reach an agreement for next year with Chrysler/ Dodge,

I feel that the COTA track lacks something, Which every Tilke track does, There are a lot of corners that do nothing at all, other then narrow the racing line, which is a bit....... leave you to put the words in, Turn 1 is to sharp, if it hugged the inside armco that would be better, then it gets a nice flow through the esses, but I feel that complex needs to be stretched out, the short cut was great, then the rest of it is filled with corners that do nothing,

I'd like to see these cars at Long Beach, but I feel that they need to go further north, The former Champ Car street circuit at Vancouver would be good to see these cars on, or Canadian Tire motorsports park,
But if they remained in the State's I'd like to see them at Lime Rock Park, or the Indy road course,
 
There was a pretty good write up in the Austin paper about event. There were some folks who bailed after day 1 because it wasn't as much beating and banging, which it isn't meant to be. Heat didn't help matters either but that something you can't change.

The issue they said with lack of packs and it being spread out was because it's a wider track than they are used to, as mistakes didn't cost you as much as they do on tighter circuits.
 
Overall, I thought it worked out a lot better than expected.
I think they need to switch to a 200km race on both days instead of 4 races. The format sucks in my opinion, it just doesn't quite allow for strategy and different setups to show their strengths. But that's beside the point.

I'm curious to hear if you guys think this was worth it. It didn't appear to get much coverage or promotion (I understand the V8's aren't a major event in a country dominated by many sports), but it does seem to have generated a lot of interest.

I think COTA and Road America would be a perfect duo for the series, although RA may be a long-shot.
 
As far as COTA goes, I agree with doing 2 races instead of 4, and I also think they should use the full circuit. It looked like with the current track that it was easy to lose a lot of time and not so easy to make it up. The cars were really spread out after a few laps.

I enjoyed my time except for the Red Bull dominance, but Nissan showed some great speed all weekend especially Rick Kelly with a top 5 qualifying effort. Anyone know what happened to him in Race 2 on Saturday? Was running 6th on the last lap and then crossed the line slowly in 8th. I figured Bright moved him out of the way for blocking on the previous lap because the car had some damage. It's weird how the Jack Daniels and Norton cars keep swapping back and forth with running well. Last event it was the Norton cars, then at COTA it was the Jack Daniels cars.

Next year I will be flying instead of driving and getting grandstand seats. Would also like to spend some more time around the Austin area.
 
Rick ran out of petrol at the last turn. The fuel warning light was on for about 2 laps prior.
 
If we could get two dates on the calendar that would be great!!! What would be even more awesome if a permeant series could get started here!!! If DTM is trying why can't they. Dunno if they could fully support it but its an idea! Especially if Chrysler/Dodge endup in the series. And I hope after the success of the race at COTA that Ford will get there heads out of there asses and bring over the Falcon!!!
Not everyone can get a Mustang but a Falcon would fit the bill especially folks with kids and such. GM,Chrysler,and Mercedes got a clue so there is no excuse Ford lol.
 
Oh, and it would be nice if the COTA event was earlier on the schedule to avoid the 95+ degree temps. And I disagree with Eddie on the sound of the cars, they're loud enough. For me if it's too loud you can't enjoy the sound true sound of the cars. One of the reasons I hate going to a NASCAR race is that the cars are too loud and it's hard to enjoy it when you're wearing ear plugs.
 
R1600Turbo
Oh, and it would be nice if the COTA event was earlier on the schedule to avoid the 95+ degree temps. And I disagree with Eddie on the sound of the cars, they're loud enough. For me if it's too loud you can't enjoy the sound true sound of the cars. One of the reasons I hate going to a NASCAR race is that the cars are too loud and it's hard to enjoy it when you're wearing ear plugs.
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I agree, heat didn't help anything. The engines don't need to be deafening at all, they were perfect as you could hear the pitch without killing you.

One thing they really need to do next year is offer more shady tents with those water fans and pave some of the hills to make it tad easier on folks.

Next year I will attempt to find tickets on front stretch as that seemed to be the best for seating but not viewing the race. I tend to like watching pit stops anyway. Anyone have any idea what those ran for this race?
 
I wouldn't want to sit on the front stretch because that's all you can see. On Sunday Eddie and I sat just outside turns 4 & 5. Could see quite a bit from there, really nice place to sit.
 
R1600Turbo
I wouldn't want to sit on the front stretch because that's all you can see. On Sunday Eddie and I sat just outside turns 4 & 5. Could see quite a bit from there, really nice place to sit.
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Turn 1 gives you alot of the track too. The only reason I say front stretch is out of the sun.

Now this is a dumb question but where last years cars actual production based cars as far as the shells then modified for racing with safety equipment?

This year is same chassis with different bodies?
 
I had a Top Gear Australia magazine a few years ago that explained the FPR car in detail. If I recall(please correct me), they are not production chassis. The cars are way shorter and I think only the headlight, taillights and hood(roof) are production based. Nothing from the production cars are in the COTF. Bar engines.
 
05XR8
I had a Top Gear Australia magazine a few years ago that explained the FPR car in detail. If I recall(please correct me), they are not production chassis. The cars are way shorter and I think only the headlight, taillights and hood(roof) are production based. Nothing from the production cars are in the COTF. Bar engines.
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I remember something like that that one of the models had rear doors shorten to fit a chassis. I'm sure of I do some digging around I can find out.

Never mind I found information I was after.
 
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This season is embarrising for Nissan and Mercedes. It gives me facepalms.
 
At the moment, Nissan are qualifying better than the majority of the more established teams. Its a factory team, when they get more power, they'll be top five every race. Mercedes don't have any E63s racing anywhere else(same about the Altima but, it's NISMO). If it were built as a customer car made available like the SLS GT3 or DTM C-Klasse, they'd be up the field as well. In saying that, Erebus are still up in the top 20 for having cars underdeveloped with no backing from the factory and a lot of the issues they've encountered. They will improve. I'm a fan for life. :)
 
The cars can't get higher then 10th in every race. I think for a factory team, it is embarrising that they can't get in the Top 10 in the standings.
 
Of course i was a bit down at Clipsal. Then finding out why they have certain issues and why they were slow, they have work to do. Particularly, the E63 runs better in cool air and sweeping corners. Coming out of sharp turns, they don't have enough grunt. I guess fans expect a lot because of the nameplate. The team expect to be top 15 from Austin to the end of the season. Top 10 probably next year.
 
RESHIRAM5
This season is embarrising for Nissan and Mercedes. It gives me facepalms.
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To be fair, neither are de facto factory teams. They also both got started on the cars later than most of the other teams (especially Erebus).

The Nissans are down on power, but Rick Kelly qualified P5 in one of the races at COTA, so once they get that engine update they'll be right up there.
While the Mercedes have been less impressive, they have some rather good reasons. They have NO factory support (in fact, Mercedes flat out refused to be involved in the project at all). They get their engines from HWA, one of the top Mercedes satellite teams. Unfortunately, HWA are based in Germany so updates take a while to get to the team. They were also the last brand to start on their cars due to the deal being rather last minute.

By the end of the year Nissan should be right up there, and Erebus should be challenging the top 10.
 
I like V8s to come to IMS for a race weekend.. how about this weekend?! :sly: I got a open date on Saturday with an open track if they want. ;)
 
Heck it won't surprise me to see Nissan take one under the right strategy before they fix power issue.

Is it me or SVG kinda shy when in the spotlight?
 
Wilbur
Heck it won't surprise me to see Nissan take one under the right strategy before they fix power issue.

Is it me or SVG kinda shy when in the spotlight?
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Ipswich and winton may suit the NISMO camp.

And SVG is certainly no ham in front of the camera.
 
RESHIRAM5
The cars can't get higher then 10th in every race. I think for a factory team, it is embarrising that they can't get in the Top 10 in the standings.
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They knew this was coming. Unlike Ford and Holden, who are using engines that they have had for some time, Nissan and Mercedes are allowed to upgrade their engines throughout the season.
 
05XR8
Ipswich and winton may suit the NISMO camp.

And SVG is certainly no ham in front of the camera.
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I was watching his interview post race this weekend and he looks like he has no clue what's going on.
 
He's always like that. Even when he won his first races. A young man of few words. To me, the young guys are either shocked they're winning/doing good or it's like they are conscious their friends are watching them.
 
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I'm still in amazement at general how nice they all are. All the folks I met over the weekend were just overalls friendly. I just need to find me a cute girl who follows the series and move down under!

I bet I end up buying the rest of this years pass to watch the races.
 
The pass may be the way to go if you can't wait to see the races.
True story about the drivers. In between races they are approachable. I took some pictures with Paul Morris 2 years ago. I said I knew who he was because I watched him race Super Tourers on Speedvision when they used to broadcast the Macau GP. He was dumbfounded. The look his face was gold. Paul Morris isn't well liked on the track because of his antics. But chatting with him, he had a bit of time and was a genuine cool "Dude".
 
05XR8
The pass may be the way to go if you can't wait to see the races.
True story about the drivers. In between races they are approachable. I took some pictures with Paul Morris 2 years ago. I said I knew who he was because I watched him crash Super Tourers on Speedvision when they used to broadcast the Macau
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Fixed that for you so it's more accurate :)
 
RESHIRAM5
This season is embarrising for Nissan and Mercedes. It gives me facepalms.
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It's their first year and they are down on power. I didn't expect much from them until next year. But as you can see they are getting better (Nissan especially) by qualifying in the top 5 and getting several top 10's. They'll get there.
 
R1600Turbo
It's their first year and they are down on power. I didn't expect much from them until next year. But as you can see they are getting better (Nissan especially) by qualifying in the top 5 and getting several top 10's. They'll get there.
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It's like any other form of motorsports, the top teams have their engines running at the peak while others play follow up til they get there. The good thing is they are making fairly good gains too.

Atleast next year I know what to expect, and WILL bring a chair with me even if I pack the thing.
 
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