Big grids

[Simon Pullan]

I was watching the 2001 season review today and noticed that you have huge grids in the V8 Supercar series. I take it most of them are privateers but what I wan to know is where their cars come from.

Are they all ex-works cars from a few years back or do people build their own cars? Do you just buy a chassis and body off the shelf from Holden/Ford and then go and build the rest yourself?

[DNQ]

Well, they're not privateers really, in the true sense of the word, anyway. There is just a big boom in the V8's at the moment, and we've got huge grids.

All the cars are AU/VT Falcons and Commodores, so none of them are more than a few years old.

[Crash Test]

Originally there were only a couple 'pro' teams, who originally handed their cars down to the private entries. These days, just about everyone in the upper level build their own cars, and have some form of factory support. Most of the used cars get sold down to teams in the Konica Series, which is essentially the development class for privateers. Saying that, now some new cars are starting to appear in that class too...

Unless I've been misguided, the team purchase either a shell with cage fitted, or make their own out of kit of all of the different panels unassembled.

[Simon Pullan]

Really! Wow. You must really be having a boom to have that many works supported cars. Is it pretty much a closed shop or do you see lots of driver fluctuations between seasons?

I take it the Konica series is the equivalent of the Busch series to the Winston Cup. Still high profile but many more paying drivers.

[marcus]

yes Simon , I guess you could say the Konica series is like the Busch series in Nascar land , in fact i think thats a great description of it

as for driver fluctuations , you pretty much see the same people there at the front anyway , but yes new guys do come and go , maybe do a year or two and then dissapear and of course there is the endurance races at the end of the year , where each car needs two drivers and some even go for threee , and the field for that is around 40 cars I think (actually im not sure because they keep changing the damm rules on grid sizes !!!!!) but if it is 40 then you get to see at least 80 drivers out there , which gives plenty of people a chance in these cars really.

and yes as for building them , you can by a shell , there are some specialist shell builders who offer customer cars to just about anyone and you can build it up yourself from there , or you can purchase a year old car off one of the top teams.
factory support ????

well alot claim to have it but i dont know how they get supported to be honest ?
for some it just maybe a little cash advance , or we will pay for your fuel or something like that or maybe even a bit of technical data , but really its up to the team to get things going in their respective teams , becuase I would wait around for Holden or Ford to help me out for to long at all

[racer69]

I think there are levels of factory support, ranging from monetary & technical support for the major teams, to just technical support for others and then down to just discounts on parts etc...

In Holden for example, they only really support TWRA, Perkins and Garry Rogers, the rest don't get alot of help, wheras Ford seems to spread there money over a larger number of teams, except for 00 Motorsport.

[Simon Pullan]

Thanks for everything so far, just one more question.

Are the rules such that all the cars from each manufacturer are almost identical? Lets take Holden for an example. Do HRT have trick engines and/or suspension and areo part parts or is it simply because they have the best engineers/strategists and generally the best preparation of the Holdens?

The areo kits have to be the same, ie Holden's rear wing is identical on each Holden and similarly the the Ford one is common on the Falcons.

The frontal arrangement is addressed similarly. Actually the bottom half or splitter is common to both Ford and Holden. This came about after the Falcon kept breaking their everytime they had an offroad excursion, and the Holden one was thought to be better aerodynamically. So it was grafted onto the Falcon.

The fitment however is entirely up to the car builders. You would find that the HRT one for example may not neccesarily bolt onto a Castrol Holden.

Engines are built in-house in most cases and to a set of rules which I think are liberal on the internals. Obviously the skill of the engine builder determines just who has the most horsepower and torque. There are other factors as well including the engine manangement system etc.

Suspension is probably where the two cars differ the most with the Falcons double wishbone front end as opposed to the Holden's MacPherson Struts. The "experts" reckon the Falcon carries a little more mid-corner speed but that could be negated by the amount of rear wing set and/or how soft the springs are in the rear.

Having said all that I believe that the rules will change next year to give identical areo kits to both manufacturers, mandatory single diff (ratios are already standardised for various tracks) and one type of engine computer.

Effectively engine and body will be the only common denominator as in NASCAR but while they are tubular or spaceframe cars, V8 Supercars are chassis cars.

[kmchow]

I'm sure the teams/manufacturers have studied this more closely...but the use identical aero kits/parts have been mentioned. Won't the kit benefit one manufacturer more than the other? Nascar hasn't been able to escape this, so I'm wondering how can V8 overcome this problem?

[Danielsun]

'Parity' is a most-abused word, Mr Chow. We've got it just about right as it is, so we don't need any more talk about it just for the moment. Well, if you take TWR out of it, there's parity...

[Crash Test]

Spot on... But I wonder how much the common undertray actually made a difference?

Anyways Dan, welcome back- where abouts in 'Vegas are ya now?

[StuiE]

Originally posted by Simon Pullan


Do HRT have trick engines and/or suspension and areo part parts

put simply, yes! combined with tonnes of cash and lots of whingers