Age of Supercars chassis

[Terry S]

I was very surprised to see just how old some of the cars contesting this year's Bathurst 1000 are. Some are positively "ancient".

Gen 3 should allow them to be pensioned off:

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/chassis-...bathurst-1000/

[GTRMagic]

Except they will probably be moved onto Super2

[chavez]

Originally Posted by Terry S

I was very surprised to see just how old some of the cars contesting this year's Bathurst 1000 are. Some are positively "ancient".

Gen 3 should allow them to be pensioned off:

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/chassis-...bathurst-1000/

You'd think it was a Super Touring 1000 based on the age of some of those.

However, the sport has moved on from the largely amateur days when teams would debut new cars at the start of the season or for the endurance races to today's highly professional times where teams have cars older than some of their drivers.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by chavez

You'd think it was a Super Touring 1000 based on the age of some of those.

While I commend V8 Slueth for making the list, I am not sure of the significance when the "V8 Supercar" spaceframe is a fixed design that is not allowed to be changed. It's not like newer chassis are actually allowed to have any improvements on them (unlike newer Super Tourers or newer Project Blueprint touring cars).

Assuming they are repaired correctly after crashes, then a pile of tubes of the fixed design should be just as good as any other pile of tubes of the fixed design. They are stripped down often enough and have all the components crack tested (and updated to latest front subframes for those on the 888 customer upgrade treadmill, budget permitting), when the car is so often being rebuilt there is plenty of opportunity to tweak the placement of oil coolers and other components regardless of the age of the chassis itself.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

While I commend V8 Slueth for making the list, I am not sure of the significance when the "V8 Supercar" spaceframe is a fixed design that is not allowed to be changed. It's not like newer chassis are actually allowed to have any improvements on them (unlike newer Super Tourers or newer Project Blueprint touring cars).

Assuming they are repaired correctly after crashes, then a pile of tubes of the fixed design should be just as good as any other pile of tubes of the fixed design. They are stripped down often enough and have all the components crack tested (and updated to latest front subframes for those on the 888 customer upgrade treadmill, budget permitting), when the car is so often being rebuilt there is plenty of opportunity to tweak the placement of oil coolers and other components regardless of the age of the chassis itself.

All depends on the degrees of deflection of the 'chassis' when placed under load...

Mr Morse seemed to suggest earlier in the year that his ex-LDM/888 Super2 mobile suffered from excessive chassis flex, as changes made to that car were not having the expected impact on feel or performance

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Mr Morse seemed to suggest earlier in the year that his ex-LDM/888 Super2 mobile suffered from excessive chassis flex, as changes made to that car were not having the expected impact on feel or performance

It is interesting that seemingly ancient COTF cars seem to easily be up the front, especially Mustangs it seems.

There's no doubt that even though they were more expensive to build, the teams have had exceptional racing lives out of them, which has to be commended.

The lessons learned will bode well for Gen3, too.

[dsg]

Originally Posted by Terry S

I was very surprised to see just how old some of the cars contesting this year's Bathurst 1000 are. Some are positively "ancient".

They are a bit like grandpa's axe. More than 60 years old despite having 6 new axe heads and a dozen new handles.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by dsg

They are a bit like grandpa's axe. More than 60 years old despite having 6 new axe heads and a dozen new handles.

The chassis though never changes so the grandpa's axe thing doesn't really apply.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Mixer

The chassis though never changes so the grandpa's axe thing doesn't really apply.

Of course it does - whole sections of the chassis can be replaced / renewed and it's still the same chassis officially.

Actually, I'm not surprised that some of them are getting a bit older and greyer - with Gen 3 coming in (remember it was meant to be in already) then teams would be crazy to invest in new jiggers - the delay in Gen 3 has probably had more impact on the average age of the current main game cars than anything else over the last few years.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Of course it does - whole sections of the chassis can be replaced / renewed and it's still the same chassis officially.

Actually, I'm not surprised that some of them are getting a bit older and greyer - with Gen 3 coming in (remember it was meant to be in already) then teams would be crazy to invest in new jiggers - the delay in Gen 3 has probably had more impact on the average age of the current main game cars than anything else over the last few years.

888 mentioned something recently around possibly wanting to purchase chassis from other manufacturers and convert to 888 spec for running in Super2 next season.

My logical question might have been could 888 not have knocked up a pair of new ZB Commodores, debut them at the final round of the year, and use them in Super2 next season.

With a seemingly endless crowd of buyers wanting to own 888 equipment before it had finished its racing life, some sort of borrow/lease deal would make logical sense.

Equally, Mr White suggested that 888 was offering an upgrade kit for the Nissan Altimas in his stable to ZB Commodore, for something like $100k/kit. Presume that doesnt include the mandatory KRE Chevrolet powerplant

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

My logical question might have been could 888 not have knocked up a pair of new ZB Commodores, debut them at the final round of the year, and use them in Super2 next season.

Potentially too busy with Gen3.

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Equally, Mr White suggested that 888 was offering an upgrade kit for the Nissan Altimas in his stable to ZB Commodore, for something like $100k/kit. Presume that doesnt include the mandatory KRE Chevrolet powerplant

Given the hunger for cars of that era with race history, I'm surprised someone hasn't profited from a genuine ZB and done this.

The thing Mr White missed out on that others did well out of was buying cars that had good history, racing them and then restoring to prior livery. Just nobody wants Altimas really.