Interesting Bathurst Info.

[mad082]

i was just flicking through the history books at bathurst results, and here's what i found.

in 1989 the winner and second place cars were ford sierras. they were both on the final lap.

1 lap behind were 2 hr31 skylines. the qualifying time of the 1st place sierra was 2:16.79 by dick johnson/john bowe, and dick held the fastest lap. the qualifying time of the fastest r31 (NOT jim richards/mark skaife) was 2:19.64.

in 1990 the winner was a vl commodore. second was a sierra. jim richards/mark skaife's gtr was in 18th place, abuot 15 laps behind. they did set the fastest lap of the race, but were out gunned in qualifying by the sierras. (gtr=2:15.66, sierra driven by brock=2:14.71 (but that wasn't the quickest))

in 1991 the gtr took 1st and 3rd with a vn in the middle. the vn was 1 lap behind, and the second gtr another lap behind that. fastest race lap was again the gtr.

then came 1992, and the controversial win for the gtr. the race was called off on lap 144, just after the gtr crashed into the wall, and take back to the results at the end of lap 143. this gave the win to skaife/richards. followed by the sierra of johnson/bowe on the same lap. fastest lap of the race was the gtr, 0.2 of a second quicker than the sierra. qualifying was a different story however, with the sierra clocking 2:12.898 and the gtr 2:14.546.

so just a few facts for the people who weren't old enough to remember the gtr at bathurst or thought that nothing else even stood a chance. the gtr did get beaten, and didn't qualify the best.

[djr81]

What you need to understand was that for the 1990 race the GT-R was completely unsorted. It had only just been finished and was, by all accounts, a horrible thing to drive on the Thursday/Friday/Saturday before the race.

Only one car was entered, & from memory it broke a drive shaft - hence the reason for the missing 15 or so laps. Skaife got told to go out & drive it as fast as it would go in the hope of learning a bit more. The lap record was the result of that instruction.

[hrd-hr30]

for all the details:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t231647.html

[RS500]

for all the details:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t231647.html

those definitely were the days of motor racing.

i always loved how the sierra's would pull away from the GTR's up mountain and down conrod straight

it was a totally different story up on the mountain though

all in all, the cossies did very well for under tyred, RWD, 2L turbos.

Edited September 21, 2006 by RS500

[djr81]

If you have ever seen the telemetry out of the DJR Sierra from 92 - the amount of boost going through those motors was bloody scary.

[Ant97GTR]

I also have heard (on very good authority I might add) that the sierra turbos didn't exactly conform to the rules and regs at the time

...that might explain the ability as djr81 posted above to reliably push so much boost through the motor

[djr81]

HRT used to front at Bathurst (Well, Tom Walkinshaw mostly) and basically protest the living crap out of every competitive car there was. Mostly this involved lodging protests against the vital bits of the opposition cars - in the case of the Sierras the turbos were a favourite because they were so damn critical to the set up & on a knife edge to get maximum horsepower. It used to put the teams to alot of work & disrupt their preparation - which was mostly the point of the protests. I can only recall one instance of a protest on thsose grounds ever being upheld & even then I think it was over turned on appeal (Colin Bond's Sierra, if memory serves)

The ironic thing was that the HRT cars were rubbed out when the Ford teams got sick of the carry on & lodged counter protests for illegal steering racks in the VL's.

Just another reason to hate those from the dark side.

Oh, yeah & according to Allan Moffat his RX-7 actually came second in 84. So no 1 - 2 for the HDT.

Edited September 22, 2006 by djr81

[Ant97GTR]

Hahaha djr I do know of those protests but my info didn't come from the records of those protests

[frankxinyu]

haha the best thing i have ever heard is what jimmie richards said after the 92 race...

'you guys are a pack of f**ken arseholes' classic.

[GT-R LM]

funny, no one mentioned that the r32gtr had carried (200kg i think) extra weight and boost restrictors in efforts to give the other cars a chance(still didnt work). Remove them and see if any sierras would of went past.The sierras were boosted to shithouse and were just marginally quicker down conrod.

Theres a reason the GTR got called GODZILLA

[Roy]

What you need to understand was that for the 1990 race the GT-R was completely unsorted. It had only just been finished and was, by all accounts, a horrible thing to drive on the Thursday/Friday/Saturday before the race.

Only one car was entered, & from memory it broke a drive shaft - hence the reason for the missing 15 or so laps. Skaife got told to go out & drive it as fast as it would go in the hope of learning a bit more. The lap record was the result of that instruction.

Excuses, excuses. In an endurance race it wasnt as reliable as the VL Walki

And it was introduced earlier in the season by Mark Skaife to get some development kms on it. Richards stuck with the R31 as he was shooting for the SATCC (which he ended up winning). So it had races under its belt.

[mid life crisis]

i still have one of those jim richards called me a arsehole tee shirts around the place somewhere lol. might have to stick it on ebay if i can find it

[mad082]

Theres a reason the GTR got called GODZILLA

being the only 4wd in the pack it would shit all over them off the line. which i do see as an unfair advantage. they could hold it at 7500rpm and just side-step the clutch. that doesn't take much delicacy. had the gtr been forced to run in rwd only i think it would've been a completely different story.

as for the djr sierra. he was running the most powerful sierra of the time. he took 1 of his cars over to europe to race and was about to lap second place when the turbo blew.

but what annoys me about it all is that people are arrogant and say the GTR kicked butt, but don't take into account that holden was the only v8 there, the bmw's were non turbo 6's, and the fords were 4 cyclinder turbo's, and the gtr was 4wd, so it had a massive advantage off the line, out of corners, and in the wet. so had the GTR not been so dominant i would've been worried.

[ish]

yeah but it was never considered a threat either by dinosaur cubic inches heads and sAfrican Americaned at.... it taught lessons!!! thats why all the kafufal.

being knobbled like it was and to still smack ass is australian HISTORY now except it !

[GT-R LM]

being the only 4wd in the pack it would shit all over them off the line. which i do see as an unfair advantage. they could hold it at 7500rpm and just side-step the clutch. that doesn't take much delicacy. had the gtr been forced to run in rwd only i think it would've been a completely different story.

as for the djr sierra. he was running the most powerful sierra of the time. he took 1 of his cars over to europe to race and was about to lap second place when the turbo blew.

but what annoys me about it all is that people are arrogant and say the GTR kicked butt, but don't take into account that holden was the only v8 there, the bmw's were non turbo 6's, and the fords were 4 cyclinder turbo's, and the gtr was 4wd, so it had a massive advantage off the line, out of corners, and in the wet. so had the GTR not been so dominant i would've been worried.

It wasnt just the 4wd it was the whole package buddy. Like i said before you think the sierras were good, why dont you watch a couple jap group A races and watch the seirras get left like they a barina's.

[mad082]

Like i said before you think the sierras were good

i should've been more clear. the race in europe that djr took his car in was a sierra only race.

[Mandingo]

had the gtr been forced to run in rwd only i think it would've been a completely different story.

Wrong again. The GTR's in JGTC were RWD and they still owned all. after the calsonic R32 won every race the whole season they were made to drop the 4WD.

[frankxinyu]

i still have one of those jim richards called me a arsehole tee shirts around the place somewhere lol. might have to stick it on ebay if i can find it

hahaha, id buy it off ya..classic.

[Roy]

Wrong again. The GTR's in JGTC were RWD and they still owned all. after the calsonic R32 won every race the whole season they were made to drop the 4WD.

Japan like every other country adopted their own rules after the passing of the Grp A regs. And when you look at the quality and speed of cars in other championships Australian Grp A cars were some of the quickest around. I would go as far as saying that if Glen Seton rocked up to a Jap round, ditto John Bowe then the Jap GTRs would have got a fright.

If Jim Richards had rocked up to a Jap round in the Winfield car, they would have all been convincingly beat by Gentlemen Jim.

Sorry but the Japanese do not know how to build the quickest race cars

[sav man]

Sorry but the Japanese do not know how to build the quickest race cars

That's why they stole all the parts from the Gibson GT-R's

I thought all the winging about the seirra's was that they were ment to have a set boost level and not adjust it through the race. But at Bathurst, they wound the boost up to get a lead, and then wound it down to 'cruise' home. But Holden worked out all they had to do was keep up with em till the poor old turbo's exploded.

I wish we still had Group-A and the Group-A WTCC

Edited September 24, 2006 by sav man