Quote:
Originally Posted by Casper
Can we keep the discussion on the age of the Oz derived from a production car race cars they being Falcon and Holden. By the end of next year any relevance to anything is absolutely out the window. They won't be even vaguely connected to any manufacturer in the way they were and by racing standards could be said to be on the age old pension (debatable). New cars can be built but the relevance and all that SC stood for no longer exists.
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The Mustang proves it doesn't have to be Holden v Ford but it does have to be market relevant, and it has to be exciting, BUT to entice any new entrant the rules and procedures have to be sorted out so someone else doesn't spend a motza to end up embarrassed.
I feel like other than the parity gripe, what the show is missing for me is the rawness of the cars 15 or so years ago, over time they've become so refined and so equal that we're missing the manhandling (especially since COTF) that I used to enjoy watching so much.
Have been watching some 2003-2009 races lately and I kinda just feel the more refined and "perfect" the cars got, the less there was between the cars and the more processional it got.
To look at the way raw newcomers like Lowndes and Ambrose could be so fast without a lot of experience is just not really something you could see today. Back then in a good car if you had the raw talent you could do something special.
Somehow now TCR feels a bit like that. A bit unpredictable, especially with the rear tyre temperature, and the results can be a bit all over the place. Yes its more artificial with sporting parity rather than technical parity, but does that affect the show?
There are other series like Argentinian TC series that survived the manufacturers leaving. Its not to say its impossible but the series is at a cross-roads. The cars have got too expensive and they are on rails. Things like NZV8s, TA2 and Marc all show that you can put something on the track with good speed and great sound without going to the high cost of a current Supercar - particularly in the chassis and engine departments.
Having multiple teams iterating on these parts for incremental gains that make no difference to the show is a big problem. There's a line to draw between allowing teams to innovate and allowing spending that is detrimental to the series.
The problem I see is that the decisions that could have been taken to curb spending in the past - like further controlled parts, single supplier for chassis, crate motors etc, all go against the wishes of so many teams that are heavily invested in staff and infrastructure to build cars, and so in some ways they are their own worst enemies.
There's no doubt, in an alternate universe, a field of Marc Mazda 3s, Focuses, Golfs etc running around with crate V8s making great noise, covered in the livery of brands we know and drivers we support, would pull a crowd. But it is more akin to sports sedans than V8s as we know them.
Sorry for the wall of text.