V8Supercar - Car Of The Future (Merged x4)

[St00ge]

Originally Posted by Matt

Cant really run polycarb with a windscreen wiper.

You 100% on that?? I would think all the closed cockpit LMPs and GT1 would have poly screens and they run wipers...

Or are you talking "long term" use causing problem in the swept area of the wiper? I am sure some of these clear film coatings going around would help this problem..

[Ospi]

Just how regulated will the COTF be? I know currently there is still quite a lot of freedom to develop within the current regulations (suspension components in particular) but will this next evolution completely standardise the cars?

I really hope they still allow room for individual teams to modify their cars somewhat as to me development such as that is an important part of motor racing.

[GTRMagic]

COTF Fuel Cell to be ahead of rear axle line

As pioneered in the BTCC circa 1991

[Ospi]

Race engineers rubbing their hands together!

[dsg]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

COTF Fuel Cell to be ahead of rear axle line

As pioneered in the BTCC circa 1991

But then they are not the same as the cars we drive on the roads.

[peckstar]

while i get what you are saying DSG, a v8 supercar or even a 5 litre was never the same in the fuel tank area as what was on the road.

they always had (to recently) a 120 litre tank, unlike any equivalent road car

[JC Ohope]

V8 Supercars Teams start working on CoTF

Walkinshaw Racing and Triple Eight have got a head-start on its V8 Supercars rivals ahead of V8′s new-for-2013 Car of the Future. With the COTF prototype build process drawing to a close, V8′s leading Holden squads have been instrumental in some of the crucial component design and construction that will be implemented under the sport’s new controlled formula.


Walkinshaw Racing’s CEO Craig Wilson says that work has already begun on building various parts of their own COTF machines.
“We’ve started already,” Wilson confirmed to Speedcafe.com.
“We’re already engaged in the process, as is Triple Eight. There’s already work going on now.


“It’s not a massive commitment from us, because we’ve got third parties who are involved. The bigger load has been taken by them, (but) we’re doing some of the work now for the prototype.”


The Car of the Future will be introduced into the sport in 2013, providing teams a common race car structure, with all cars maintaining the look and style of the manufacturer. The COTF will also improve driver safety and make competing even more cost-effective.


Wilson says that the build times of the new cars will be similar to the current cars, although the maintainence and repair time will be dramatically improved – a key objective of COTF.


“There’s not a lot in the actual build times. The improvements you’re going to see are in the ongoing service requirement in the cars. V8 Supercars has been looking for gains in those departments,” he said.
“Between what we have today, there’s not a lot in the actual build time, but there will be other gains further down the track.


“But that’s really for V8 Supercars to comment on at the appropriate time when the prototypes are finished and complete.”


V8 Supercars motorsport manager Adam Perry says that with the two prototypes (being built by PACE Innovations’ Paul Ceprnich) are due to be revealed in early June, although the final make up of the prototypes will be slightly different to what the teams will piece together.


“There are things that we’ve found during the build of the prototype, and that we’ll find during the testing period, that will mean there are revisions to the design,” Perry told Speedcafe.com.


“In the end, that will give us a better mouse trap, but the first car that we’re building is substantially the production model.”

[EfiOz]

Originally Posted by St00ge

You 100% on that?? I would think all the closed cockpit LMPs and GT1 would have poly screens and they run wipers...

Or are you talking "long term" use causing problem in the swept area of the wiper? I am sure some of these clear film coatings going around would help this problem..

Quite a few current spec GT3 models have polycarb windscreens already. They work fine with wipers but get a bit sand blasted after a few wet races.

[TSR]

Isnt it funny how tow leading Holden teams are helping with designing the COTF. what a joke

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by TSR

Isnt it funny how tow leading Holden teams are helping with designing the COTF. what a joke

SBR & FPR have the capacity to design and build just about anything.. the silence from the blue side has been deafening.

Are Ford continuing beyond 2012?

[JC Ohope]

Originally Posted by TSR

Isnt it funny how tow leading Holden teams are helping with designing the COTF. what a joke

Is T8 really a leading Holden team though? they do build & maintain both Holden & Hord Chassis' so I'd more call them a leading V8 Supercars engineering company...

I suspect under COTF they will be building and selling to anyone who wants one (T8 Kia? Merc? Toyota anyone?).

I don't disagree though, it's very odd that the 'factory' ford team FPR isn't involved with the COTF plans, particularly when they seem to be selling more & more customer cars.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by JC Ohope

I don't disagree though, it's very odd that the 'factory' ford team FPR isn't involved with the COTF plans, particularly when they seem to be selling more & more customer cars.

Who said that they weren't involved?

All that has happened is that that HRT and 888 have chosen to put out a statement or have responded to questions re COTF by the look of it.

Given that a number of the statements made earlier about COTF came from Tim Edwards, you'd have to think that they were still involved but choosing not to big note themselves about it.

[JC Ohope]

CoTF - Coming soon

Look for V8 Supercars’ Car of the Future to be unveiled shortly after the next event at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin.

The much-anticipated car, set to be introduced into the sport across the entire category in 2013, is expected to get its first track hit-out at Queensland Raceway, driven by COF leader Mark Skaife.

The COF is a control chassis, with almost all components of the cars identical, except the engines and the bodywork.

Besides the improved parity between teams, the new car will include advanced safety features, car build costs will be significantly reduced and repairability times improved.

The COF will be made up of a control floor plan and roll cage with minor variation to accommodate various bodywork. The cars will be easier to produce for teams and come in a flat pack kit form.

There are two COF prototypes under construction at Paul Ceprnich’s Pace Innovations engineering company – the first of which will be seen soon.

V8 Supercars’ Car of the Future has been a huge project for the V8 organisation – in a design, construction, marketing and promotion sense.

New V8 Supercars general manager of communications Sam Heard will play a big part in the public roll-out of the COF. In fact, COF is Heard’s first big task at the organisation.

“Now that the sale (of V8 Supercars) has been done, my focus is working on a roll-out strategy for Car of the Future and how we communicate that message out to the teams, the media and the fans,” he said.

“The Car of the Future is an extremely significant product for the sport, and it is something that we want to get right.

“We need to make sure we do it well and make sure that we do a good job of it so everyone understands why we’re doing it and where it is going to take the sport.”

Heard is the former head of marketing of sport at Network Ten and has been to a countless number of V8 events during the network’s former broadcast deal (1997-2006). Heard attended his first V8 Supercars event in his new position at Winton last weekend and used the time to get a “lay of the land.”

“At the moment, I’m just collating information,” he said.

“I’ve been speaking to various teams, people in our own organisation, the media and a variety of people on topics on what we think we can do different or better.

“It has been helpful to get a lot of that information. I’ve already started on a strategic document of our communications structure, but there’s not too much I can do on that until you know what you need to do.

“There’s an enormous amount of positive things happening in the sport. There’s so many great things going on that we want to capture and harness. It’s just a matter of picking out the bits that we can make the most of.”

The next round of the V8 Supercars Championship will be held at Hidden Valley Raceway on June 17-19.

I doubt they'll publish times, but I would love to know what the difference between it and one of the current v8 Supercars would be....

[JC Ohope]

Car of the Future 'unmasked' - RPM Vid

Very interesting, BJ sounded like he was open to the idea of changing away from Holden if the offer was made

[Micklegend]

Originally Posted by JC Ohope

Car of the Future 'unmasked' - RPM Vid

Very interesting, BJ sounded like he was open to the idea of changing away from Holden if the offer was made

Bradley did mention how much he loves Audi products...is there something in that statement?

I'd love to see an A8 based COTF in the series and I think Audi is a brand that has taken off more and more in Australia of late, just look at the dealerships to see they are not scared of spending cash here. Plus, they are a bloody nice car.

With this in mind, Mr Lowndes relationship with Audi couldnt hurt the T8 guys looking to build/run a new marque in the sport, either under their RECs or someone elses (PMM). So who else would run one.....BJR would be a firm bet.

As far as Ford not speaking up about starting to build a COTF, is this really an issue? its 18 months away from having to put one on a track, so why the rush, let the other guys develop and work out the bugs, because there is bound to be some trial and error in the development.

[PorscheCurves]

Originally Posted by Micklegend

Bradley did mention how much he loves Audi products...is there something in that statement?

I'd love to see an A8 based COTF in the series and I think Audi is a brand that has taken off more and more in Australia of late, just look at the dealerships to see they are not scared of spending cash here. Plus, they are a bloody nice car.

With this in mind, Mr Lowndes relationship with Audi couldnt hurt the T8 guys looking to build/run a new marque in the sport, either under their RECs or someone elses (PMM). So who else would run one.....BJR would be a firm bet.

.

I'd say that T8 would go to Mercedes Benz rather than Audi because of the Mclaren Vodafone relationship. Lowndes would probably then go to BJR if they become an Audi team or set up his own team with manufacturer backing from Audi and have Luff as a second driver.

BTW, it's more likely that they would use a RS5 because it's the closest V8 mid sized sedan Audi make to the Falcon and Commodore.

[JC Ohope]

Originally Posted by PorscheCurves

BTW, it's more likely that they would use a RS5 because it's the closest V8 mid sized sedan Audi make to the Falcon and Commodore.

The RS5 only comes in Coupe (The A/S5 can come as one of those silly '4 Door coupés' that is more like a large hatchback, but I'm sure Audi wouldn't want people to call it a sedan) so I doubt they'd want to run that against other Sedan's.

The A6 is a pretty close competitor to the Commodore in 'measurements' so it might be easy enough to change over:

Wheelbase
Commodore: 2915mm
Falcon: 2838mm
Audi A6: 2912mm

Length
Commodore: 4894mm
Falcon: 4955mm
Audi A6: 4915mm

The A4 is 200mm shorter than the A6 and has a 2800mm wheelbase, so I'm guessing the A6 would probably be a better fit. The A5 'Sportback' has pretty much the same wheelbase as the A4 so it potentially is a bit short compared to other V8 Supercars/CoTF's

[Micklegend]

Good point regarding the A6...i dont see lowndes at BJR...ever. i dont see merc or bmw joining.

[cavvy]

Whats in it for Audi ?

[Racenut]

Now that we are talking about different manufacturers joining V8SC with COTF it is time to ask the question...

Do you buy your road cars based on whether the manufacturer is in racing? Would you buy an Audi/BMW/Hyundai just because they are in V8SC?

As for me, motorsport doesnt affect what car I buy.

[nickyf1]

Motorsport might not directly make you want to buy a certain manufacturers product, but being a fan of a particular team or manufacturer will give you a connection with a particular brand, so, if you are looking for a car to buy, wether that be new or used, and you have a choice between the manufacturer that you follow in racing, and some other manufacturer, you would probably go for the one you support.

[Boulevard_Cruiser]

Am I missing something or have all the manufacturers mentioned got an engine that meets the regs???

[Racenut]

Originally Posted by Boulevard_Cruiser

Am I missing something or have all the manufacturers mentioned got an engine that meets the regs???

Yes you are missing something...
There are regulations for all sorts of things in V8 supercars such as bore size which in many cases wont matvh what the euro cars have (or able to produce) without a new design.
The rules were written around dinosaur technology and they probably wont change it to allow other brands to use their own engines... a pity because it would be good to see a 5 litre BMW or hyundai against holden and ford.

[GTRMagic]

It appears though that the post-2013 engine configurations are yet to be finalised... certainly the whole discussion around paritising different engine configurations to come up with a level playing field is yet to be communicated outside the walls of Chez VESA...

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by Racenut

Yes you are missing something...
There are regulations for all sorts of things in V8 supercars such as bore size which in many cases wont matvh what the euro cars have (or able to produce) without a new design.
The rules were written around dinosaur technology and they probably wont change it to allow other brands to use their own engines... a pity because it would be good to see a 5 litre BMW or hyundai against holden and ford.

actually i think you are missing something, that the rules are changing and part of that change will allow other brands to bring their own engines to the game, but there will be equalisation rules