V8 Supercar "car Of The Future"

[NISMO]

Thanks for the info Bobby

no worries

a bit long winded, but here's the release.

An outline of the primary targeted areas under Car of the Future (CoF) was released, covering chassis, engine, suspension and steering, wheels, tyres, brakes, cooling, fuel system, electronics, aero and safety.

The CoF will consist of a control floor plan and roll cage with minor variation to accommodate various bodywork. It will be easier to produce and come in a flat pack kit form.

As V8SA has stated numerous times in the past, powerplants must be normally aspirated V8 configurations.

V8SA is currently finalising the details of an Engine Equalisation Program for any variant from manufacturers that could co-exist with the current V8 Ford and Holden engines.

While front suspension and steering is generally unchanged from Project Blueprint, CoF features control independent rear suspension and uprights and 18 inch wheels.

The Holinger mid mounted gearbox remains unchanged but the move from a spool to Detroit locker rear differential will be investigated.

Brakes, cooling and fuel system will all be controlled along with the chassis loom, control engine looms control ECU and logger.

The control ECU will allow for reduced fuel consumption during pitstops and yellow flag periods which is in line with new technology in road cars.

Body work must be substantially representative of the production car model, with aero parity maintained and bio composites will be introduced.

In terms of safety, V8SA is working with the FIA on improving the driver seat and position, glass will be banned and polycarbonate windscreens used instead, the fuel tank will be shifted from the car boot to in front of the rear axle for improved safety and fire resistant coatings on selected composites items has been flagged. The target vehicle mass sits at 1200 to 1250 kilograms.

Cochrane described this morning’s launch as a “history making moment”.

“For a long time V8 Supercars has been regarded as the most prestigious and admired touring car category in the world,” he said.

“The motorsport and motoring worlds have been watching this announcement very closely as it a massive opportunity for our sport to step up on several levels and attract a wider audience.

”Mark’s plan is a collaboration of future building, business analysis, SWOT planning, common sense and a serious look at how we make the sport more cost effective for our major stakeholders, teams, but retain the very core of our success – terrific and exciting V8 Supercar racing.”

Skaife said CoF was about protecting the DNA of the current competition as well as expanding horizons in a changing industry landscape.

“This means redefining regulations to promote what we believe is Australia’s greatest motorsport category in ensuring that our drivers and teams continue to excel and provide a competitive and entertaining Championship Series,” he said.

“Our open shopfront policy will be based on potentially attracting additional manufacturers. We want to open the door to genuine high volume production, four-door sedans which will be configured as V8 rear wheel drive race cars under strict parity arrangements to compete equally against Falcons and Commodores.

“Any V8 engine can potentially be used where a manufacturer can modify one of its family V8 power-plants or utilise an existing category V8 Supercar engine. Who knows, this may open the door to teams fielding Nissans, Toyotas, Hyundais, Mazdas … whatever!”

Skaife’s master plan compliments the Project Blueprint parity system designed to maintain equality amongst the current Ford and Holden-based Series but also enables numerous other manufacturers to consider using the V8 Supercar Championship Series as a racing and marketing platform.

“This is evolution, not revolution,” Skaife said.

“Parity is something we are very good at in V8 land to ensure technical equivalency between vehicles and it has not been an issue with our Ford and Holden teams.

“The Triple Eight team’s successful switch between makes from last year to this year with minimum fuss is a classic example.”

Skaife said like NASCAR and Formula One, cost containment is also a vital aspect to ensure the future health of the category.

“We now have in place a plan to reduce the cost of a rolling chassis by around 25 per cent and further control costs of vehicle running, repair and engine development,” he said.

“Everybody knows that motorsport is an expensive business but we can’t afford to price ourselves out of our own market.

“The nature of motorsport has long been that if the money is there it can, and will, be spent. Controlling those costs is a critical path forward.

“As such, a comprehensive component evaluation matrix has been formulated for implementation over specific target dates.

“We have applied a proper business case analysis in an effort to curb dollars spent, as the cost of winning a Championship has roughly doubled in the last 15 years.

“The big picture here is that we already have a very successful sporting product that nonetheless must make headway in the future by remaining relevant to stakeholders, the car industry, team sponsors and our legion of fans – as well as do what we do best, put on a great show for the fans and our worldwide viewers.”

All teams and the V8 Supercars Australia Board have rubber stamped the Car of the Future plan, with the majority of the component changes to be introduced either by or in 2012.

[Marlin]

I wonder how much these cars will look like the original in comparison to Nascar? My thoughts are if they look like Nascars, it's all over for them, but if an Aurion (for eg) looks like a real Aurion, then it'll be cool

[skins]

This is slightly off topic but...

Has anyone heard more about ford pulling the pin on the V8 falcon ? Are they still doing this ? And if so what affect will it have to the next season of V8's ?

[Marlin]

Just pulling the pin (short term anyway) on the Boss V8 boat anchor and replacing it with a new gen 5.0 litre engine. That's from July 1.

Agter that, I don't know.

[Andy D]

I don't think it really matters what new cars enter the category. Although seeing Merc, BMW, Chrysler and Audi shaped cars would be cool, the cars are all going to be running the same gear anyway.

As long as the racing is still close, there's lots of real passing (pit lane passes don't count) and some cars get bent every now and then, I'll be happy. The racing is generally pretty good. It just needs to be as far from F1 as possible.

If you want a category with real variety check out the Aust GT championship. Audi, Ascari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Nissan, Lotus, Dodge, Ferrari, Mosler and more. All they need is for channel 7 to broadcast it properly and they'd be on a winner. Some brand name drivers probably wouldn't hurt either, although seeing Tony Quinn crash two Mosler's in one weekend was pretty entertaining. How much money is in pet food anyway?

[mad082]

rather then starting a new thread i dug up this old one,

posted today on the v8 supercar site:

BMW has confirmed its interest in entering V8 Supercars once Car of the Future is introduced.

There is one condition: Car of the Future must be compatible with the car BMW will run in the German touring car series Deutsche Tourenwagon Masters (DTM) from 2012.

The European manufacturer recently announced it would re-enter DTM from 2012 where it is likely to run its M3 model.

BMW in Australia has confirmed it has met with Mark Skaife, who is running V8 Supercars’ Car of the Future program.

“Our response, especially in light of the announcement of our re-entry to the DTM in Europe, is that if we could race that class of vehicle then we would look very favourably on a proposal for BMW to enter (V8 Supercars),” the spokesman said.

“We just would not look at anything that is specific to this market.”

It is the first time that a manufacturer has confirmed its interest in joining the category since V8 Supercars ‘opened the shopfront’ with Car of the Future, which gets rolled out from 2012.

The spokesman said the ball was now in Skaife’s court to meet with other manufacturers to see if a workable solution can be found.

“If we were able to look at a racing class down here that is compatible with vehicles racing overseas we would look very warmly at that,” the spokesman said.

“I would suggest that is also something that would need to be put to the other manufacturers he is looking at to make sure that they would be as enthusiastic.”

Skaife confirmed he was talking with BMW but could not comment further.

“We’re having discussions (with BMW) just like we are with various other manufacturers,” he said.

[zebra]

Might be interesting if thats the case.

DTM cars are sex!

[mad082]

i doubt the COTF will have the aero package of the DTM cars. even if they don't then it isn't much of a drama and i doubt that would be a deal breaker for BMW to not enter. it's not like it's a huge deal to change an aero package compared to big differences in chassis, etc.

if they were to exact DTM spec it would be great though, because then you would also have audi and merc cars able to race, and it would also be good to see some aussie cars taken to europe to run in some sort of 'friendly' exhibition race over there. would give a bit of a boost to australian motorsport

[Marlin]

They look sex, but they're not a particularly good category to watch.

Too much areo, too much tyre, too little horsepower.

I hope thats not in store for us to be honest.

I reckon just taking the wings off the current things would be fantastic, and let other manufacturers in if they adhere to Blueprint specs, using an engine from their family somewhere in the world. An oversimplification I know, but you get the gist

[zebra]

Whats the bet that the Car of the future will be slower than the current cars for the 1st few years.

I cant see BMW pouring in the $$ to develop 2 sets of Aero for the same car...as the only thing that would be the same would be the chassis, all the panels etc would be different, same with engines etc

As it says in the link, must be compatible to the DTM cars

...

I agree with Benny, take them back towards the Group A style bodies, hell the current HSVs and FPV's are a good looking thing imo.

But leave them the same underneath

[mad082]

Whats the bet that the Car of the future will be slower than the current cars for the 1st few years.

I cant see BMW pouring in the $$ to develop 2 sets of Aero for the same car...as the only thing that would be the same would be the chassis, all the panels etc would be different, same with engines etc

As it says in the link, must be compatible to the DTM cars

...

I agree with Benny, take them back towards the Group A style bodies, hell the current HSVs and FPV's are a good looking thing imo.

But leave them the same underneath

i think the COTF won't ever really be much faster than what the current cars are. i think that like F1, and most other series for that matter, the peak speeds for the series were 5 or 6 years ago when the cars were running big power and didn't really have to be that reliable long term. now they have backed everything off and are focusing on keeping the series viable.

1 thing i would like to see is a change in aero to make slipstreaming more of an overtaking tool. i'm guessing that the lack of aero on the v8's is the reason why, as they don't make that big of a hole in the air for the car behind to get a good tow from (i'm not that up on aero so feel free to correct me if i'm wrong about that). as it is they get a slight tow and it really just comes down to braking a bit later and having the inside line. this often limits overtaking areas. i'd like to see it where the guy getting the tow can really get an advantage from it and be able to make passes in other areas. it would make the racing a bit better because there would be more passing opportunities and also when someone is holding everyone up it would make it easier for others to get past.

watching motogp is good for that. you see someone get a good tow and pass and then on the next lap the other person might get the tow. or in the case of the aussie cars, at bathurst they could change positions 2 or 3 times down conrod straight by leap frogging each other, or the guy who was 3rd in the back could end up being 1st at the end of the straight because the guy in second would tow him past 1st and then he could pull out and go into the lead. i know that with the bigger cars it wouldn't work as much, but it would be good to see it have more of a role in overtaking.

[Marlin]

No.

Any "tow" induced overtaking sucks. If guys are trading positions for several laps, it nearly always ends up in the luck of the draw on who gets to tow over the finish line for the last time.

[mad082]

how often are finish lines at the end of the straights though? look at moto gp for example. someone in front has to get reasonably poor drive off the last corner, or the guy behing has to get an epic run off the corner to be able to get in front by the finish line. by 3/4 of the way down the straight they be side side by side, but generally they have already crossed the line.

[JAS-25T]

I'm pretty sure there is some confusion here, maybe even in my head.

But I think you will find that COTF is much like NASCAR where they are all much the same with different headlight stickers, and engines.

wait.......thats not much different from what they are now.

[Marlin]

how often are finish lines at the end of the straights though? look at moto gp for example. someone in front has to get reasonably poor drive off the last corner, or the guy behing has to get an epic run off the corner to be able to get in front by the finish line. by 3/4 of the way down the straight they be side side by side, but generally they have already crossed the line.

Yeah I hear you, but my real point is that towing shouldn't be the basis for passing.... superior setup or driving lines should be. As soon as you get into a situation whereby a big enough hole is punched in the air by the preceeding car, you're in that danger area where there's so much pace gained from aero that the cars can't get close whilst cornering..... take a look at virtually every open wheel category, even DTM, the racing just isn't that flash.

And I thought same as you Jason, Nascar by another name. Going down the DTM route seems to me opposite of what they're trying to achieve, ie, cheaper chassis.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Marlin

[Necx0]

Just read this thread and obviously everyone has their differing opinions. So here's mine. I think the problem with V8s is the problem with almost every motorsport category around the world. Aero basically kills racing. I hadn't watched a V8 race all year until the enduros, but the spectacle at the Gold Coast was just fantastic.

Take these specialised race cars out of their comfort zone and you automatically create great racing. Putting 650hp under-tyred race cars on a bumpy street circuit, mistakes are made and passing can happen. Same with wet F1 races, mistakes can be made it's more up to the driver. WRC follows the same formula, huge grip makes them fast but not spectacular.

A basic rule for any entertaining race formula is that the cars must have more power than grip, aero usually makes sure that is not the case. That's why the V8s came alive at Surfers, yet are usually quite boring at the faster, smoother circuits. No-one is going to give a shit if the cars are 5 seconds a lap slower if they are sliding around inches from each others bumpers.

My 2c

[sav man]

pitty they lopped a big chunk off the surfers track

[Beer Baron]

pitty they lopped a big chunk off the surfers track

yeah how lame was that. it's lost a fair bit of it's character.

[mad082]

i don't really get the comparison to nascar though. how is nascar any different to things like DTM? they till have a lot of regulations to make the car as close as possible to each other, it's just that the engines are more modern (regulation brakes, gearboxes, restrictors in the intake, electronics, etc). hell, look at f1, take the stickers off the cars and you couldn't even tell which car was which. at least with v8's you can still tell what make the car is. so nascar, dtm, v8 supercars, they are all the same really, just different individual rules for the cars. but generally speaking the rules on what they can and can't use is the same.

[«Cyph3r»]

i don't really get the comparison to nascar though. how is nascar any different to things like DTM? they till have a lot of regulations to make the car as close as possible to each other, it's just that the engines are more modern (regulation brakes, gearboxes, restrictors in the intake, electronics, etc). hell, look at f1, take the stickers off the cars and you couldn't even tell which car was which. at least with v8's you can still tell what make the car is. so nascar, dtm, v8 supercars, they are all the same really, just different individual rules for the cars. but generally speaking the rules on what they can and can't use is the same.

DTM Opel

DTM Merc

DTM Audi

DTM are easily distinguishable from one another still, NASCARs all look the same to me...... as far as I can tell they might even be all the same shell with just different head and tail lights