We are probably traveling north of 160 mph when Michael Caruso grenades the brakes and fans the sequential shifter. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Down from sixth to second quicker than John McClane warming up a SIG Sauer. Caruso clips the pointy apex of the Circuit of the Americas' ultra-tight Turn 1 and nails the gas, grabbing a quick armful of opposite lock as the snarling 650-hp V-8 up front momentarily smokes the Nissan Altima's rear tires before launching us down the hill into a seemingly never-ending sequence of sweeping right-left turns.
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I know what you're thinking: 650 hp and V-8 and rear drive and Nissan Altima in the same sentence? Welcome to V8 Supercars.
V8 Supercars is Australia's premier motorsport series, a thundering riot of door-banging, fender-rubbing, wheel-to-wheel racing on of some of the world's most challenging road courses and unforgiving street circuits. My hot lap at Austin's Circuit of the Americas preceded the first ever V8 Supercars race held in the United States. And judging by the reaction of the Americans watching, the Aussies scored a home run.
For most of the past two decades, V8 Supercars has been Ford versus GM: the Blue Oval's Australian-made Falcon versus Holden's Commodore. That rivalry, as intense as anything in NASCAR, has fueled TV ratings and powered big sponsorship deals. But a dramatic change in the Australian car market has forced the category's rule makers to rethink their approach.
The problem is, Australians simply aren't buying Falcons and Commodores anymore. In 1993, the two cars accounted for almost 128,000 units, or 22 percent of the market. Last year, total sales struggled to top 44,000 vehicles, for a market share of barely 4 percent. Just days after the Austin race, Ford announced it would end manufacturing in Australia in October 2016. The Falcon has three years to live.
V8 Supercars has switched to a new vehicle architecture dubbed "Car of the Future" that's designed to encourage new automakers onto the V8 Supercars starting grid. It's a silhouette formula, but it's not NASCAR. It mandates a single wheelbase and standard placement of aerodynamic aids. Engines are production-based, 5.0-liter V-8s, and all cars run the same independent rear suspension, the same rear-mounted six-speed sequential-shift transmission (with the same ratios), the same brakes, and the same wheels and tires.
The fixed wheelbase means some changes to the bodywork—the Commodores have all been shortened by 3.7 inches through the rear doors, for example—but the rules insist the body profile must remain close to stock, and the cars carry production badging, grilles,
and lights.
Nissan Australia has entered four factory-built Altimas this season, powered by an overbored and destroked version of the Tennessee-built VK56DE engine from the Titan pickup. Other teams have turned the Mercedes-Benz E63 into a V8 supercar, paying AMG in Germany to develop the engines, much to the horror of Mercedes-Benz Australia, which is aghast at the idea of their luxury sedans racing against lowly Fords, Holdens, and Nissans.
Insiders point out the Car of the Future architecture can easily be adapted to the next-gen Camaro, Mustang, and Barracuda, offering the tantalizing possibility of extending the V8 Supercars franchise here to the United States. After watching the Aussie Altimas run at the Circuit of the Americas, the American Nissan motorsport guys swooned at the thought of running a team of similar cars. And Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota, as well as Lexus, BMW, Audi, and Jaguar, could equally be tempted by a fan-friendly, production car-based race series in one of the world's biggest automotive markets. Which, of course, would also make those cars viable for the Australian V8 Supercar series.
If an American V8 Supercar series came to fruition, the one thing I'd most like to see is this: a four- or six-race international series—Australia versus the USA—where the best from both countries duke it out on iconic tracks such as Bathurst and Laguna Seca. It would be the best road racing we've seen since the glory days of Trans-Am.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
