This might only be of interest to my Aussie counterparts, but after just watching today's Bathurst 12Hr (especially the MARC2 cars) it got me thinking as to where the Australian Supercars Championship is going to head into the future. My personal view is they might need to look at the MARC cars as the future. Whilst Class one would be an attractive prospect as DTM and Super GT run this class, I see it as just too expensive. And running turbo charged 2 litres, that wouldn't sit well with the die hard Supercar fan unfortunately. Using Aussie Dollars the costs are approximately; Supercars - $600,000 MARC - $350,000 DTM - 1.5M TCR - $150,000 The MARC Cars look tough, go fast and are cheaper than the current spec Supercar, which could entice more manufactures. They currently use a Coyote Ford engine but I don't see why current Supercar manufactured engines wouldn't fit. And imagine how good the following silhouettes would look done by the MARC guys. Chev Camaro, Toyota Supra, BMW M4, Kia Stinger and the list goes on. I've added a poll just for fun too. What does anyone else think???
Anything but TCR. I love watching the drivers tame those big cars. Supercars is unique as it stands, and its all the better for it.
I would say GT3 and GT4 but for the 'single-driver' thing. After the 12 Hours, GTs offer the best racing on the mountain, I would love to see them go this way. Won't happen obviously.
Personally, I would love it to continue on its current path, the cars look close to the real thing and you get great close racing. But looking at it with business glasses on, I'm concerned that without more manufacturer support, the costs will spiral out of control and be left with no championship at all. Hopefully they are in the progress behind doors of future proofing it.
I like the current format to be honest. In fact, it's one of my favorite racing series. Sadly, I don't have enough time to watch every race anymore, but I'm trying my best to keep up with the events.
GT3 is to expensive, and they are everywhere already. I haven't really kept up with it since it stopped being on motors TV over here, have the manufacturers dropped out then? When I was watching regularly Holden, ford and Merc were all going strong. It's a shame when championships go the way of spec chassis etc, I can see why it puts manufacturers off, it's not really their product anymore. I think that's why GT and TCR are so well supported. TCR is just a bit wet for my liking though.
This year only Holden and Ford are providing manufacturer support. Nissan pulled out at the end of last year, albeit Kelly Racing will still run 4 Nissan Altimas this year without factory support, but will need to move to another manufacturer in 2020. Volvo ran the S60 for 3 years with Garry Rogers Motorsport but pulled the pin and demanded their cars be shipped to Sweden so they couldn't even be used in privateer form. Mercedes never provided support as such, just gave permission for their cars to be used but proved too expensive for Erubus Motorsport to continue using the E63's, so have been using a Holden Commodore for a few years now. Their have been reports over the years of Kia and Alfa considering joining but these rumors have been squashed by the manufactureres themselves.