Audi Safety Cars

[RaceTime]

RaceTime has heard a whisper that just before Christmas, the Audi Safety Cars - which were apparently being stored at Steve McCalls' workshops in Melbourne - were 'retrieved' by Audi.

Why? My source isn't 100% sure but the way it was passed on to me, McCall was not aware the cars were going to be 'taken back' by Audi.

Anyone else heard anything??

[sevi]

Yes but don't think there is to much to it.

[Aircon]

I was at McCall's a couple of days before Christmas and the cars were gone.

[GTRMagic]

Off to be resprayed black with garish WPS logos is how I understood it....

[Dirk]

The Audi logo still appears on the new Konica posters that are about, don't think there would be much in the whole thing.

[Crash Test]

The cars are still good? Normally after being flogged for a year, the SCs take a trip to the car cuber!

[Dirk]

Generally not, AVESCO used the same XR8's for a long time, in fact the Safety Car was a Series 1 XR8, and the Course Car was a Series 3. They only reason they had a Series 3 for the course car was because they use to give it away each year in a competition.

[Arai GP5]

I heard respraying...

Maybe someone forgot to tell someone else.

[grumpy1]

I heard respray as well in AVESCO colours

The Grumpy1

[sevi]

Ok I have just checked and have all the facts and have permission to put it on here.
The Audi that went back to McCalls, was the old one, and Steve returned it just prior to xmas as it is no longer being used by Avesco.
The two Audi's that have gone back to Audi are the new ones, which went to Audi Sydney straight after xmas to be stored over the off season, they did not go to McCalls as maybe first planned.
As for respraying not but there are some new stickers going on, but still primary 'V8 supercar' .
Sorry no conspiraces this time.

[GTRMagic]

Perhaps, but there would be no way in the world I would want to buy any of these cars used as safety vehicles! At Indy the cars did a couple of sessions, and had worn their Dunlops thru to the canvas, with steel belts sticking out...

Luverly

[sevi]

Huh, Where did buying one of the SC come into this, or do you mean the old one that went back to Audi?

[RaceTime]

Ahhh Thanks for that - clears up something that was starting to be bandied around as a possible 'not quite right' scenario.

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by sevi
Huh, Where did buying one of the SC come into this, or do you mean the old one that went back to Audi?

The old one... There was a prize on a #10 competition at Indy last year, the Acer course car... and having seen it return after sweeping the track, the tyres in serious distress, it wasnt hard to work out than an ex-track car of any description would be a crook buy

[RaceTime]

You could always have gone for the Oran Park Safety Car that dropped its gearbox one Sunday morning opposite the control tower.

Race COntrol: "Safety 1 - ummm you've stopped onthe circuit - is there a problem?"

SC1: "Yes."

about 30-40 secs delay...

RC: "Safety 1 - what appears to be the problem?"
SC1: "Request tow vehicle please."
RC: "Are you out of fuel again safety 1?"
SC1: "Negative - we have a slight errrr some oil on the track"
RC: "Did youhit the oil and go off Safety 1?"
SC1: "Negative race control."

about 15 secs silence...

SC1: "Errr race control - Safety 1 has no gears."
(In the back ground a voice was heard to say "We have no ****ing gearbox let alone gears... **** !!!"

RC: "Safety 1....." - laughter heard over radio - "Tow vehicle on its way. Safety 2 - you on channel and availableto clear the track once Safety 1 ummmm once they manage to clean up their mess?"

[GTV27]

Regarding ex-course cars, a dude in the Alfa club won a Honda Integra Type R which was used at the Gold Coast Indy maybe a year or two back, when it was the Honda Indy - I think he still has it.

I'll have to ask if it has shown any signs of its previous life (although, it may have only suffered for the one meeting, and he has since raced and rallied it so if it was a bit tired (not that I'm suggesting it is) there would be extenuating circumstances)

[sevi]

Racetime I have not laughed so much, that is a classic.
I liked the bit about "have you run out of fuel AGAIN".

[Dirk]

Lukey Exhausts gave away one of the XR8's in consecutive years in a competition if you bought an exhaust off them. Vinnie at AVESCO combined with McCall do a good job of taking care of the vehicles though, they are well maintained!

[GTRMagic]

I would be concerned about oil surge and the like.. that may happen once and get noticed... but that once it happens may shorten the engine life considerably...

[stanstatician]

It has been said that a certain marketing guy from a building on the Gold Coast referred to as the "centre of motor racing in Australia" did present a proposal to two big car manufacturers prior to Christmas for a "program" ....... no takers for the big ask for cash so looks as like the freebies from 'someone of no relation' will continue..........

[sevi]

The Acer course car was not the old Audi's.
They have never been part of any comp.

[GTRMagic]

The Acer course car was a Holden Monaro, and I know it has nothing to do with the Audis.

The Monaro was flogged to death then given away as a prize, which is the best kind of car to get, a free one, but if it was belted around as hard as the Audis, it would indeed be buggad before the prizewinner got the new beast in their garage.

The local Ford dealer was the sponsor of one of the Ford Telstar turbos used at the AGP one year... and the car's engine was a bit hurt... seems it was driven too far with no water in it... yay

[mtpanorama]

Originally posted by RaceTime
You could always have gone for the Oran Park Safety Car that dropped its gearbox one Sunday morning opposite the control tower.

I remember at one of the truck meetings they were using "Momo Ray's" 300 zx and it was wet. The trucks had a rolling start and the pace car came into the wet grasss on the infield and proceeded to do a couple of nice 360's on the wet grass. That was the end of the pace car for the rest of the day.

[RaceTime]

I don't remember one doing that (must have been after I finished there) but I do remember it coming off the track a tad too fast a couple of times....

Scary times then!

[PVDA]

Old Safety/Course Cars never die,
They just get reassigned to something else.

As an example the two XR6 Turbo's they used at Bathurst a couple of years ago are now race cars in the Procar series (well at least one is) and had competed at Targa Tassie last year.

When the Bridgestone Precision Driving Team (aka Storm Riders) decided to move to Hyundai several years ago (before moving back to GM-H) had several VT V8 Executive Commodores which ended up being given to several V8 teams and turned into V8 mock ups (one end up with Racesafe and became it's V1 unit until it was replaced over Xmas).

The Procar series has access to two Monaro's. The first one was an auto and the second was a manual and both yellow in color. Well just before the 24hr the electronics (strobe and roof lighting) and some of the mechanicals (the big brakes and other goodies) were removed and put in two brand new Monaro's, one red and the other yellow.

The original Manual version was seen competing at the recent Mt Buller sprint.

As for the Audi's, although I haven't asked McCall it may well be a case of they are being traded up for newer one's.

I also have a policy of never buying an executive driven special (how many bimmers are they using in the celeb race at the AGP). Low km's, only driven on weekends to church (well motorsport is a religion to some people