V8 Supercars might be opening their arms to non-american cars!

[bujna]

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/g...0309-pvdm.html

This would be great. I miss the 80's when you'd see M3's going up against holdens etc. They really spoiled bathurst for me when everything that wasn't a falcodore was given the boot.

A great piece of footage of an e30 M3 (Jim Richards) vs a V8 Commodore (Brockie)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nuRg...eature=related

[DeanB]

Would be nice to see the German V8s here - anything Euro to knock off the Holden/Ford circus as it currently is.

[static1800]

If it happens and the Euro cars start winning like they and the Jap cars did in the late 80's early 90's all the yobbo's will get the poops and start a new series up

Hopefully though, it will be good for Australian racing. V8 supercars has ruined so much motorsport as it gets every bit of attention while great series like the production cars flounder.

[goodfella]

If history repeats, Tony Cochrane will gladly accept franchise fees from new entrants then slowly introduce limiting factors to support the other hands feeding him ie Local manufacturers.

[Tim]

As a series V8 stupid cars is crap. Yes the racing is close and exciting. But the cars are not really representative of anything that any manufacturer has to offer.
Im not convinced that an AMG or BMW driver will equate what happens in a series like that with the desire to own one of their cars.

Bring back the whole "Race on sunday, sell on monday" ideal. Where manufacturers would have to produce homologation specials to be able to race the cars. Then we can really barack for a particular brand.

V8 stupid cars is just a circus for drivers and team engineers. Manufacturers just supply the money.

[bujna]

Good point Tim.
It would be good to go back to the days where you could buy a car that was closer the race spec, although it would be an extreme niche market. People just expect all the mod cons these days. The e46 M3 CSL was pretty much a track car, and unfortunately the manufacturers would probably see the aussie market as too small for those models.

Put it this way, at least they are still using the body shells V8 Supercars, unlike the nascars where they all use the same shells with different manufacturer paint jobs...

[Tim]

Yeah Its all just wishful thinking.

I just remember the good ol days where bathurst had several classes running on the same day and there were so many privateer cars.

The race i fondly remember was the bathurst 12 hour ('91-'95) Now that was an event! with the RX7s taking on the mightly Porsches and winning. Whilst the series has made a return. There is just no media coverage anymore. It seems which is a real shame.

How many people have even heard of the Australian Production Car Championship? http://www.pcaa.com.au/index.php?opt...d=54&Itemid=31

Dont get me wrong I love motorsport and will happily watch the V8s go round. As mentioned already though. They have really ruined motorsport in this country by stealing all the limelight.

[madglf3]

V8 Supercars is a highly marketable series in almost every aspect, they can get huge sponsorship support and there is loads of interest from a wide crowd. Think of every bogan you see (there are loads) and add on the amount of normal people interested in the V8s, children growing up on a diet of V8 racing and you have a huge following and the potential for a strong future. It's because of the popularity that it gets so much air time too, which increases value of the series. I think Ch7 do a great job in their televising of it too, although I'm not an ardent watcher.

I am more interested in Production series as I feel that it's more of a true representation of manufacturers capabilities. I did some work with the people who are the category managers for the 12hr, Mini cup and V8 Ute racing series and they're all really passionate about racing; one actually won his category for the 12hr in a V8 ute.

The reality is that what sells sponsors on a certain series is the appeal the product has to their target market and the potential to put their own product/service in front of a crowd they feel would be beneficial to their company.

I think they mentioned that the race will receive coverage on Saturday March 20, from 1pm-4pm on Ch7. Check your local station times of course, as it might be different in each region.

[Merlin8r]

Ahhhh the heady days of Australian motor sport. When Ford Cosworth Sierras dominated so much, that bogan hero Peter Brock actually defected from Holden. When loud-mouth Tom Walkinshaw developed the hideous Walkinshaw Commodore, claiming it would leave the Sierras for dead (it didn't). And then Nissan released the GTR and holy crap didn't that change things??

Then along came the narrow minded bogan, complaining that one car was dominating. So they changed the rules. To a 2 car race. And so now we no longer have that huge developmental push to develop better production cars in this country.

Awesome if we are going to get it back. I used to love watching the touring car championship when I was young, but these neanderthal tanks rolling around are just plain boring.

[goodfella]

Theres nothing fair in love, war and motorsports apparently.... I have been told in good faith by a mate who worked in the V8 Circus that those Nissan GTRs weren't "exactly to homologation spec". But lets just leave the history as it is, if one team interprets [read "bends"] the rules, then ALL teams are doing it too!

I fondly remember being in Ross Almond's garage (he started the whole Evo trend in the Production series) when scrutineers were drilling him over the boost levels he was running and whether it was factory spec.

Thats motorsports, PARITY keeps the action close and the spectators happy.