V8 Supercar "car Of The Future"

[sav man]

I read on autoblog today that Mercedes might be coming to V8 supercars because of some new regs called "car of the future" (should be called car of the current....but anyway), all i could find that cars will be run IRS, and DOHC V8's.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/14/mercede...try-down-under/

http://www.carpoint.com.au/news/2010/prest...supercars-18598

I havn't watched a V8 race all year.

[mad082]

would be interesting to see some other cars in the battle. it might actually open the series up to being a bit more international and get a few races happening in europe, which would be good for the sport.

*sits back and waits for the idiots to post up about how the mercedes will shit all over the fords and holdens, ignoring the fact that they will all be built around the same rules and have to run all the same spec gear

[iamhe77]

lol @ "Car of the Future"

DOHC V8's, independant rear suspension and trans-axle gearboxes according to THIS article in Drive last week.

Bring on the latest in automotive racing technology!

*Yawn*

Bring back the ATCC.

[Birds]

These "third manufacturer" articles/reports surface every now and then but until I see some dates in writing I won't believe it. First it was Mitsubishi, then Toyota and now Mercedes - it will certainly be awesome when it does happen, as I think the two manufacturer formula is wearing a bit thin even on the true blue fans of the sport - but until then.

[Birds]

*sits back and waits for the idiots to post up about how the mercedes will shit all over the fords and holdens, ignoring the fact that they will all be built around the same rules and have to run all the same spec gear

LOL I'm sitting there right with ya. We might have to wait a little longer, for if it were Nissan and not Mercedes we might have had it in the first reply

[sav man]

I hope the new rules have differences between the manufacturers. That way different cars have diferent strenghts and weeknesses, leades to good racing.

In most ways the Group A cars are still more advanced and the V8's. BMW, Ford, and Nissan all had DOHC, and IRS.

[Marlin]

This says it all, "The formula calls for a spec chassis"....... so yeah, call it what you will, it's just Nascar by another name, paint the Ford grill on to be a Ford, a Holden grill for a Holden, and so on......

I just wish the entire V8SC thing would just crawl up and die and that somehow "Group A" style could be re-introduced. Not gonna happen, but I'm allowed to dream.

[sav man]

unfortinatully i don't think many makes would run out at start making homoligation specials again...with the hippies winging and all.

It would be nice if somthing similar to group a could return, and all the touring cars from round the world ran it. then the wtcc could be reborn with proper car (not the super touring rubbish they use now).....if only

[Marlin]

Yeah, to be frank I'd rather watch V8SC than that appalling BTCC, underpower buzz boxes they are.

[funkymonkey]

lol @ trialling the more modern 24valve DOHC engines and IRS. They've really got their finger on the pulse, this mob.

I'll get excited when they scrap V8 Nascar Taxi's and replace it with DTM, BTCC or JGTC style rules.

[Roy]

The racing in the Grp A days was not always that great, but the cross section of cars was cool

[iseekool]

*waits* For vk45de powered skyline/gt-r

[sav man]

somthing simlar to the jgtc rules would be good. As there are some bits that loosly rely on some road car parts. But ditch the faggy restrictors and balest.

and BTCC has been rubbish since the late 90's.

[iseekool]

I guess if they want some sort of 4 door rule "taxi", a good start would be a race prepped vk45de powered v35/v36 sedan

[mad082]

This says it all, "The formula calls for a spec chassis"....... so yeah, call it what you will, it's just Nascar by another name, paint the Ford grill on to be a Ford, a Holden grill for a Holden, and so on......

I just wish the entire V8SC thing would just crawl up and die and that somehow "Group A" style could be re-introduced. Not gonna happen, but I'm allowed to dream.

you may want to add nearly (note i said nearly) every other major racing category to that analogy. pretty much every other major racing series in the world runs a major parity scheme in their cars. the DTM cars can have different chassis, but they still have regulations as far as tyres, brakes, electronics, gearboxes, and restrictors in the air intakes, plus more. or look at the F1 cars. take the paint off them and you couldn't tell the different cars apart.

i don't think group A will return. you have to remember that it wasn't just australia that scrapped it back in the early 90's, everyone did. and to be honest, you won't see any new high end race categories anymore that don't have massive amounts regulations regaurding performance, because if they didn't 2 things would happen. 1: it would become a single car category, and it would become boring as shit if 1 team kept winning purely because of technological advantage and not because the driver is at the top of his game. if there was racing like that i wouldn't even bother watching because you know that unless the car has a mechanical failure it is going to win, which is basically what happened with the GTR back in the day. it was a car specifically designed to win group a racing against cars adapted to race in group a. but if you look at races the r35 GTR is competing in now (such as the super GT in japan) you see that it isn't dominating the races because it has been built to fit in with the regulations, just like all the other cars.

[Marlin]

I understand all that, but what I enjoy about tin top racing is the technical advances that flow on into road cars. We haven't had that situation (worldwide) for a long time. I know virtually every (or every!) "touring car" category around the world now runs to regulations that allow car A to compete evenly with car B, but I still think that if a manufacturuer developes a road car that, modified, can beat its modified opposition, well, let that manufacturer bask in the glory for as long as it takes for another manufacturer to build something better.

I'm of the opinion that outright road car performance has been fairly stagnent since grp A was abolished.

[funkymonkey]

exactly, its all about one upmanship... it works in the olympics, why not in motorsports? Its not like when the guys are lining up to run the 100m sprint, they have to be the same weight, wear the same shoes and bodysuits etc. It forces the disadvantaged to work harder, and forces those with an advantage to work towards making it consistent. At the end of the day technology and consumers win. Races used to be about showcasing cutting edge tech and technique. These days its all about how far you could push the rules and regulations without breaking them. Boring.

[Birds]

+1 Marc...

Almost every series has strict homologation these days. But that's what modern racing is about...removing capitalism from the equation because the almighty dollar will rule all. Back when the GTR dominated Group A I'll add that those victories came at a per annum 3/4 million dollar expense compared to a couple of hundred thousand for a V8 saloon. Marlin made some very true points (by your way, vehicle manufacturers receive much more benefit from participating in racing and in turn so do their markets), but advertising and therefore ratings dictate the rules of racing - if the viewership switch off their TVs because the same manufacturer is winning over and over, say goodbye to the series.

Interesting to note is that, away from racing, in the free markets of real life, manufacturers still have some sort of "homologation" to go by. We have emission standards, competitive market pricing, taxes etc.

Whilst other series adopt technology that trickles down from F1 (and I hate that saying), where V8 supercars shines for me is refining the shit out of old technology that isn't over and done with. Now if they can do to IRS and DOHC what they did to pushrods and beam axles, we will have some exciting times ahead of us

The Australian aftermarket is at the forefront of automotive technology...you'd be a fool to enter the series and underestimate how well we do in that department

[sav man]

but what has the v8's devoping old tech got us... sfa. The only thing it's done is help people build awsome classic tarmac rally cars, which when you look at it is pretty poor. Our top level racing series tech 'advances' filtering to cars that are 30-40 years old.

The road commo and coona have had IRS for 15 years or so.

compare that to the advances group a gave us. would we have cars like the M3, GT-R, WRX, EVO if there was no group a....probably not. And the bigger question, would we still have a group a wtcc if Burnie wasn't running the show back in the late 80's

If group a continued, Nissan would not have ruled for long. Remember there was plenty of awd rally cars that could have removed there restricters and moved to the circuit.

[Birds]

Well that's a good question, what have the V8's developing old tech got us? Not much in the way of new cars (but it is kind of cool when you can buy a second hand set of V8 Supercar brakes for your road car!). But neither do carting championships, cup cars, WRC (besides giving us the WRX and Evolution) or most types of racing for that matter.

Racing need not serve the public anything more than viewing entertainment - it's just a bonus if we get some cool production cars out of it. The manufacturer backed, vested interest in racing isn't what it used to be. Even F1 is slowly stepping away from that!