Car of the future released

[hoon69]

With the release of Car of the Future today (Monday), the future of V8 Supercars has been secured while the door has been left open for more manufacturers to join the category.

At Melbourne’s Crown Casino this morning, V8 Supercar Executive Chairman Tony Cochrane and head of the Car of the Future plan, Mark Skaife, unveiled what is set to ensure the sport continues its impressive growth.

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.

[v8dude78]

Sounds like to me the future of V8 supercars is in good shape

It will really move up a notch once another car maker or two gets involved here's hoping Mercedes will be the first

[C4B]

Car of the future and they talk about moving to a Detroit locker diff....

[steve_t]

1200kg sounds good!
Are they locking in the parity between cars so when people like Nissan, Merc, and BMW come into the competition, they'll keep things relatively even? I'd guess some of the Euro brands would have big $$ to engineer some amazing machines

[ova400]

Some interesting stuff in there, I wonder what Holden will have to say about the 'kit car' under a few hanging panels

[Uncle Tone]

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit.

[greySStoke]

and they will be racing on ovals next...............

[Souljah]

Car of the future and they talk about moving to a Detroit locker diff....

Not to mention that the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was founded in 1946/47.

[Bezerkr32]

i think it would be great. Might see some Chryslers, Lexus/toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, VW, the list goes on. Will be interesting to see what the engine capacity will be as i heard 5ltr will no longer be the limit. Also camshaft configuration. Most of the jap and euros are quads.
kind of back to the group A days. you would think there would be some more rounds over-seas as well.

[Irish]

Some interesting stuff in there, I wonder what Holden will have to say about the 'kit car' under a few hanging panels

The current cars are just hanging pannels already. The current V8's lose about 100mm in length to their road going brothers and share absolutly nothing with them other than looks.

[v8dude78]

The car of the future sounds very interesting
Lighter/Bigger Brakes and a Transaxle????? and sounds like two extra makes

[Jag530G]

To me this just means V8 Supercars has completed the journey to becoming a silhouette formula. Somehow I doubt that BMW, Merc, Lexus will get involved in this, doesn't exactly enhance thie prestige. Be honest, if you were BMW's marketing manager would you get involved in V8 Supercars? The sort of people who purchase BMWs couldn't care less about V8 Supercars. Chrysler could be a maybe. Unfortunately, the marketing power of racing isn't what it used to be.

Considering the state of Australian car industry I'll make a prediction that V8 Supercars will itself be dead by 2019. GM haven't yet approved a 2018 Commodore and Ford Australia's Taurus (the Falcon looks dead) is odds on to be made in the US. At best we will probably be seeing a V8 Supercars race in 2019 featuring a Holden Malibu silhouette racer vs a Ford Taurus silhouette racer. Does anyone here really feel any great excitement about a Ford Taurus silhouette car powered by a Ford Motorsport engine with zero street relevence all that appealing?

I think the Private Equity mob (Archer Capital IIRC?) who bought V8 Supercars are absolutely going to do their dough.

Cheers, Matthew

[planetdavo]

Let's see how it all goes first hey fellas. Very easy to be negative half glass empty types when we haven't even seen the final product racing, nor any other makes joining the series to spice it up.
I simply see this as the next step in the process of turning Australian motorsport from a small time "sport" followed by a hardcore minority into a much bigger "entertainment" package that attracts far bigger audiences of the general public. "The show" must go on and move with the times, or it will wither on the vine and die...

[NickS]

To me this just means V8 Supercars has completed the journey to becoming a silhouette formula. Somehow I doubt that BMW, Merc, Lexus will get involved in this, doesn't exactly enhance thie prestige. Be honest, if you were BMW's marketing manager would you get involved in V8 Supercars? The sort of people who purchase BMWs couldn't care less about V8 Supercars.

Marketing departments may need to do a little research here ... I'd say there's a pretty big market in Australia for Holden drivers that have moved on to HSVs and then moved on to Euros but still love the V8 Supercars ...

It's not just bogans that enjoy motor racing in Australia ...

[Xjas]

Let's see how it all goes first hey fellas.

I dont need to see how it goes, the cars are crap.
I dont see the relvance of a tin top series that has virtually no connection to the road car it represents, they may as well look like lemans prototypes with the engine in the middle and proper aero.

I'm sure many will love it but I wont be one of them, the Kiwi supercar is more appealing or the utes.

Also with all this talk about other manufactures joining the series, the cars are identical except for hanging panels and engines why cant they allow turbo 4s and 6s, its not that difficult to maintain parity, many other series around the world do it successfully.

V8 Stupidcars.