Bathurst still full speed ahead
What’s so special about the Great Race? And what happens now that Aussie cars are no more, asks Richard Bosselman.
Question: What’s the big deal about Bathurst? And what’s it going to be like with no Aussie cars? Ask the first one at Mt Panorama and you’ll cause mass choking on sangers and suds.
The importance of the Great Race, held since 1963 on a roadbased racetrack that tackles a mountain (yeah, right!) initially over 500 miles, then, when Australia metricised in 1973, 1000 kilometres, is so entrenched into global motorsport lore that it’s hard to accept that anyone here could claim not to know about it.
Basically, anyone who still has to ask now is a few tinnies short of a slab.
Anyway, this stuff about Bathurst heading towards having no Aussie cars. It’s the sort of talk that could turn a lot of dinky-di race fans into a bunch of unhappy Vegemites, so let’s set the score straight. It ain’t gonna happen.
Another thing, it’s wrong to think of the great race as being just for Aussie cars. For sure, they’ve been the dominant winning species and it’s mainly been a slugfest between homegrown heroes Ford and Holden, their battlewagons being hairy-chested homegrown V8 muscle cars.
Yet don’t go thinking our neighbour is running a two-horse race. Quite apart from other brands – Nissan and Volvo officially, Mercedes AMG less so – having been involved during the Supercars era, the event’s history actually began on an international note – Ford Cortina in 1963, 64 and 65, a Mini in 66 – and sporadic overseas’ representations since.
In 1985 the brutish (man and machine) Tom Walkinshaw XJ-S claimed Bathurst for Britain (and scored the sole V12 win).
Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500s got the gong in 88 and 89.
The early 90s belonged to the Nissan Skyline, of course, and in 97 and 98 – when they ran two races the same year (don’t ask) – BMW and Volvo did the job.
Ford Australia can lay claim to being the first local victor, with Harry Firth and Fred Gibson (yes, of Nissan fame) taking honours in a Falcon XR GT – for the first V8 win – in 1967, and Holden the following year (so, 2018 is the 50th anniversary), with the HK Monaro.
Yet it’s truly only been Aussie, Aussie, Aussie all the way without break (in terms of car type, not drivers) since just before Y2K didn’t happen. Mainly in Dunnydores.
The last Falcon win was the brilliant 2014 Chaz Mostert-Paul Morris blinder. Can it give Holden the bird one last time? Some say the last big Blue model is all feathers and no meat, but you can never say never.
As the battle raged through the years, so the weapons have changed. Showroom-stock gave way to purpose-built racers constructed from basic production-line bodies, before V8 Supercars rules forced the conversion to purpose-built racers with showroom body panels. Back to that in a moment.
Some of the misconception about the race being doomed stems from 2017. This time last year was supposedly the end of an era.
The Commodore was ceasing production a fortnight after the event (Falcon had, of course, already gone the year before) and was being replaced by a lash-up of the ZB edition which, in road form, represents in front-wheel drive with a four-cylinder turbo or all-wheel drive V6.
The proposal for racing was to start with a rear-wheel-drive Supercar edition with a Chevrolet V8, but just as a stop-gap. The big idea was to race a V6 Commodore, from 2019. The test car ran Bathurst laps last year, Greg Murphy doing the honours. But in April that mule became a dead donkey. Now the short-term idea is the long-term certainty.
Ford? A year ago, we knew that 2018 would be Falcon’s final fling (still true) and beyond that it was not going to run a Mustang. Never. Going. To. Happen.
Anyway, so next year the Mustang hits the grid with full factory backing.
Does this mean an end of Aussie input? No way. Despite the obvious American breeding, this Pony will be as Aussie as any Supercars has ever been, thanks to Car of The Future.
That’s a formula that has defined this category since 2013. It’s a home-grown conformity schedule – realised by a Kiwi – that dictates that, underneath it all, every competing car is the same. Identical control-designed chassis and rollcage. Identical brakes, wheels, tyres, suspension design, clutch, six-speed transmission and engine management.
Though engines use a block native to the maker, they are otherwise common component naturally-aspirated, fuel-injected 5.0-litres. Every car outputs approximately 480kW, every engine revs to 7500rpm, all burn Shell 85 (mainly ethanol with a dash of petrol). All hit 0-100kmh in around 3.4 seconds, all top out around 300kmh. So how come certain Commodores are so dominant? It’s down to the aerodynamics.
The formula also initially mandated requirement for a ‘‘four door, commonly available sedan’’. That’s gone out the window; now all passenger body shapes other than convertibles comply.
Requirement to run a V8 is also not mandated. Smaller turbocharged six or four-cylinder engines are now eligible. That’s why Holden had a go with a V6.
How successful Gen2 will be remains to be seen. It is expected the majority of teams will remain in their current configurations in the foreseeable future, including with a V8 (due to the large investment placed in the package).
Yet with the regs being so openminded, and with Supercars estimating as many as 60 different models of road going cars currently available in Australia potentially to fit the Car of the Future platform, there’s every reason to imagine that race fans will have a good excuse for not mowing the lawn on the first weekend of October for some years yet.