If you have n’t heard of V8 Supercars , or if you think they ’re just a case of gondola with aV-8 engine , it ’s probably because you do n’t live in Australia – or New Zealand or Abu Dhabi or one of the small but growing number of countries where V8 Supercar racing has become one of the hot motorsports since , well , NASCAR in the U.S. Like NASCAR , V8 Supercar races apply modified version of actual product car , in this case the Holden Commodore and the Australian variant of the Ford Falcon , to even the reward between contenders in grueling subspecies that can run several hours and hundreds of mi in length . Although there are several racing serial publication involving V8 Supercars , the heavy and most pop is the V8 Supercars Championship Series . These races are hold as part of multiple events – 15 in 2012 – and take place at a issue of tracks , including event in every state in Australia .
V8 Supercars are realize by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile ( FIA ) as an International Championship serial ( as oppose to a National Championship series ) . For an external patronage , though , the V8 Supercars Championship series has been largely isolated to a single part of the reality : Australia and the Middle East . This will interchange in 2013 , though , when the V8 Supercars Championship Series comes to the United States – specifically , to the new Circuit of the Americas track in Austin , Texas , where the race will continue to be run for at least the next five years .
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile ( FIA ) is also know for oversee Formula One racing , which includes the Grand Prix series of event . If you suppose of V8 Supercars as the NASCAR of Formula One Races , you ’re not far off the mark , which would make the V8 Supercars Championship series the Grand Prix of stock car race . As with NASCAR , the " blood line " cars used in V8 Supercar racing are customized , but there are exacting rules for that customization , stricter even than those for NASCAR . The theme is that the advantage run to the best gadget driver , not to the most expensively built car , and the rules for customizing the cars warrant that no one railroad car or make of car will eclipse the event . The engine , the body , the free weight , thesuspension , thetires , thebrakes– all are tightly regulate by the V8 Supercar Project Blueprint .
In the following pages we ’ll show you how V8 Supercars got started , how the Championship Series act and when it will be arriving at a major racetrack in the United States .
A History of V8 Supercars
The story of V8 Supercars goes back to 1960 , when it was screw as the Australian Touring Car patronage . Until 1968 , it was a single race , not a serial . The first was take hold on the Gnoo Blas circuit in Orange , New South Wales , and the bring home the bacon equipment driver was David McKay , who plump on to become a racing journalist for the Australian Daily Telegraph . The car he drive in the winning race was a Jaguar Mark I. Many unlike types of car have won the Australian Touring Car title over the years , but in 1995 the dominion were changed to nail down that only two shuffle of cars were allowed : the Holden Commodore , a General Motors car made exclusively in Australia , and the Ford Falcon . ( Although the Falcon is made in the United States too , the version used in V8 Supercars is the Australian example . )
Why the Commodore and the Falcon ? Part of the grounds may be that these muscular 8 - piston chamber vehicles are the two most pop passenger car in Australia . They ’re particularly pop aspolice carsandtaxicabs , because of their strength and powerfulengines . And , on the tour Car circuit , they ’ve pull ahead quite a reputation as race car .
In 1997 , the Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company ( AVESCO ) was created to operate the serial and find ways to boom its popularity . One of these , in 1999 , was to change the name of the series to V8 Supercars . Interest in the sport also began to propagate and airstream began to be view as in other countries , particularly in the Middle East . Future hosts of V8 Supercars are expected to be South Africa , India , Korea , Singapore and Hong Kong and the U.S.
There are several fundamental result in the V8 Supercar Championship series . These include the Bathurst 1000 , moderate every October on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst , New South Wales ; the Clipsal 500 held on the Adelaide Street Circuit in Adelaide in March ; the Phillip Island 500 K accommodate at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria in September ; and the Sydney Telstra 500 at Sydney ’s Olympic Park , which is the grand finis event of the season , held in December . The Sydney Telstra 500 is the new of the Australian V8 Supercar events .
But what about the Supercars themselves ? We sleep together that they have to be either Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon model , but what else does it take for a machine to condition as a V8 Supercar ? There are some pretty strict rules . We ’ll appear at them on the next page .
The Making of a V8 Supercar
In 2003 , Project Blueprint was usher in to V8 Supercar racing . Project Blueprint place down certain rules that were intended to keep the races as close as possible , so that the automobile would have roughly the same racing capabilities . Here are some of the cardinal limitation imposed by Project Blueprint :
V8 Supercars Come to America
In July of 2010 , developer announce plan to construct a globe - class 3.4 - mile - long racetrack just outside Austin , Texas . The name of the track , which is schedule to unfold in 2012 , is the Circuit of the Americas , and its developer stated intention is to make it " the United States ' new home for the World Championships " of the racing world . They ’ve already signed upFormula One racing , make it America ’s menage for the Grand Prix . And they ’ve made a five - yr passel with V8 Supercars to run for the V8 Supercar championship races in the U.S. from 2013 until at least 2017 . The Circuit of the Americas is planned as a province - of - the - art facility that will not only appeal racing fans from all over the world but will also be home for conventions , conferences , hot amusement and a museum .
Texas Governor Rick Perry and Queensland ( Australia ) Prime Minister Anna Bligh were present at the event announcing the V8 Supercars agreement . Circuit of the Americas President Steve Sexton stated that he believes " Austin is poised to become the premiere North American finish for international motorsports . " Governor Perry also emphasized that " Texas is cursorily becoming the nation ’s blank space for bountiful sporting events as well . "
The V8 Supercars events will be carried live on Speed TV in the U.S. , which hold the Australian consequence on clock time postponement .
Although the V8 Supercar Championship series has already take the Australian racing human race by storm , its presentation in the United States should greatly increase its following and turn it into an consequence to rivalNASCARand Formula One . Ironically , the idea of extending V8 Supercar racing to North America was ab initio rejected by the organiser of the Championship Series , but its increasing popularity with major racing driver , many of them champions of the Indianapolis 500 and Formula One races , has apparently persuade them that coming to America is a good melodic theme . General Motors is also strongly supportive of V8 Supercars new American presence . Ford will no doubt follow suit .
If racing fans do n’t already find their sporting cup running over with Formula One , NASCAR , the Indianapolis 500 and other U.S.-based racing events , V8 Supercars should be just what they need to fill those 60 minutes that would otherwise be spent on non - racing activities . And the racing reality in worldwide can only benefit from the increasing popularity of this newfangled series of championship issue .
