February 09, 2014

Horse 1616 - 2017 V8 Supercars Championship. Focus? Please?

This... seriously.

- Such cool. Much excite. Very Squee! Wow.

I admit that not quite a fortnight ago (Horse 1603), I speculated about what sorts of cars could be used to replace the Commodores and Falcons in 2017 once they're now longer in production. I must admit that after watching the Bathurst 12 Hour, which was won by Craig Lowndes, John Bowe, Mika Salo and Peter Edwards in a Ferrari 458 after being chased right the way to the wire by a couple of Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s and a McLaren MP4-12C behind them, it was a V8 Ford Focus that kind of stole a chunk of my attention.
Just look at it. Its massive front air dam, its massive rear wing, the burble of a V8 somehow shoehorned under the bonnet. It's just marvellous. It makes me wonder whether or not the DTM and Japan's Super GT are throwing away something a little special.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107154
The DTM is set to ditch V8 engines in favour of two-litre turbos within three seasons as part its drive to become a global formula. The series has set a target of 2016 to go down the same route as Super GT in Japan, which next year will adopt small-capacity, direct-injection four-cylinder turbos for its GT500 class. ... Hans-Werner Aufrecht, chairman of the DTM-organising ITR, told AUTOSPORT: "We want two-litre turbos in Europe and America, no question. We want the same regulations everywhere. - Autosport, 3rd May 2013.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112291
Hans-Werner Aufrecht, chairman of the DTM-organising ITR, told AUTOSPORT: "We want two-litre turbos in Europe and America, no question. We want the same regulations everywhere.
- Autosport, 27th Jan 2014.

I suppose that if Australia wanted to adopt the DTM/Super GT regulations then that would be fine but the COtF regulations of the V8Supercars already allow for a far less expensive car to be built and one which has common componentry. A Focus is perhaps more in line with what a DTM car would look like but as a V8Supercar, the cars which ran in today's Bathurst 24hr, even if they had no real shot at winning, still oozed fifteen different kinds of cool.
I can't really predict what the 2017 V8Supercar series will look like but a Cruze, Focus, C-Class, Pulsar, S40, 3, Cerato showdown would be equally as neat as the other situation I envisaged. There is one thing I will say though...

...keep the V8 rumble. It makes one feel happy inside.

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