Welcome to the all new DJR Club 17 website. We've brought a fresh new design and some great new software together on this site to help make it the one stop shop for everything DJR.
Please visit the forums, join our facebook group and share your favourite DJR photos and videos in the media gallery.
Don't forget to become a member of DJR Team Mates!
  • 1. "Your knowledge and input is always welcome but please respect the team, the drivers and other members. Abuse or harsh criticisms will not be tolerated".

    2. "This forum is designated 'Family Friendly' - (ie. we have young & impressionable readers - even if they're not Members/Posters) - therefore language must be moderated! - (how would YOU feel about YOUR 9 year old reading it?)

    3. "Use of characters (eg. #$*@!) that only 'partially' disguise an intended vulgar/offensive word(s) is unacceptable!
    If you MUST express yourself in such a manner... use ***** and let the reader's imagination 'fill in the blanks'."






    Thank you for your cooperation.

Bigcol

Active member
With the release of Car of the Future today (Monday), the future of V8 Supercars has been secured while the door has been left open for more manufacturers to join the category.

At Melbourne?s Crown Casino this morning, V8 Supercar Executive Chairman Tony Cochrane and head of the Car of the Future plan, Mark Skaife, unveiled what is set to ensure the sport continues its impressive growth.

An outline of the primary targeted areas under Car of the Future (CoF) was released, covering chassis, engine, suspension and steering, wheels, tyres, brakes, cooling, fuel system, electronics, aero and safety.

The CoF will consist of a control floor plan and roll cage with minor variation to accommodate various bodywork. It will be easier to produce and come in a flat pack kit form.

As V8SA has stated numerous times in the past, powerplants must be normally aspirated V8 configurations.

V8SA is currently finalising the details of an Engine Equalisation Program for any variant from manufacturers that could co-exist with the current V8 Ford and Holden engines.

While front suspension and steering is generally unchanged from Project Blueprint, CoF features control independent rear suspension and uprights and 18 inch wheels.

The Holinger mid mounted gearbox remains unchanged but the move from a spool to Detroit locker rear differential will be investigated.

Brakes, cooling and fuel system will all be controlled along with the chassis loom, control engine looms control ECU and logger.

The control ECU will allow for reduced fuel consumption during pitstops and yellow flag periods which is in line with new technology in road cars.

Body work must be substantially representative of the production car model, with aero parity maintained and bio composites will be introduced.

In terms of safety, V8SA is working with the FIA on improving the driver seat and position, glass will be banned and polycarbonate windscreens used instead, the fuel tank will be shifted from the car boot to in front of the rear axle for improved safety and fire resistant coatings on selected composites items has been flagged. The target vehicle mass sits at 1200 to 1250 kilograms.

Cochrane described this morning?s launch as a ?history making moment?.

?For a long time V8 Supercars has been regarded as the most prestigious and admired touring car category in the world,? he said.

?The motorsport and motoring worlds have been watching this announcement very closely as it a massive opportunity for our sport to step up on several levels and attract a wider audience.

?Mark?s plan is a collaboration of future building, business analysis, SWOT planning, common sense and a serious look at how we make the sport more cost effective for our major stakeholders, teams, but retain the very core of our success ? terrific and exciting V8 Supercar racing.?

Skaife said CoF was about protecting the DNA of the current competition as well as expanding horizons in a changing industry landscape.

?This means redefining regulations to promote what we believe is Australia?s greatest motorsport category in ensuring that our drivers and teams continue to excel and provide a competitive and entertaining Championship Series,? he said.

?Our open shopfront policy will be based on potentially attracting additional manufacturers. We want to open the door to genuine high volume production, four-door sedans which will be configured as V8 rear wheel drive race cars under strict parity arrangements to compete equally against Falcons and Commodores.

?Any V8 engine can potentially be used where a manufacturer can modify one of its family V8 power-plants or utilise an existing category V8 Supercar engine. Who knows, this may open the door to teams fielding Nissans, Toyotas, Hyundais, Mazdas ? whatever!?

Skaife?s master plan compliments the Project Blueprint parity system designed to maintain equality amongst the current Ford and Holden-based Series but also enables numerous other manufacturers to consider using the V8 Supercar Championship Series as a racing and marketing platform.

?This is evolution, not revolution,? Skaife said.

?Parity is something we are very good at in V8 land to ensure technical equivalency between vehicles and it has not been an issue with our Ford and Holden teams.

?The Triple Eight team?s successful switch between makes from last year to this year with minimum fuss is a classic example.?

Skaife said like NASCAR and Formula One, cost containment is also a vital aspect to ensure the future health of the category.

?We now have in place a plan to reduce the cost of a rolling chassis by around 25 per cent and further control costs of vehicle running, repair and engine development,? he said.

?Everybody knows that motorsport is an expensive business but we can?t afford to price ourselves out of our own market.

?The nature of motorsport has long been that if the money is there it can, and will, be spent. Controlling those costs is a critical path forward.

?As such, a comprehensive component evaluation matrix has been formulated for implementation over specific target dates.

?We have applied a proper business case analysis in an effort to curb dollars spent, as the cost of winning a Championship has roughly doubled in the last 15 years.

?The big picture here is that we already have a very successful sporting product that nonetheless must make headway in the future by remaining relevant to stakeholders, the car industry, team sponsors and our legion of fans ? as well as do what we do best, put on a great show for the fans and our worldwide viewers.?

All teams and the V8 Supercars Australia Board have rubber stamped the Car of the Future plan, with the majority of the component changes to be introduced either by or in 2012.
 

Bigcol

Active member
and this

V8 Supercars Australia?s Car of the Future (CoF) blueprint will open the door for new manufacturers to enter the sport from 2012, according to V8 Supercars Australia Chairman Tony Cochrane and CoF head Mark Skaife.

?Our open shopfront policy will be based on potentially attracting additional manufacturers,? Skaife said at the launch of the blueprint for the category?s future which is destined to cut costs and improve racing.

Skaife, who has been charged with developing the CoF blueprint, confirmed that the door was now open for new manufacturers to enter the sport, be it with an engine, chassis or both.

?We want to open the door to genuine high volume production, four-door sedans which will be configured as V8 rear wheel drive race cars under strict parity arrangements to compete equally against Falcons and Commodores,? he said.

?Any V8 engine can potentially be used where a manufacturer can modify one of its family V8 power-plants or utilise an existing category V8 Supercar engine. Who knows, this may open the door to teams fielding Nissans, Toyotas, Hyundais, Mazdas? whatever!?

Although no new manufacturer was announced by the category at the launch, Cochrane confirmed that he has been in talks with manufacturers.

?The level of communication and feedback has been good in the way they assess the sport,? he said.

?I?ve been encouraged. Some of them have spoken through automotive types and team owners, and some have spoken directly to me. The door is open and we are open to talk. Clearly it is very relevant (to them). If you?re a manufacturer, we offer a fantastic base.?

Despite the talk of new manufacturers, Cochrane was keen to stress the category?s healthy relationship with the current two manufacturers of Ford and Holden.

?I am delighted with our two current manufacturers,? he said. ?We have a good working relationship with them at the highest level.?

He also stressed that the category wasn?t reliant on new manufacturers entering the sport.

?If, through this whole process (Car of the Future), all we do is get ourselves reorganised to make the racing more viable for our teams over the course of the next two years, then the exercise has been well and truly worth it and we?ll drive into the sunset with General Motors (Holden) and Ford and live happily ever after.

?We don?t need dozens of manufacturers to end up with a great championship. What we?ve got is very good, but if others want to come and join in then we are going to make it as easy as possible for them to join in.?
 

Bigcol

Active member
3:47 PM Mon 29 March, 2010 Source: BigPond Sport V8 Supercars Australia revealed today that the Car of the Future (CoF) plan has an ulterior motive: making the sport even bigger, both nationally and internationally.

While CoF is primarily designed to reduce costs for teams and ensure the viability of the category, V8 Supercars Australia (V8SA) Chairman Tony Cochrane envisages it will even help the sport grow.

?We?re trying to bring the build costs down to around $250,000 Australian (for a rolling chassis) and one of the key reasons why we are doing that is that will evolve into the second part of our plan which will probably be released towards the end of this year or maybe early next year which will see our teams needing to be able to turn their cars around in two weeks,? he said.

Cochrane pointed out that under the existing model having more than one spare car ?for many teams would be an absolute stretch?.

He said with CoF locked in, the V8SA Board can now get ?knee deep? into the future of the category.

?Now we?ve looked at Car of the Future I think we now have to spend the next 12 months really trying to bed down where we?re going to go for the next 10 years in terms of the Championship, how that?s going to impact on the Fujitsu Series, for example, how it?s going to impact on our 29 cars and the teams behind them and how it?s going to impact on the show in Australia.

?The show in Australia is very, very good now; we?ve got some exceedingly brilliant events,? Cochrane said, making special mention of the Clipsal 500 Adelaide and the Sydney Telstra 500 which bookend the Australian part of the Championship.

Head of the CoF project, Mark Skaife, acknowledged that the show must continue to improve.

?The big part of what we?re doing... is to make sure our entertainment act is very, very good,? he said.

?We know the quality of racing is imperative; we believe that we?ve got a fantastic product.

?We know that Ford and Holden?s traditional rivalry has served us well. The battle of Red versus Blue is a (part of the) social fabric of Australia; it?s a Labor versus Liberal, it?s Collingwood versus Carlton.

?In essence, it?s the best touring car product in this part of the world.?

Although the focus has been on CoF over the last 18 months, V8SA has begun to implement the beginnings of a plan to grow the sport.

The category has recently signed television deals with the Speed Channel in America and ESPN Star, which covers 24 Asian countries including China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Phillipines.

This is on top of signing international music sensation P!nk as the face and Ambassador of V8 Supercars.
 

Bigcol

Active member
Sorry for the small novel but this is what Cockbrain wants.

Personally i still think he's selling out the fans and the Australian public.
He wants the other manufacturers so he can take his circus to there part of the world which would mean less racing in Australia.
Now unless they either keep or increase the amount of racing in Australia i can see some backlash from the fans.
This is a last ditch effort to keep Cocho's cash cow feed.

This is Nascar for Australia. Next will be a common exterior
 

Antg

New member
I'm all for more manufacturers but by the sounds of it the cars are going to be even further removed from their road going namesakes. If Cochrane is setting the category up for more races overseas it will surely come at the expense of some Australian rounds, probably the ones with the worst facilities. I find the flat pack idea quite amusing, whens Ikea going to be announced as a major sponsor.
 

Rob

New member
let me have a stab in the dark who will be the first to build and develop these cars HRT and 888
 

Rob

New member
control floor plan and roll cage Nascar here we come


in a flat pack box mmmmmmmm wonder if i can pick one up from Ikea
 

Quasi

New member
Give me a Series Production alternative, and I may never watch V8Supercars again....

I'm all for a modern day improved production category, as we had in the late 60s/early 70s...that would be a blast. However, as soon as I'm put in a position where my most available option is the vehicles and categories used in the Bathurst 24 hour race I' won't even bother to turn the TV on...would rather watch re-runs of 'Bewitched' or 'I dream of Jeanie' (don't mind them at all actually).

I saw Skaife on the TV talking about a car costing $200,000 less, so why do we need to go the Nascar route (I like Nascar but don't see why our category has to go that way). Looking at what the teams run now I have to wonder how things could get that much cheaper, to be honest. V8SC is virtually at the point of prefab cars as it is, so taking it to the next level sounds to me like a silhoutte series, which Cochbrane has denied strongly.

It's at the point now where more fans are team, rather than brand, loyal....though the meatball bogan fans are ignorant enough to still believe they are supporting a Holden (or Ford).

Except for the fabricated outer skin neither vehicle represents the manufacterer in any way (save for the badge I suppose). Neither Ford nor Holden actually produce the chassis, so in what way is it Ford Vs Holden now...except in our minds.
 

TS-50

New member
In it's image and likeness, That's how the series is being run almost identically to the old F1, and headed the same way.

I really don't think adding a few different badges to the front of a body and chassis that are pure racecar is going to make people who own Tojo's or Mitzi's become V8 supercar fans
 

Damo

New member
I too share your concerns and all of them are quite valid, BUT, I think I might reserve judgment until I actaully see some sort of result from all of this hoohaa.

Yes Cochrane is a self serving ****head, and Skaife, I can't see past the days of hating him when he was driving. I just can't see them doing something that is going to severely jeopardise this sport. Feelings for Skaife aside, I do think that he is a thoroughly competent and professional person, and have no doubt he will do a terrific job of the COTF. The problem is what he has been instructed to do by Cochrane.

Personally I would love to see a heap of different makes with different capacity engines, and see how they bring them all into line. I think it might sort of be like the Grp A days, 5L Fords v 4L BMWs v 6l Mercs etc.
A bit of spice, some variety, maybe an end to the sometimes overly processional racing that we get, WATCH THIS SPACE.

Or maybe the whole thing is going to cop in in the rear end and fall in a screming heap and we will all end up watching salloon car racing, with Terry Wyhoon flashing his gums all over the place!!!!![sh]
 

Racin Jason

Active member
This is an extremely complicated issue, that I haven't got my head around entirely, yet. I am all for other manufacturers being allowed in but I think it is all very complicated and getting too far removed from what OUR category is all about. I know we can all say that the cars raced now have little in common with their road going relatives but essentially we can still recognise them as Falcons or Commodores. Will COTF have the same resemblance to the road cars? Will we just end up with a NASCAR type sillhouette formula? I think the long term aim is to make V8 SUpercars an International championship, but is that really what we, the supporters, want? Will there be any interest from other manufacturers? Is this a big waste of time that is going to make all the teams throw away what they currently have at the end of 2011 or 2012, whenever they decide to introduce it? Could it be the end of some teams because they can't afford to bin what they have and start all over again? Will it really be that much cheaper? I think there are more questions than answers at the moment and I'm not sure what to make of it all just yet. Maybe the TCM will be the category to watch in future, I think it is already the second biggest championship in the country and I personally find the cars much more appealing.[sh]
 

TS-50

New member
The thing is, someone, most probably Wankinshaw, is going to get a contract to provide chassis' and Body Shells in a similar way that he, 888 etc do now with the chassis'. only it will only require one supplier because blueprint's ultimate aim will have been acheived by that time and tthe Teams will run the exact same Chassis, steering, suspension and Braking componants, seats, electrics and virtually every thing else and I believe even the block will be the same.

If you can remember back far enough, and this is completely off topic but relevent on parrellel terms, in Victoria they first introduced legislation requiring cyclists to wear (tomato boxes) stack hats or helmets not long after someone made a big investment in a factory in asia producing them, eventually they went Australia wide and someone got very very rich.

So ok we want now a series where alll the cars run the same gear but differ in paintwork and badging and slightly in body shape (although without affecting drag) and someone is going to profit from being the contractor who provides the gear.

It's going to be a sham, and it's not going to be V8 supercars or even what we want it to be, which is closer to what we buy not closer to nascar.
 

Bartman09

Active member
The thing is, someone, most probably Wankinshaw, is going to get a contract to provide chassis' and Body Shells in a similar way that he, 888 etc do now with the chassis'.


Or a totally different supplier owned by a certain Mr Cockbrain and Mr Skaife.
 

Yap

New member
It's at the point now where more fans are team, rather than brand, loyal....though the meatball bogan fans are ignorant enough to still believe they are supporting a Holden (or Ford).

I am still a meatball bogan fan Quasi (no offence taken :D)

We all know these cars are nothing like their road going 4th cousins, but this year as long as

DJR, SBR and FPR (in that order)

Are doing well I am happy, so I guess that makes me a FORD fan not a TEAM fan
 

TS-50

New member
Or a totally different supplier owned by a certain Mr Cockbrain and Mr Skaife.



Yup , . . . matbe so, . . . and, . . . . . they can virtually name their price because the rules will state , . . . you have to run the controll chassis, etc blah blah blah, . . . . . so someone's gonna get very rich out of it, . . . . surprise surprise.[bgn]
 

Bigcol

Active member
I'd nearly bet money that it will be 888 that get the contract.

It's no coincidence that Skaife is head of the CoF and he's scored a plum endurance role driving with Team Vodafoney
 

Antg

New member
If this whole CoF thing is all about cost containment what about the change of wheels this season. Teams would have tens of thousands of dollars of Oz Wheels, A Tek wheels and others that have to be ditched by mid year to make way for the Team Dynamics control rim. They'll be used for a season and a half and turfed in favour of an 18 inch rim. How is this helping contain costs? Seems like a waste of money to me.
 

Latest from the Twitterverse

Top