Finally, about 3 years after I first heard that the NASCAR-from-Down-Under was coming to Texas, I get to strap into a V8 SuperCar for a joyride around Circuit of the Americas: Austin’s automotive rollercoaster. Let me tell you one thing: This is gonna be wicked.
The example they had for us was their prototype of the Car Of The Future, similar to NASCAR’s Car Of Tomorrow concept, but with a push for a truly better race car (Unlike NASCAR’s push for a slower, safer, more oatmeal spec series). Things like a switch to IRS with a new transaxle transmission, a more rearward motor placement, a centrally located fuel tank, and some other structural changes to the cage and chassis.
For those who are wondering, here’s how a V8 SuperCar is born. While the bodies are based on a production car, they’re still silhouette cars. Meaning that there’s a tubular race chassis underneath a stock body. All cars use this new spec chassis from the COTF. The bodies start life as a standard body-in-white, and minor changes are made to the over all dimensions to fit the spec chassis and a spec exterior dimension. Despite these minor changes, the car is still a door-slammer four-door sedan that was born from a street car. Yum…
Engines are restricted to 5 liters, and are built in similar vein to SCCA World Challenge and Grand-Am Rolex GT class cars. In the case of our Holden, it was a LSX-based motor with a special “Aurora” block to reduce the displacement to 5L. The engines run up to about 7,500 RPM and make in the neighborhood of 650 horse power, but our demo ride was detuned considerably and limited to about 5,000 rpm; maybe to save the problematic new transmission.
What wasn’t held back, however, was the unique, and very aggressive driving style. Fabian Coulthard was our chauffeur. What the V8 Supercar seemed to lack in brute force, it made up for in tenacious curb-hopping grip. It’s weird apexing corner with the OUTSIDE tire as he cut across the corner’s curbs, but the aggressive style of driving makes for a very interesting and fast line. It feels like they’re setup a little softer than the average touring car just for the curb-eating abilities. Now imagine a fleet of them jumping across curbing, rubbing fenders, and battling through COTA’s s-bends, and you’ve got some exciting and rowdy racing.
Interestingly enough, Jesse James, of West Coast Choppers infamy, was out at COTA demoing his crazed NASCAR-go-kart: A NASCAR road race car that was chopped down to the bare frame rails, shortened, and made into an aggressive 2-seater demo car for COTA. Something like the two-seat open-wheel cars that you sometimes see, but without compromises to gain a passenger. The chassis was shortened down to 105-inch wheel base, a tubular body frame and cage was stuck on top, and covered in carbon fiber and hand-worked metal paneling. So imagine a short-wheel-base NASCAR with 1,000 lbs less weight, lower CoG, and an unrestricted 800hp V8.
Fabian and Jesse exchanged cars several times, getting a feel for the other side of the coin. Fabian looked a bit like a worried father as Jesse took out the V8 SuperCar, but Jesse was excited to finally see his mental go-kart make some runs at speed from the outside. “Man, I bet you he’ll come back wanting my motor in his car,” he joked.
The V8 SuperCar was still faster, due to being a stable car in the corners, but Jesse’s go-kart was mental on the straights, and is the only car I’ve heard so far that you can hear from the pits the ENTIRE time it’s on track. I’ll need to track down a joyride in this one, too.
Will V8 SuperCars be the radical, race-culture-changing race we want it to be in the US? Probably not; but it all depends on the fans and the following that grows in the states. I think for it to take hold and influence American racing fans, it needs to come at full force into the American automotive culture in the same way that rally racing has done in the last few years. Say what you will about Ken Block, but he’s brought a tangible, entertaining, and smash-hit taste of what rally racing is, and brought a new wave of interest into stage rally in the US. We need this series to influence our US-based series: Grand-Am, NASCAR, SCCA World Challenge. We don’t exactly lack road racing here, but we lack the fire-breathing, fender-into-fender competitiveness of the showroom-based race cars that the Australians enjoy so much.
I’ll leave you with some entertaining video provided by Circuit of the Americas of the COTF V8SC and COTM NASCAR playing on the track.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/bLprVBrNydo[/youtube]
Photos: Brianne Corn, Phillip Thomas
Video: Circuit of the Americas
![http://circuitoftheamericas.com/images/v8/v8_track2.png"](http://circuitoftheamericas.com/images/v8/v8_track2.png"){kind=link}
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