TC's 14 Point Plan

[GTRMagic]

The article is Here

The other, longer article is Here

The short one has been reproduced in its entirety here, as things as controversial as this may disappear if some things are not achieved

Originally Posted by The Article

Action plan announced

Saturday 20/06/2009 12:15

Author: Gordon Lomas | Source: BigPond Sport - copyright

V8 Supercars csar Tony Cochrane released a 14-point plan of action this morning that includes control suspensions and increased engine life which will be rushed into the Championship.

In what is being seen as the most significant developments since Cochrane hatched the series 12 years ago, the action list has been signed off by all of the teams in a comprehensive bid to spark drastic cost reductions.

Among the 14-point list which will be acted upon as soon as possible are the removal of “go fast” non-engine data and telemetry and a control valve train which is expected to increase engine life to 8000km.

It is claimed that some of the engines, in their current form, are squeezing out a maximum life expectancy of merely 2000km.

There were three points pertaining to cost reduction raised by Cochrane at the team meeting which did not get off the ground because they did not attract enough of a show of hands from team owners.

“The 14 points were approved unanimously by the teams and to be honest I can’t even remember what the three items were that didn’t get enough support,” he said.

The 14 points are:

*Remove ‘go fast’ (non engine) data and telemetry.
*Control valve train - increase target life of engine to 8000km.
*Control wheel.
*Control dampers.
*Cap the number of brake discs and pads per season or event.
*Control engine airbox.
*Control radiator duct and cooling system. A common radiator core would be ideal but if this isn’t feasible teams should have to homologate a cooling package for the season.
*Control rear axle housing.
*Control suspension - each team’s complete front hub assembly should be homologated for a two year period. Suspension (wishbones, track rods, push rods etc) should be homologated each year for a complete season.
*Increase the number of composite parts (i.e. current front and rear quarters/fibreglass bonnets).
*Final drive ratio - reduce the number of options to 3.15 and 3.5 only.
*Define centre of gravity of cars (possibly for next generation car).
*Investigate group purchasing and manufacturing (consumables and parts).
*Control fuel system.

And the door may still be left open for Campbell Little to reconsider his resignation as the Category Technical Director.

Little will continue to work at V8 Supercars on this 14-point project for Cochrane over the next 10 weeks during which time the Executive Chairman will look at restructuring the technical department.

“I have absolutely no baggage with Campbell Little,” Cochrane said.

Have we just seen a dumbing down of the category?

[Amaroo Park]

Interesting, maybe they should just buy all Commodores from one builder and Falcons from another all built to the same spec, I mean that seems to be where this is heading.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by Amaroo Park

Interesting, maybe they should just buy all Commodores from one builder and Falcons from another all built to the same spec, I mean that seems to be where this is heading.

They could have all saved themselves the hassle and bought up all the orphaned Carrera Cup cars this year and run with that

What is the difference??

[Amaroo Park]

Originally Posted by racer69

They could have all saved themselves the hassle and bought up all the orphaned Carrera Cup cars this year and run with that

What is the difference??

Your right there is none.

so if you want to show your engineering and car building prowess in coming up with radical and intelligent design and car setting up abilities which class do you go to?

[Pro Racer]

it's not going to be touring cars, i mean how can it be when all the cars are the same. i think 2012> will spell the end of Supercars. doing this isn't going to make Toyota, Nissan or any other manufactuer join. i think it will be a snooze fest.

[sizzle]

Let us see, 2000klm per engine, at 1x100 + 1x200klm race per weekend that adds up to approx 3+ rounds per engine currently, they want to go to the equivalent 4xbathursts per engine.

that is about as believable as 275's romantic dalliance with a croc.......not.

[GTRMagic]

Its not like the engine is complete junk after 2,000km either... a rebuild at ~$35k brings it back to square... at its 4,000km service its likely more again depending how much of the original hardware needs replacing.

Ask the teams if they want to show up at Bathurst with an 8,000km ready engine, that has 6,500km on the clock already....

Madness..

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Amaroo Park

so if you want to show your engineering and car building prowess in coming up with radical and intelligent design and car setting up abilities which class do you go to?

Go take on the Alfa and Audi and Saabs in Sports Sedans....

[profi]

Great the catagory is going to step backwards and run away, why not have production cars for the top game. Its the national series, the cars should be the fastest in the country, Supercars should be allowed more freedoms so they are the faster then sports sedans. They are boring enough as it is lately, now go and put a bunch of control components in. As for brake discs is he serious???? thats a safety issue not a performance issue. I wouldnt want to run around with rotors that are showing signs of aging.
As for the engine why not allow larger capacity then rev limited to 7k 6 litre would get some good miles compared to these little 5L engines. I think its time to move the series on and head more towards a DTM style car but with a very similar silhouette to a current supercar.

[Amaroo Park]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Go take on the Alfa and Audi and Saabs in Sports Sedans....

Exactly what I was thinking

[GTRMagic]

More interesting stuff suggesting it is Mr Skaife talking to car manufacturers on behalf of VESA....

But also.. that VESA will overtake NRL, to be this country's second most popular sport

Aspirational goals are important... but not to the point of delusion!

[Amaroo Park]

Gee certainly a change of attitude from they "we don't need another manufacturer" rhetoric of years gone by.

One thing caught my eye with this

"Moves to split the racing calendar into two phases in 2010, with a mid-year break from July to September to avoid clashes with AFL and NRL finals matches"

Just what the sport needs a period of three months where there is no V8's on tv. I would have though if Cochrane and co want to compete with League then they should tackle them head on on do more races during the middle of the year not have a silly break.

[Crash Test]

Originally Posted by profi

Supercars should be allowed more freedoms so they are the faster then sports sedans.

Gotta laugh at this one... so if you started with the Sports Sedan rule book, how would you free it up as the new Supercar rule book?

If someone went and did Sports Sedans with a Supercar budget, I'm sure you'd get a Sports Sedan quicker than the current bunch...

One thing a lot of people around here seem to forget about the whole Supercar rule book is that it is a parity formula. If you go doing stupid things with the rules allowing in massive amounts of expense in areas of development, the competition will die because it will be lop sided and the teams will be broke.

I'm sure what they are trying to do is keep/improve the show with the current look and feel of the cars, while at the same time taking the expense away from trivial things. If Joe Punter in the stands can pick the difference in the cars as they go past because of control axle housings, cooling system, airbox etc, they are deadset legends.

[V8 Fireworks]

I don't think the average fans could care less about the latest 888 fuel system, so making that control is no issue.

Control wheel could cut costs, back to the good old traditional 5-spoke look.

8000 km engine is interesting. Perhaps it will be a 6 litre.

Homologated suspension is interesting. Do any teams currently run different suspension geometry at Winton when compared to Phillip Island!?

Control radiator and airbox. Who cares? If it saves hundred thousand dollar wind tunnel trips to optimise the airbox then that's a good thing.

Defined centre of gravity? Will that just make teams bolt ballast somewhere high up on the rollcage?


Fibreglass bonnet will make a mess in a nose to tail collision, I suppose it is cheaper. They could add some vents to get that whole ricer look...

[anthony81901]

So V8s are going to be NSW's number 1 sport in 3 years. And how many people turned up to last year's Eastern Creek round, 2 men and a dog as I recall. The only area that V8SC seems to be challenging the NRL in is in off the park politics.

With Commodore and Falcon now accounting for only 12% of sales and a lot of that is fleet and government, V8s are becoming less and less relevant to the market place.

The other top 10 brands predominately sell 4 cylinder DOHC cars, so why would they be interested in pushrod V8s. How many times have Toyota said 'not interested'.

But if Australia was to move to a 4 cylinder based formula, may be a different story. For everything that was wrong with Group A and 2 litre racing at least it did have variety. As new cars were developed the boundaries of engineering and reliability were pushed, not something that is likely in the proposed format.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

[url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25664780-5012691,00.html]

But also.. that VESA will overtake NRL, to be this country's second most popular sport

Aspirational goals are important... but not to the point of delusion!

Such an article is laughable, untill you see the source, the sort of rubbish expected from Phelps and The Telegraph.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Such an article is laughable, untill you see the source, the sort of rubbish expected from Phelps and The Telegraph.

The thing is, the Daily Telegraph readers, unused to the magic that is VESA, will believe it to be true...

Is News Ltd buying into VESA any time soon?

[GTRMagic]

Hmmm, where have I read this?

[Amaroo Park]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The thing is, the Daily Telegraph readers, unused to the magic that is VESA, will believe it to be true...

Is News Ltd buying into VESA any time soon?

Super Leauge, Supercar hmm other than the name Rupert does like the odd monopoly

[Crash Test]

Originally Posted by anthony81901

The other top 10 brands predominately sell 4 cylinder DOHC cars, so why would they be interested in pushrod V8s. How many times have Toyota said 'not interested'.

But if Australia was to move to a 4 cylinder based formula, may be a different story. For everything that was wrong with Group A and 2 litre racing at least it did have variety. As new cars were developed the boundaries of engineering and reliability were pushed, not something that is likely in the proposed format.

And?

F1 is the most popular form of motorsport in the world, and F1 cars are massively irrelevant to absolutely everything on the road. The number one type of motorsport in North Americia is Nascar, and those rigs don't look anything like the road cars they are supposed to represent, and North Americans are driving a lot of small cars these days...

Racing with 4 cylinders has tried and failed. Even though people might be driving 4 cylinders, punters still aspire to have a V8. If people are happy with their Hyundai Excel, then good for them

With respect to overtaking the NRL in terms of popularity, would they be going off total attendances? I'm not saying that is right or wrong, but as far as national popularity, nationwide sports should always come out on top, AFL, cricket etc. And they are right, does anyone care about Rugby any more? Consistent free to air coverage seems to be quite important.

One bit I do find interesting is the mid season break. Wasn't there a school of thought that the scheduling needs to be consistent, with equal breaks between events? Is there a possibility that people will fall off the bandwagon if there is a mid year holiday?

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The thing is, the Daily Telegraph readers, unused to the magic that is VESA, will believe it to be true...

And VESA know it aswell.

For the most part no one challenges them on this kind of BS reporting, except for Mr McKay who was then barred from their events.

[Amaroo Park]

wonder what happened to good old Ray Kershler. The Telegraphs expert on Bowls, Sailing, Motor Racing etc

[racer69]

Originally Posted by profi

Great the catagory is going to step backwards and run away, why not have production cars for the top game. Its the national series, the cars should be the fastest in the country, Supercars should be allowed more freedoms so they are the faster then sports sedans.

Why not have production cars for the top game indeed?


Why should the cars be the fastest in the country? It is the quality of the racing that matters, who cars what times they lap the circuit in? Why does it matter? Would you rather watch a warp speed procession, or a slower pace with actual actual dicing and proper racing? The Utes or the Biante Series aren't the quickest cars around, but there is no doubting the good racing they put on.

Touring cars have been the 'top game' national series in Australia beyond doubt since the late 60s/early 70s, and they have never been the fastest cars on a race track in the country.

[retro]

click here

Holden's motorsport manager Simon McNamara says cost-reduction proposals in V8 Supercars need to be well thought out before being implemented.

[anthony81901]

See McNamara is questioning Nissan's ability to commit after the termination of the pace car deal. Bit rich after Holden significantly reduced its commitment to the series this year.

Nissan has a policy of not permitting alcohol sponsorship of its motor sport activities. So it was the deal V8SC did with CUB that brought the contract to an early termination. And Nissan did make a significant commitment to motorsport in Australia in the Group C and Group A days until they were forced out by the V8 formula.