50 Years of Bathurst

[Reaper]

Was a great race. Rather un eventful over all but the first time I was able to watch the whole thing start till end.

The battle between Whincup and the other bloke was sensational. Just watching the behaviour of the cars under that intense pressure was amazing to watch.

And Lowndes' effort. Bloody hell that blokes has talent. I was out of my seat when he took 3rd.

Holden win and Lowndes on the podium, great result in my books!

Next year will be interesting with 4 manufacturers battling. Purists will probably be upset but I think it will make the sport more watchable and pull more demographic.

I'd consider myself a purist and really, it's only been the modern era where we had 2 manufacturers. Up till '93 there have always been multiple badges on the starting grid. As a purist though, with a race that has it's roots in production car racing, now we have never been further from that. Yeah Datsun and Mercedes will be back next year but so what? They will be running the same chassis, suspension, gearbox & rear end that the Holden and Ford clad cars will be running. The difference will be some sheet metal and motors which will be homologated down to a parity forumula so the badge will be largely irrelevant. Even the cars we have now are not even close to the road going versions. The thing supposed to resemble a Commodore is 150mm shorter and to my knowledge shares a fire wall, front/rear glass, door handles and lights with the road going car. That is it!

Bah - I think I'm getting old and grumpy. Motor racing has lost it for me.

Reaper

 

[aaronevolution]

it will be interesting to see which drivers adapt to the new car setup best... might help courtney having more of a gt background but i reckon the top drivers will still be up there

Great drive by Courtney on the weekend considering where he qualified. I was shattered Tander was out so early though, and I would have really liked to see Davey Reynolds win. He has some skill.

 

[Troy711]

I'd consider myself a purist and really, it's only been the modern era where we had 2 manufacturers. Up till '93 there have always been multiple badges on the starting grid. As a purist though, with a race that has it's roots in production car racing, now we have never been further from that. Yeah Datsun and Mercedes will be back next year but so what? They will be running the same chassis, suspension, gearbox & rear end that the Holden and Ford clad cars will be running. The difference will be some sheet metal and motors which will be homologated down to a parity forumula so the badge will be largely irrelevant. Even the cars we have now are not even close to the road going versions. The thing supposed to resemble a Commodore is 150mm shorter and to my knowledge shares a fire wall, front/rear glass, door handles and lights with the road going car. That is it!

Bah - I think I'm getting old and grumpy. Motor racing has lost it for me.

Reaper

I tend to agree with you on that one. I'd like to see teams given rules governing weight, power and torque output restrictions, standard safety equipment and a budget per car and then being told to go for gold. It would bring back the days of technical ingenuity and the cars would be much more production based.

 

[c2105026]

I would be happy just to see Group E Rules - like with Bathurst 12 hour but like in the 1960s and 1970s have more common cars. Why not have say Class A (sub $20k) Class B (20-30k) Class C (30-40k) Class D (40k-50k) Class E (50k+). Have a 60 car field. Allow for some minor mods (intake/exhaust and stiffer springs and all safety gear) but not too much to keep costs down. Production car racing was how the bathurst concept took hold, because people can identify with it. Now its just very slick marketing maintaining it. Even to be involved in series production racing you need $60k sports car at least.....why not allow categories of $20k hatches to keep the sport open and more accessible?

 

[MikeCuzzy]

While I was only born in 91, so I've only really known the V8 Supercars era. Still I would rather the old days of win on Sunday sell on Monday production cars. Fair enough the current supercars are a lot closer to their production cars than say, NASCAR. However, I still look at the old footage of Bathurst and feel a bit disappointed I missed those days.

Regardless, the last Holden Vs Ford exclusive at Bathurst was certainly amazing, I can't remember a closer finish on the mountain.

I'm looking forward to having more manufacturers in the competition next year. I'd really love to see more than just 2 more.

 

[Dr HaxZaw]

you can always watch the bathurst 12hr race and see the road going versions there... i do wish they would hold the f1 race there instead of melbourne although im not sure how they'd go through the dipper lol

 

[Drawnnite]

if you were there you woulda heard the announcers/commentators.

"are there any Ford fans in the crowd?" was a reasonable cheer
"are there any Holden Fans in the crowd?" again a big cheer
"are there any NISSAN Fans in the crowd" you could hear the crickets chirping away and somebody basically saying "you suck" =P

if you have never been i highly recommend it.
so long as you dont stay at the top of the mountain, and get involved in the 100 odd arrests from the saturday night riots, then its all good.

also the V8 Utes, they need more of them. awesome stuff.
along with the masters, top stuff there.
although they were missing the GT3's was a shame but had formula fords, fair enough.

again, its a good place to go, some pretty good stuff.
much better then TV, the sounds they make are nowehre near what they sound like on the vision.

 

[vicarious]

The thing supposed to resemble a Commodore is 150mm shorter and to my knowledge shares a fire wall, front/rear glass, door handles and lights with the road going car. That is it!
Reaper

from my pit tour with the team manager from vodafone at the clipsal this year it was 90mm shorter and has a visable cut & join on the c pillar.

 

[Troy711]

you can always watch the bathurst 12hr race and see the road going versions there... i do wish they would hold the f1 race there instead of melbourne although im not sure how they'd go through the dipper lol

The track wouldn't even go close to meeting safety standards for F1 however Vodafone bought Jensen Button and his car out for a promo and it ran (I think) 1:48.

 

[Dr HaxZaw]

The track wouldn't even go close to meeting safety standards for F1 however Vodafone bought Jensen Button and his car out for a promo and it ran (I think) 1:48.

and monaco does? lol i know what your saying though... and yeah remember that it was pretty sweet
although from memory they had to run max ride height to get it through the dipper so wasnt able to run max downforce