Stupid 24hr race at Bathurst in Aussie ...

... did anybody watch this or catch the contrived result.

Holden won again, infact this time a 1, 2.

I am getting so sick and tired of Holden (GM car company in Australia) manipulating the rules of all race series they race in ... and nobody does a thing!!! The rule makes must be getting free tickets to the local brothel of something!

For this (possibly future great race, ie. the southern hemisphere Le Mans) they raced a car that can not even be bought ... and yet this was a modified production car race. Now modified production car means simply that!, it has to be a production car. This car had an engine that was 2 litres bigger and not even available in Australia ... it is an American GM engine. The car had a full race gearbox fitted and a FORD diff.

They won the race by miles and it was a complete bore because of HOLDEN. Even the 3rd place getter commented that he was the first production car home ...

So come on Australians lets get behind our motorsport and somehow give Holden a message that we are NOT stupid and want REAL racing not moving marketing strategies. Racing is the loser when one company is allowed to bend the rules like this.

They also cheat in the v8 supercars, with now wishbone front suspension and a SPECIAL motor made just for this class ... which used to be based on production cars. Now it is whatever Holden want to do and Ford have to play catch up ... because ofcourse Ford is not known as an Australian brand.

Now I'm not a huge Ford or Holden fan but this joke state of motor racing in Australia is going to turn off the fans, and even the mags are starting to get letters from the old fans saying 'what is going on with the BS 24 hr race relative to Holden'.


Interestingly a Ferrari 360 was in 3rd place for a few hours until it died ... I believe of engine failure.


Does GM cheat like this in the States? Is it company policy?

Pete

 

Seen this?
http://www.procar.com.au/forum/FORUM.asp?FORUM_ID=29&CAT_ID=10&Forum_Title=Nations+Cup

http://www.procar.com.au/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=32&CAT_ID=11&Forum_Title=Bathurst+24+Hour

 

Thanks, had not seen that, and most are saying the same thing. What novices do not understand is that winning a long race is much easier when your car has a huge performance advantage ... ie. you can back off and save the car, hence the car is more reliable. This is why Holden are winning because the car is a bloody rocket ... but not by any means a production car.

It is all very sad, and I think will cause the demise of the race.

Interestingly a Ferrari 550/575 race car is attempting to enter, and by the time it has been restricted and had weight added it will probably be lucky to keep up with the F360 ... thus Holden keeps on winning!!!

Come on Holden show some balls and prove your product fair and square! I'll never own one until you do ... that is for sure.

Pete

 

I found it easier to just ignore the holdens and concentrate on the other car. Between Brock and Holden, it was hard to ignore them though.

 

Exhibit A: Porsche 911 GT3-R.

The GT3-R and 996TT share the same 3.6 bottom end based on the 964. I say based because they tend to change a few things on motorsport engines. For example a street 993 will have cylinder base gaskets and a 993 Supercup Car will have the case O-ringed for cylinder gaskets. Many of the part numbers are 962C and 959 stuff.

The point here is that there were only two of these cars built with this mishmash of Porsche Motorsport parts at the time, yet Porsche managed to homologate them with the promise that they would build the required numbers later for Le Mans eligibity. BMW consults with the ACO about their M3 GTR, yet once they start trouncing the Porsches, their homologation comes into question and their cars become ineligible.

Pot, meet kettle.

 

Does that make it alright, then? Trouble is the Holden is only holden in the Shell. There are very few Holden parts in the car at all, never mind a mishmash!

 

I'm a fan of PROCAR as it has a broad range of cars racing each other, but I don't think it ever claimed itself as a "showroom-stock" series. The shenanigans with the BMW M3 GTR, the Toyota GT One, the Dauer Porsche 962 and the Mercedes CLK-GTR in GT competition merely demonstrate that if an automaker wants to win badly enough, they'll do it through any means necessary. For Porsche, it's always been about finding the loophole to drive through (building 25 917's, homologating a street legal 962 to win Le Mans, etc.). For Mercedes and in this case Holden, it's more about having the sanctioning body accomodate the manufacturer rather than the other way around.

The automakers live by the letter of the rules, as they couldn't care less about the spirit of the rules!

 

Look, I have to tell you I agree with you. Actually, if it wasn't for Procar (Ross Palmer in particular) no one would ever have raced a Ferrari or Lamborghini in Australia....I can just about assure you of that!!