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After a flirtation with international touring car rules and the ill fated World Touring Car
series in the eighties, domestic motor sport in Australia was in decline. Turbo charged
Ford Sierra's and Nissan Skylines meant nothing to the most Australians. The sanctioning
body CAMS (Confederation Of Australian
Motor sport) set about revamping touring car racing in Australia. There was a
realisation that motor sport was in the entertainment business and the cars were an
important part of that package.
While it was important that the cars looked the same as the road cars they had to be proper racing cars.They had to be able to handle the power of a racing V8 without costing the teams a fortune in repair bills. The intention is cars out on the track putting on a show for the fans, not broken down cars littering the track and pits. From NASCAR they took the idea of keeping performance of the makes similar by adjusting their relative specifications with the aim of producing affordable close racing. Rather than use a "look a like" formula as in NASCAR it was decided to use the full body shell of the road car. Naturally all cars must have a roll cage that provides a safety capsule for the driver. Of course the roll cage must be firmly fixed inside the body shell. There are some elaborate roll cages doubling as a partial tube frame chassis. The body shell still comes from the production line and the doors still open just like the ones the fans drive to the race meetings. The have all the indicators, lights and windows. They have a heated windscreen to stop fogging in wet weather. The only external modification is aerodynamic package of front spoiler, large rear wings and side skirts. All the teams running each make of car uses the same aero package. Adjusting the relative size of the wings is one way CAMS has of keeping similar performance between the Holdens and Fords. Under this goes a fuel injected 5 litre pushrod V8 based on a production motor. They are limited to 7500 rpm and 10:1 compression ratio, this has produced race engines with over Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article What is a V8 Supercar anyway? in V8 Supercar Racing is owned by Philip Northeast. Permission to republish What is a V8 Supercar anyway? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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