[Surferdude]

AT LEAST one new manufacturer will join Holden and Ford in the V8 Supercars championship from 2013, according to Mark Skaife. The five-time V8 Supercar champion made that "rock solid" forecast at the unveiling of V8 Supercars' car of the future in Sydney today.
Skaife, who chairs the V8 Supercars commission, has been behind the design and implementation of the program which comes into effect from 2013.
The new vehicle design is expected to cut the cost of building a V8 Supercar by nearly half to $250,000 and it's hoped those lower costs will allow other manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes or Hyundai to join the Commodores and Falcons on the grid.
Toyota representatives attended Friday's unveiling and Skaife said there was no doubt at least one new manufacturer would be represented on the grid soon.
Read more here.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/motor-racing/new-brand-to-join-v8-championship-in-2013-mark-skaife/story-e6frfgb6-1226212297001

In an interview on Channel 7 during the 2011 Finale at Sydney's Olympic Park street circuit, Skaife said the new rules especially suited cars like the Hyundai i45 and Mazda 6.
Skaife has been talking to virtually every car company in Australia about this and there's no way he's have mentioned those two unless he had some positive feedback from them and wanted to add a little pressure on them.
It's already pretty much a given that Toyota will be in the mix sooner rather than later.

[2i30s]

was there any mention of how many cars will make up the total grid Trev? i do know its going to be a similar set up to nascar racing,all cars will run the same engine made by an independent manufacturer.    an i45 v8,wow.    could you imagine an i30 powered by a v8. 

[Dazzler]

Thanks for that Trevor..Very interesting  and wasn't todays race a cracker 

[Surferdude]

was there any mention of how many cars will make up the total grid Trev? i do know its going to be a similar set up to nascar racing,all cars will run the same engine made by an independent manufacturer.    an i45 v8,wow.    could you imagine an i30 powered by a v8. 

Steve, I don't think they can change the number of starters on the grid. There's a major safety factor involved and they've stretched it to keep 28 at the shorter tracks. There could be more at Bathurst and I'd like to see them include maybe a dozen of the Development Series cars for that event - provided thay met a qualifying cut-off figure to avoid too much of a speed differential issue.
Are you sure about that engine titbit?

[mjt57]

Isn't this new series going along the lines of the Nascar "cars of tomorrow" or whatever it's called? ie, basically they have the same chassis, engine, wheelbase/track, etc...

So, what will they do with vehicles that aren't physically the same size as a Commodore or Falcon (presuming, of course, that we will still have these cars in Australia in the coming years)?

In the current series they had to shrink the size of the "VE" so that it's the same as the VT-VZ model range.

That's not touring car racing, not even close.

[Surferdude]

Isn't this new series going along the lines of the Nascar "cars of tomorrow" or whatever it's called? ie, basically they have the same chassis, engine, wheelbase/track, etc...

So, what will they do with vehicles that aren't physically the same size as a Commodore or Falcon (presuming, of course, that we will still have these cars in Australia in the coming years)?

In the current series they had to shrink the size of the "VE" so that it's the same as the VT-VZ model range.

That's not touring car racing, not even close.

Touring car racing is a whole other ball game - and gets very few spectators these days.
We're not talking about touring car racing here.
We're talking about "V8 Supercars"
The formula still draws massive crowds and good TV audiences.
So I just see this as another move forward.

[2i30s]

I'm 99% sure that the v8 super car engine is neither a ford or Holden engine Trev,its pretty much an aftermarket engine based on a 350 Chev small block engine,similar to nascar engines.

[FatBoy]

I'm 99% sure that the v8 super car engine is neither a ford or Holden engine Trev,its pretty much an aftermarket engine based on a 350 Chev small block engine,similar to nascar engines.

The V8Supercars use either a Holden Motor Sport or Ford, 5.0L, normally aspirated V8 engine.  They have a category control MoTeC engine management control system.  (This is from the V8Supercars website Technical information page).

So while they are a Ford and Holden engine, they aren't what you get when you buy a Ford or Holden.

[Phil №❶]

That's why I liked the vulgar attraction of the Bathurst 500 Production Touring Car Race, with all it's different classes. At least the basic car was made available to the general public. 

[mjt57]

The V8Supercars use either a Holden Motor Sport or Ford, 5.0L

Isn't the "Holden" engine a GM USA sourced engine? Same for the Ford (Ford USA)?

I think that the last team to use a Holden sourced engine was Larry Perkins' team, for one season when everyone else moved to this new Chev engine.

[FatBoy]

The V8Supercars use either a Holden Motor Sport or Ford, 5.0L

Isn't the "Holden" engine a GM USA sourced engine? Same for the Ford (Ford USA)?

I think that the last team to use a Holden sourced engine was Larry Perkins' team, for one season when everyone else moved to this new Chev engine.

The Technical Specs from the V8Supercars websites states "Holden Motor Sport 5.0L" and the Ford engine is a "302 Boss".  The limit is 5000cc with certain other limits on the engine as well (max bore, max compression, no power produced over 7500rpm).