Sports Sedans - Page 18

jd yort · 7 Dec 2006, 06:14 (Ref:1783798)

It does look quite nice. Does he have the intention of running the National Series next year??

inpitlane · 7 Dec 2006, 06:29 (Ref:1783802)

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Originally Posted by jd yort

It does look quite nice. Does he have the intention of running the National Series next year??

Yes, He actually paid up for all the rounds this year but of course the car was never finished in time.
BTW He also has the ex- Win Percy Spa 24 hour Grp A XJS on the way from England for Historic competition.

jd yort · 7 Dec 2006, 06:44 (Ref:1783808)

With him lapping within 3 seconds of Randle at Phillip Island so early into the Development of the car then it looks promising.

cavvy · 7 Dec 2006, 07:41 (Ref:1783816)

Quote:

Originally Posted by inpitlane

BTW He also has the ex- Win Percy Spa 24 hour Grp A XJS on the way from England for Historic competition.

This is the car Tom Walkinshaw drove to the 1984 ETCC - probably not politic for Tom to have a drive, a competition of interest?

Having heard Gossy's XJS at Sandown, the younger generation are entitled to hear these cars with their drivers of note, hoofing it down Conrod.

Robert Ryan · 7 Dec 2006, 08:53 (Ref:1783859)

I heard Darren Hossack say he will be tsting his new Audi A4 in Feb/March 2007. Unlike the SAAB it will be a spaceframe not Monocoque.

Robert Ryan · 14 Dec 2006, 10:06 (Ref:1790453)

I was just emailled details of the Brennan Spec Chassis used in the NZ Super Sedans , by Tony Jack the Secretary. Here it is:
www.brennanracing.com/html/br2_chassis.html

Phast Phil · 31 Jan 2007, 11:27 (Ref:1830100)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASSA Member

That's a well balanced comment, to get new cars built the class needs to attract more new competitors. The problems that hinder this in my opinion are:

1. Building a national level Sport Sedans involves a lot more cost and time then any of the other national classes around. Also people nowadays have a lot more categories to choose from.

2. Once the car is built it needs to be developed which again involves more time. This won't appeal to people who just want to get out there and race. Again a lot of other categories have cars that are either brand new ready to go or that have only done a season or 2 of racing with all the development work already done.

3. The class doesn't get a great deal of coverage and for some this will pretty much turn them away as it is hard to get sponsors without good coverage. Some would be attracted by the fact that it's the fastest sedan category in the country while lots of freedom in the regs.
Getting the money to be a part of it is one big problem.

I sometimes wonder how many new competitors to circuit racing actually know that Sport Sedans are around.

I also sometimes question what attracts people to the GT championship. Don't get me wrong I think it is a good category but the cars are more expensive and are a fair bit slower then national level sport sedans, what draws them into the class?
Is it the fact that they can go and buy a GT3 or Viper pretty much off the floor and go racing with it straight away?

One, if not the main, reason is there is no manufacturer (or known manufacturer) of competitive high quality race cars. I have people contacting me who love sports sedans, have a budget and who would like to purchase a car capable of being a front running car. There is limited availability at a fair price. Most existing cars need a full rebuild to be reliable, they are worn out and need a birthday.

With the rules so open it is hard to build a base car capable of winning unless you put $200K of fruit in it.

The new rules allow body upgrades easier so hopefully that will assist in settling that arguement, but the class needs to standardise frame measurements if one want to buy a developed 100% composite bodyshell.

More work needs to be done over time. Not everyone that wants to race a sports sedan is a genius engineer with a bucket of money with the patience to develop a car over several years whilst being the SS equivalent driver of Jason Bright. We really need to look at making it easier and more fun.

It can be done over time but it will upset some of the people who want to keep living in the past.

Falcadore · 31 Jan 2007, 12:08 (Ref:1830136)

The Geoff Gillespie M3 is a masterpiece of engineering and a showcase of what can be done under SS regs. Sadly it won't race in 2007. After the late season fire the car has been stripped down into bits for cleaning and resotration. For budget reasons this won't be done quickly.

On the flipside - the Queensland Sports Sedan organisers have pulled a bit of a blinder for 2007. The entry regulations for the class have been relaxed and the Queensland Sports Sedan and Invitated Championship will be held over five rounds at Morgan Park in season '07.

Already there have been some vehicles step forward to join what was admittedly a flagging class numbers-wise with some old touring cars and some 4WD Japanese machinery looking at running with the possibility of some German exotica as well. Class based structure based on capacity and construction was being mooted.

I think the guys up here are to be applauded for thinking outside the box and already it's brought some people to racing that ordinarily might not be able to. The variety of vehicles should make for some very interesting racing.

For a long time the CAMS class system has deliberately or ignorantly ignored one of the biggest sectors of the performance street car brigade, perhaps this can be a step in embracing these cars.

ASSA Member · 3 Feb 2007, 01:21 (Ref:1832300)

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