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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prisonermonkeys
Most taxis in Australia are Falcons or Commodores.

I'm guessing you're in America. If so, watch how Chevrolet market the new Lumina next year. It's actually a rebadged VF Commodore. The market they target is probably how Ford and Holden position themselves down here.

Although it's a wonder no-one has tried to export the idea of utes to America. They would go like hotcakes - legend has it that the idea came about when a farmer's wife wrote to Ford, complaining that there were no cars available to take her to church on Sunday and the pigs to market on Monday. So Ford hit upon the idea of marrying a passenger car to a pick-up truck, and they proved to be a runaway success.
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The VF is the SS as a rebadged version for the U.S. which came out this year.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
The VF is the SS as a rebadged version for the U.S. which came out this year.
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And now it will be available with a manual transmission I've read.

That's why it is such a shame about the Falcon. Saleen would have gone to town on the GT. The F6 would have appealed to the turbo crowd.
Having a Mustang and Falcon in the garage would have been a success for Ford.
 
05XR8
And now it will be available with a manual transmission I've read.

That's why it is such a shame about the Falcon. Saleen would have gone to town on the GT. The F6 would have appealed to the turbo crowd.
Having a Mustang and Falcon in the garage would have been a success for Ford.
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Yeah it would have been, but the only way that will happen is if the SS takes off

I don't know if there is enough of a group to help buy a v8 rwd family sedan, unless there is a big group that can't afford a cadi, but they don't even look the same. In other words the V8 rwd sedan group is non-existent in the US unless you're trying to buy a family sedan/business exec car.
 
The way the 300M went from the cab forward designs to the 300C, changed the game. I remember seeing it from afar at the NY AUTO SHOW and thinking it was a new Bentley.

The Commodore long wheelbase version goes by the old name, Caprice. It comes with dvd screens in the head rests! That would have been enough to get some sales with the Chevy badge that Chrysler got with their then new rwd luxury sedan. The Falcon had an FPV model named Force 8. It had all the fast bits without the massive GT wing and came with the 6speed auto. Maybe not as luxurious as the 300C but, definitely its match performance wise.

I agree with you, though. Us North Americans love our coupes.
 
Pontiac had confirmed bringing the Holden Ute up here right before they went under. Had a naming contest for it and everything.

Also, there is a shop in Colorado that imports them, cuts them up, and puts the bodies on GTO and G8 chassis and sells them as 100% legal conversions. Let me see if I can find it...

Edit: http://www.lefthandutes.com
 
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Good find. Just before I sold Holdens, the G8 front clips were otional on Commodores and Utes. We also sold Chevy Bowties :crazy: I prefer the standard fascia but, it was cool seeing my first my G8 when I lived in Orlando.
 
VESA are reportedly talking to all existing manufacturers, as well as the possibility of some new ones. From the sounds of things, Ford and Holden are assessing their options for continuing in the sport, given the upcoming closures of domestic production. I'm guessing both will scale back - Holden moreso than Ford - which will put a whole heap of teams up for a potential switch. If I were James Warburton, I'd be trying to get more Nissans, AMGs and Volvos on the grid before adding new manufacturers. Those marques need more representation, and Holden simply has an over-representation.

And Penske is tipped for a DJR tie-up, rather than establishing a new team.
 
Think the name would become AUSTRALIAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP again? If Warburton wants to keep this championship alive, he will have to accept changing engine configurations. Changing the formula has always happened in all motorsport.

Group A, Group N and TCM are thriving. Just go back to production car racing. The Continental Tyres series looks good.

I'm not in panic mode. At least he's thinking what if there is no Ford and Holden.
 
I've wondered about that myself for a long time. It has to happen at some point. A return to the "Australian Touring Car Championship" moniker would be ideal, but I'd imagine they'd probably just remove the V8 from the name and call it "Australian/International Supercars", or something as equally cringeworthy.

As for a future formula, I'd like to see them adopt a hybrid 4/6cyl hybrid power units. They probably wouldn't produce the same amount of power, but as we've seen from F1, they would still have a good amount of torque to keep interesting. H opefully the bogan contingent would be desensitised to everything unaustralian untraditional by that point, otherwise they would kick up a bigger fuss than they have over Nissan, AMG and Volvo joining the series. They would probably have to downsize the cars themselves too if they want to stay relevant too.
 
Geelong are interested in a V8 Supercars round. If it happens, it won't happen until 2016 at the earliest, but VESA are doubtful.
05XR8
I'm not in panic mode.
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And neither is the sport. Holden and Ford's withdrawal was always going to trigger a rollback of their motorsports commitments. They can't argue that the costs of domestic production are too high to maintain a presence here, and then continue to fund teams.

I doubt much will change for Ford. They only back FPR, while the Nash, Schwerkolt and Johnson entries are all privately-entered and run. Five or six seems like a manageable number for a manufacturer, so Holden really have the most to lose. They'll no doubt keep HRT and Walkinshaw, and there is no doubt Simon McNamara will let Triple Eight out of his sight. But the BJR, Britek, Tekno and Rosenberg entries could all switch over.
 
Wasn't there plans for a street circuit in Geelong back in the late '90s/early '00s? If I recall correctly, they got pretty far with the plans then the whole idea was scrapped.
 
I can't recall if it was BMW Australia or Germany(It is in one of my old posts on here) that didnt want to join V8s because they didnt want to showcase the 3series. Well, in the photo below BMWs, Saab and now KIA are in a series. Totally different rules and formula to V8SC but, Australian do buy BMWs.
H8ZSTRM.jpg


At one point, V8s had Leanne Tander. Someone should give a few young ladies a go. DVS have Celsea Angelo and Carrera Cup have Renee Gracie. STCC have her!
emma-630x354.jpg



 
I'm not sure I'm ok with this whole "other engines" thing. I've grown to love the series as it is, simply because it's unique and stands out amongst the other racing series all over the world, and a change to 2-door cars or different engine configurations will only make it very similar to everything else out there, and certainly shrink my interest in the sport some if not lose interest entirely.
 
prisonermonkeys
Geelong are interested in a V8 Supercars round. If it happens, it won't happen until 2016 at the earliest, but VESA are doubtful.

And neither is the sport. Holden and Ford's withdrawal was always going to trigger a rollback of their motorsports commitments. They can't argue that the costs of domestic production are too high to maintain a presence here, and then continue to fund teams.

I doubt much will change for Ford. They only back FPR, while the Nash, Schwerkolt and Johnson entries are all privately-entered and run. Five or six seems like a manageable number for a manufacturer, so Holden really have the most to lose. They'll no doubt keep HRT and Walkinshaw, and there is no doubt Simon McNamara will let Triple Eight out of his sight. But the BJR, Britek, Tekno and Rosenberg entries could all switch over.
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http://bit.ly/1npfnNs
 
Disagree with the engines changing much of the spectacle tbh, the main thing that makes V8 Supercars good is the racing, name one series that has over 500hp that produces racing even remotely as close as it?

DTM and so on have extreme levels of down force and heavily dominant by overspending manufactures which makes the racing dull and spread out.

The main thing that keeps everything close is the engines are close so if they change they are going to have to regulate a standard for which the engine will be, 6cyl turbo will likely be the outcome in the future, producing similar levels of power.

the Current engine regs have been in place since the early 90s and power gains have been very incremental since.
 
05XR8
Someone should give a few young ladies a go.
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Only if they can compete. A woman should not get a seat for the sake of having a woman in the series. That might sound sexist, but if you want to add legitimacy to the idea of female racing drivers, then you need to hold them to the same standard as their male counterparts. They need to be able to compete on merit, not on gender. If anything, promoting a female driver for the sake of it or for the media attention or to do them a favour will do far more damage than waiting until a female driver who is talented enough to compete can come along. Look at Carmen Jorda in GP3: she's hopeless. She can't qualify within 107% at times. But she has the money to join Koiranen GP, who were pretty competitive in 2013, and could probably muster up the funds for GP2 at the very least. But she has no business being there on the first place, and her presence discredits the idea of female racing drivers.

So drivers like Angelo and Gracie might be out there, but that doesn't mean they should be fast-tracked - unless they have the talent to make it on the big stage.
 
mustafur
Disagree with the engines changing much of the spectacle tbh, the main thing that makes V8 Supercars good is the racing, name one series that has over 500hp that produces racing even remotely as close as it?

DTM and so on have extreme levels of down force and heavily dominant by overspending manufactures which makes the racing dull and spread out.

The main thing that keeps everything close is the engines are close so if they change they are going to have to regulate a standard for which the engine will be, 6cyl turbo will likely be the outcome in the future, producing similar levels of power.

the Current engine regs have been in place since the early 90s and power gains have been very incremental since.
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The only thing close to it is when NASCAR goes to a road course, hence why many fans would love to see them do probably 4 or 5 times the amount of road racing and still keep some oval. Aussie and the States could be quite similar in the aspect of racing if the France family wasn't a joke.

Also regulating the standard of engines shouldn't be too hard, European and American Sports car racing having been doing a decent job of it for years.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
The only thing close to it is when NASCAR goes to a road course, hence why many fans would love to see them do probably 4 or 5 times the amount of road racing and still keep some oval. Aussie and the States could be quite similar in the aspect of racing if the France family wasn't a joke.

Also regulating the standard of engines shouldn't be too hard, European and American Sports car racing having been doing a decent job of it for years.
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It shouldn't be hard, but regulating Turbo engines is still much more of a challenge, the cars themselves have Aero testing to make sure they all produce very similar figures in Aero and drag, as long as that stays the cars will always be close.

Basically BTCC with double the power.
 
Given the extensive and expensive changes the category went through with COTF, I don't think engine changes are a viable or sustainable way forwards for the category. At least not for a few years.
 
mustafur
It shouldn't be hard, but regulating Turbo engines is still much more of a challenge, the cars themselves have Aero testing to make sure they all produce very similar figures in Aero and drag, as long as that stays the cars will always be close.

Basically BTCC with double the power.
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The turbo cars aren't hard, you set the size of the turbo the amount of boost (psi/bar) and then measure the figures out and then you decide to give each group a set of fuel regulations to follow due to their engine size. A flow rate to make sure power figures are in the same ball park and call it a day.
 
prisonermonkeys
Given the extensive and expensive changes the category went through with COTF, I don't think engine changes are a viable or sustainable way forwards for the category. At least not for a few years.
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It wouldn't be an expensive process if regulated in a similar way to how the current ones are had.

Either way this stuff is 2018 at the earliest.
 
mustafur
It wouldn't be an expensive process if regulated in a similar way to how the current ones are had.
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Tell that to Jonathon Webb, Tony D'Alberto and Dean Fiore, all of whom could not secure budgets for 2014.
 
I'm all for making sure drivers can cut it before they get a seat. It's not so good when a driver has money/sponsors to buy their way in (Ahem, Maldonado). He may be quick enough to qualify and yes, he did win 1 GP. He's still a wild man behind the wheel.

Australian Touring cars went through changing times from the first Falcons to 4cylinder turbos and back to V8s. We may not like some changes but, if the racing is still good, that's what matters. Mcnamara mentioned, no way he's putting a V8 in a Cruze. If the CHEVY SS dies, there are only 2 door V8s in the GM line up. Something would have to be done.

I watched footage of Dick Johnson speaking about how he bought those GT Mustangs from Germany. The only cars close enough to V8SC are the NZ touring cars. If the series had to make a change to keep V8s viable with shrinking manufacturers, where else can the series turn to?

I'm trusting in Warburton to keep this series alive. FOX need to keep their promise to provide the world with great coverage. Us fans must buy tickets and merchandise to show some support to the teams.
 
That's not news. "News" implies that something is new. This is obvious-es. Simon McNamara was never, ever going to let them go anywhere else.
 
prisonermonkeys
Tell that to Jonathon Webb, Tony D'Alberto and Dean Fiore, all of whom could not secure budgets for 2014.
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Oh yea, now that you mention it, they are not on the grid, are they.

I guess that tells me all I need to know about how lacklustre they were in the past. [/sidenote]
 
prisonermonkeys
Tell that to Jonathon Webb, Tony D'Alberto and Dean Fiore, all of whom could not secure budgets for 2014.
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Racing itself is an expensive sport, but this has little to do with the COTF since that actually reduced the cost of each chassis.
 
Mike Rotch
Oh yea, now that you mention it, they are not on the grid, are they.

I guess that tells me all I need to know about how lacklustre they were in the past. [/sidenote]
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Webb was pretty good. He won a race or two, and showed that single-car teams could punch above their weight.

D'Alberto was good on his day, but never had that day often enough.

Fiore sucked.
 
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