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oldsaw
oldsaw SuperDork
12/5/10 2:07 p.m.

FYI - if anyone is interested, it seems SpeedTV is broadcasting another of this season's V8 series at 5pm(est).

Enjoy!

aussiesmg
aussiesmg SuperDork
12/5/10 2:55 p.m.

gotta love DVR....

novaderrik
novaderrik HalfDork
12/5/10 4:42 p.m.

but i thought they only played NASCAR on SPEED.. i'm confused, i thought i was dreaming when i was watching the Aussie V8 cars on that very channel a couple of months ago. turns out, they might have actually been showing something that wasn't NASCAR..

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
12/5/10 5:15 p.m.
novaderrik wrote: but i thought they only played NASCAR on SPEED.. i'm confused, i thought i was dreaming when i was watching the Aussie V8 cars on that very channel a couple of months ago. turns out, they might have actually been showing something that wasn't NASCAR..

Well, you can't tell the cars apart, they all have v8's, and they are all splattered with ads. So it's hard to tell.

OTOH, they are turning right.

Honestly, it's not all that different than NASCAR- they are all identical outside of the grills. And they almost have to bump to pass. So.

I try to watch, but never can watch too long.

Eric

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
12/5/10 5:18 p.m.
alfadriver wrote: OTOH, they are turning right.

That's because they're in the Southern Hemisphere

Tac
Tac New Reader
12/5/10 7:00 p.m.

Love the V8 series, those cars take a lot of skill to handle, it's too bad they don't cover it live though. Other than that I think Speed is pretty good, they cover all of the major events out there. For the smaller series' Versus and Altitude are good networks.

Slyp_Dawg
Slyp_Dawg GRM+ Memberand Reader
12/5/10 7:34 p.m.

quite a bit of carnage in that race between all the damn fine racing.

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
12/6/10 7:21 a.m.

I really do find it very amusing that there so much hate for NASCAR but love for Aussie V8's here, when the road racing is pretty identical. All the cars are the same in each series, the engines, the bodies- etc. Thankfully, some of the Holden and Ford teams in Aussie have big window stickers...

Both series take oodles of talent to drive well.

The major difference is the majority of tracks.

Pretty good show, but not one that kept my attention longer than a typical NASCAR race.

kpm
kpm Reader
12/6/10 10:00 a.m.

My dream is to have Marcos Ambrose do a lap at Watkins Glen in a a V-8 Supercar, then do a lap in a Cup car.See who comes out on top.

I love the sound of the V-8's from down under!

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
12/6/10 10:05 a.m.
kpm wrote: My dream is to have Marcos Ambrose do a lap at Watkins Glen in a a V-8 Supercar, then do a lap in a Cup car.See who comes out on top. I love the sound of the V-8's from down under!

Why does that matter?

Both cars race with identical cars.

The only reason they sound different is that someone decicded that they should- both could run exactly the same, since the engine's are fairly similar. Either can run with flat cranks or equal cross over headers. But both are marketed to their fan base.

oldsaw
oldsaw SuperDork
12/6/10 10:21 a.m.

I read kpm's post as a wish for a comparison between performance levels of two spec-series. That's an interesting request and one that I (for example) would like to see happen.

It only matters to those that share similar curiousities. It's also OK if others don't give a damn.............

itsarebuild
itsarebuild GRM+ Memberand Reader
12/6/10 10:29 a.m.

dont the aussie v8 supercars have working doors? i'd consider that to be a pretty big difference between them and nascar.

one is based on a car that you can buy (in australia anyway) with safety cages and goodies added, the other is a completely tube and skin chassis that no one can buy without a hundred grand that will never have a VIN number..... i know which one i'd rather have..

oldsaw
oldsaw SuperDork
12/6/10 10:38 a.m.
itsarebuild wrote: dont the aussie v8 supercars have working doors? i'd consider that to be a pretty big difference between them and nascar. one is based on a car that you can buy (in australia anyway) with safety cages and goodies added, the other is a completely tube and skin chassis that no one can buy without a hundred grand that will never have a VIN number..... i know which one i'd rather have..

An informed reader from Down-Under has noted that the V8's use a proprietary tube-frame chassis and the Holden/Ford body-skins are modified to fit. In that way (and many others), the V8's are conceptually very much like what is done in NASCAR.

The end result, however, is that the V8 series is much more appealing to those who prefer road racing with cars that at least look a lot like their production counterparts.

Jay_W
Jay_W HalfDork
12/6/10 11:00 a.m.

I watched summa that and it's orders of magnatude more fun than nascar. How often does Waltrip and his pals go round a corner on two wheels? Them Aussies are pushing pretty hard. I do wish there would have been more places to pass, they had to get reeeeally aggro to get by each other, but other than that, it was road racing in big loud nasty V8 monsters. What's not to like?

monark192
monark192 Reader
12/6/10 11:12 a.m.
oldsaw wrote:
itsarebuild wrote: dont the aussie v8 supercars have working doors? i'd consider that to be a pretty big difference between them and nascar. one is based on a car that you can buy (in australia anyway) with safety cages and goodies added, the other is a completely tube and skin chassis that no one can buy without a hundred grand that will never have a VIN number..... i know which one i'd rather have..
An informed reader from Down-Under has noted that the V8's use a proprietary tube-frame chassis and the Holden/Ford body-skins are modified to fit. In that way (and many others), the V8's are conceptually very much like what is done in NASCAR.

Sort of looks like a combo of both:

Wikipedia link

Unlike other forms of motorsport (such as NASCAR) where competitors build cars from space frame construction, V8 Supercars are still based on production road cars. Each V8 Supercar is based on a current-specification VE Commodore or FG Falcon production bodyshell, with an elaborate roll cage. In 2007 specifications both the Commodore and Falcon have adopted E-glass front mudguards in place of the production steel items, in order to save costs.

The VE Commodore was initially rejected[by whom?] from taking part in the series due to its wheelbase being longer and wider than the BF Falcon. For the model to be homologated, V8 Supercar granted the Commodore a custom fabricated bodyshell into which a limited number of production bodyshell panels are incorporated. As a result, the roofline is lower than production and the rear door is shorter such that externally the rear doors, roof and rear quarters all consist of specialised custom coachwork panels.

Similarly, the longer wheelbase of the FG Falcon (over the BF) requires a comparable custom-fabricated shorter body, and the FG is also shorted in the rear door and lowered in the roof line compared to the road going model.

Ranger50
Ranger50 Reader
12/6/10 11:23 a.m.

Plus in addition they have to run an actual production V8 with EFI. Not none of this FR9/R07 E36 M3 in Nascrap that still has a carb on it. Also, a Ford looks like a Ford, a Holden looks like a Holden, not this spec body crap with different stickers to make it a different model.

There is a video on youtube with a Aussie V8 Supercar engine getting dyno tested. It made 650hp with the rules mandated camshaft. Also in a different video, I believe the Holden had to be sectioned 7 inches to fit the current spec chassis.

I really believe the huge like of Supercars is the lack of end of race drama as compared to Nascrap. I mean comeon at the end of the race, you have a guy making up a 2 sec difference to win with 10 laps to go all of a sudden, seems like it in EVERY Nascrap race? I am not going to flatly deny there aren't politics involved in either series, but Supercars sure seems to have drivers driving rather then the sanctioning body dictating the outcome of a race.

Brian

Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
12/6/10 11:23 a.m.
monark192 wrote: Sort of looks like a combo of both: Wikipedia link Unlike other forms of motorsport (such as NASCAR) where competitors build cars from space frame construction, V8 Supercars are still based on production road cars. Each V8 Supercar is based on a current-specification VE Commodore or FG Falcon production bodyshell, with an elaborate roll cage. In 2007 specifications both the Commodore and Falcon have adopted E-glass front mudguards in place of the production steel items, in order to save costs. The VE Commodore was initially rejected[by whom?] from taking part in the series due to its wheelbase being longer and wider than the BF Falcon. For the model to be homologated, V8 Supercar granted the Commodore a custom fabricated bodyshell into which a limited number of production bodyshell panels are incorporated. As a result, the roofline is lower than production and the rear door is shorter such that externally the rear doors, roof and rear quarters all consist of specialised custom coachwork panels. Similarly, the longer wheelbase of the FG Falcon (over the BF) requires a comparable custom-fabricated shorter body, and the FG is also shorted in the rear door and lowered in the roof line compared to the road going model.

So they are using the hood, front doors and trunk lid from the production car.

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
12/6/10 11:47 a.m.
Ranger50 wrote: Plus in addition they have to run an actual production V8 with EFI. Not none of this FR9/R07 E36 M3 in Nascrap that still has a carb on it. Also, a Ford looks like a Ford, a Holden looks like a Holden, not this spec body crap with different stickers to make it a different model.

They look like real cars? Must be the most boring cars on the planet- they all look identical, except for the grill. Thankfully, most have a name on the windshiled to tell them apart.

As for the engine, why does the fuel delivery matter? If everyone has the same thing, there's no difference. EFI is EFI just as carbs are carbs. The preception of "tech" is just that- NO race series in the world compares with them most basic EFI that you see on your personal car. Speed is not tech.

There is a video on youtube with a Aussie V8 Supercar engine getting dyno tested. It made 650hp with the rules mandated camshaft. Also in a different video, I believe the Holden had to be sectioned 7 inches to fit the current spec chassis. I really believe the huge like of Supercars is the lack of end of race drama as compared to Nascrap. I mean comeon at the end of the race, you have a guy making up a 2 sec difference to win with 10 laps to go all of a sudden, seems like it in EVERY Nascrap race? I am not going to flatly deny there aren't politics involved in either series, but Supercars sure seems to have drivers driving rather then the sanctioning body dictating the outcome of a race. Brian

So what you are saying is that it's not about the cars themselves, but how it's run. That, I can buy.

Other than that, both series equalize the car to pretend that there is even racing.

scardeal
scardeal Reader
12/6/10 12:08 p.m.

I do like the V8 supercars over NASCAR simply because they run on road courses and not ovals.

The ideal, of course, would be airing of LeMons races, NASA races, etc.

I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to air AIX, for instance. Pony cars with 1000HP would seem to have quite a bit of appeal, don't you think?

HiTempguy
HiTempguy HalfDork
12/6/10 12:52 p.m.
alfadriver wrote: All the cars are the same in each series, the engines, the bodies- etc. Thankfully, some of the Holden and Ford teams in Aussie have big window stickers...

Er... no, they aren't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V8_Supercars

They definitely have control parts though, but they use "relatively" production based chassis', different bodies, and different engines. Sure, they are spec'd to be similar, but even the small differences is what makes them so cool.

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
12/6/10 1:05 p.m.
HiTempguy wrote:
alfadriver wrote: All the cars are the same in each series, the engines, the bodies- etc. Thankfully, some of the Holden and Ford teams in Aussie have big window stickers...
Er... no, they aren't. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V8_Supercars They definitely have control parts though, but they use "relatively" production based chassis', different bodies, and different engines. Sure, they are spec'd to be similar, but even the small differences is what makes them so cool.

Yes, Wiki is the authority on everything.

Wait, not in this case- http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/bathurst-1000-on-speedtv-tday/27594/page1/#post446215

the differences are very, very minor. Basically V8 Supercars vs each other is JUST LIKE NASCAR. And when I watch the V8 Supercars, they look idendical to each other, except for the grill- if that's exacly how a Falcon and Holden look, well, it's darned obvious why it sold so poorly here in the US- it's boring as heck.

I don't like NASCAR, BTW. But V8 Supercars is a spec series. Just like NASCAR.

HiTempguy
HiTempguy HalfDork
12/6/10 1:46 p.m.
alfadriver wrote: I don't like NASCAR, BTW. But V8 Supercars is a spec series. Just like NASCAR.

And I like spec series with monster HP cars, as long as something is happening besides going around in a circle. I don't know what V8 Supercars races you've been watching, but the last one I did was intense with a good battle at the front.

BTW, the article was pretty informative. They covered all of what you "claimed", but provided a lot more fact than you did. Don't get butt hurt that I pointed out you were wrong. I don't care what wiki said about something else, I care about what wiki says about this (and in this case, I think I'll trust wiki more than the know-it-all Ford employee).

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
12/6/10 2:05 p.m.

If you get your rocks off watching large spec sedans with large v8s going around a strip of asphalt, so be it. Some call in NASCAR, some call in V8 Supercars.

I've seen enough technical info be dead wrong on Wiki to consider it to be the end all, be all, information hub. but if you want to, I'm not going to stop you.

(was that condesending enough?)

Strike_Zero
Strike_Zero Reader
12/6/10 2:52 p.m.
  • V8, check
  • Lots of HP, check
  • Road Course, check
  • Driving at 11/10s, check

I don't see anything wrong here . . .

itsarebuild
itsarebuild GRM+ Memberand Reader
12/6/10 3:42 p.m.

interesting info on the alterations made to keep two different cars and makes competitive. i just saw opening doors and assumed the cars were spec with cages. thanks for clearing that up. i do like the fact that the doors open though. i remember seeing one race where they couldnt shut the door again after a driver change due to body damage.

even if the cars are more spec'd than i thought i still like the V8 supercars series better than nascar. for whatever reason it just feels more like something the average joe could potentially be doing than nascar does. maybe it is a false sensation. but i have it......

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