Bathurst is a good race.. hard & fast & close & noisy.. what's not to like? If F1 had 1/3rd the close action instead of (yawn) multiple technically perfect laps (usually on their own!), or worse, winning by "passing in the pits", it'd be worth watching again. Yeah pity no more classes and other car types but seriously that's what other categories are there for and when you see the comparitive bums-on-seats it's easy to see which is the better "show" overall. "Back in the day" I watched the Bathurst bike racing but pulled the pin couple years before organisers did since it was a real mess with troublemakers and riding from Sydney was a real "running the gauntlet" as it was Police vs riders saga most of the time. A good car & flying mate owns property nearby Oberon and sometimes we watch from his giant screen & bbq mostly and duck in for start & end and some atmosphere trackside. One year we struck it lucky & got free tickets from outgoing patrons since they were giving their Sunday tickets away as had been there couple days already had their fill and heading into town for detailed tv coverage of the big day itself lol.
Agreed.. cultural cringe.. and worse.. reverse snobbery! Let's all be enthusiasts & celebrate we have viable car categories we can choose from and like for variety of reasons. Enjoy the race everyone
couldn't agree more. I'll record it while I also enjoy the genteel lunch and then watch bits of it at my leisure.See you there Dave.
I liked Group A myself... the Sierra jelly moulds against the BMW M3's, a Jaguar, a Rover, a Toyota Supra or two, a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R Its funny to watch some of the incar from the cars of the era... how those Sierras kept tyres under them amazes me... its like they wheelspin on every gearchange, and every power down... must have been fun to run in the wet... Technically there are only 4 Fords, and 8 Holdens in the race, well those funded by the factories, the rest are private squads....
I went to the Wellington street race (Nissan Mobil 500), those M3's sounded fantastic when they changed down. Had a number of international drivers at that time as well which was good.
And I liked the SuperTourers too... the noise of that Volvo 5 cylinder was brilliant! There may be more carmakers joining the V8Supercar series from 2012...
They need to go back to taking cars off the showroom floor, putting a cage in, change the suspension and go racing. The current cars do not represent what's sold. Both are shortened by around 90mm from memory. There's one in the shop where my car is and prettey much form the firewall forward and rear parcel shelf back is all fabricated. The standard road car rear door wouldn't fit. The list goes on. I still enjoy the race though. With the reliability of the cars its a long sprint race.
Who? Obviously they must be crap boxes as the whole reason we ended up with V8 supercars was because Ford & Holden had a dummy spit and were going to leave the series. Such a shame, as others have said the earlier racing was far more entertaining. Not a fan of watching the V8's at the track, done it many times but it's boring as hell.
That looks like my XJ-S only its British Racing Green. I have an old VHS video showing highlights of that historic 1985 race. One day I will convert it to DVD and give copies to serious Jag aficionadoes, upon request.
I don't give a stuff about the V8 supertaxi championship (particularly ch. 7 coverage) but there is something about V8 machines going around that track, with all the history and tradition, that makes me glued to the TV pretty much all day even though I no longer care who wins. I prefer the Group A days, particularly having the international cars involved. An improvement would be if they could find a way to bring the BTCC and DTM cars over and give them all some sort of parity. Probably impossible.
i was living on the track whilst in separation mode earlier this year during clipsal....as they drove around the same sound and smell was missing cos the the different fuel they were using.....they didnt sound as sharp or smell as nice. I'm in two minds about the V8's, they bring in a **** load of money to the SA economy but I just reckon it's boring as in watching united yellow and sliver top cabs going in circles
I agree with you Goober regarding most of the rounds but there's something special about Bathurst. It is a real test on man and machine. I don't think it matters what cars going around. I enjoy the in car footage.
He wa/is very talented, I don't think many would have the success he has. BTW, you don't realise how steep that circuit is. I walked it every year I went, normally on the Saturday night. To burn off the Alcohol.
