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BrisbaneAndy

V8 Supercars

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I am not sure how familiar most people are with the V8's.

Anyway, a 14 year old will be driving in the third tier series. These things weigh 1,355 kg and pack somewhere around 640 bhp. Sorry to mix metric and imperial.

They have a locked rear differential, way too little grip and are a challenging drive.

I think it is nuts.

http://www.speedcafe.com/2014/09/18/fourteen-year-old-karter-race-v8-supercar/

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I am not sure if it means anything to Europeans and other non Antipodeans, but next weekend will be the Bathurst 1000.

Being able to drive the circuit, as it is a public road, gives you an idea of how challenging it is. The dipper is terrifying, although I was driving a Winnebago!

They do track days once a year and I was keen, but the speed limit is 130 kph, except for the final session. Caltex Chase is a kink at the bottom of Conrod Straight and is taken flat in a V8, somewhere around 300 kph in a saloon car with narrow tyres and dodgy brakes. I was keen to see how big my balls are flat in sixth.

I informed the other half yesterday that Sunday is a write off. I will be taking a fridge upstairs and cranking the surround sound up to pain on the decibel meter.

I went once, it rained all weekend. What put me off going was that you need to establish base camp early and then you are stuck there all weekend, otherwise you lose your spot. People get very territorial. One corner all weekend is not for me and I really need the data from the TV, who has stopped, how many times, who needs tyres, who needs a splash of fuel, that sort of thing.

Bathurst die-hards would call me a pussy, but the on course commentary does not cut it and a lot of people take a TV and genset. That makes no sense to me, it is a far better race on the big screen at home in HD.

I had to go once, but that was enough.

Who do you think will win, lads? It is hard to go past Whincup/Dumbrell but Lowndes/Richards is my sentimental preference. Records are expected this year, the track has been resurfaced.

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So hard to pick isn't it? Always has been, always will be, the fastest car 95% of the time doesn't end up winning here anyway so it's so hard to tell, but ill go Lowndsy like always. Top bloke. I got a story, I've met Lowndsy several times and he tops himself each time, first I was at a pitwalk during practice at the v8 race in surfers a few years ago with my then 3 yr old son. We stopped as my son noticed the 888 Vodafone commodore coming in the pitlane. Lowndes stopped basically 10 meters away from us,got out the car and my son yells " dad,dad, there's Lowndsy". Next minute he takes his helmet of, puts it on the roof of his car and comes over to my boy bends down on one knee, shook his hand and had a short chat and photo. Made my sons weekend, top top guy, got massive respect for him. Also met him again at an autograph signing. This is my sun visor from my commodore.

mcuqmr.jpg

From left to right: craig lowndes, Garth tander,Jason Bargwanna,James Courtney,Greg murphy,Neil Crompton,Jamie Whincup and now I've started on the drivers side which has Nick Percat.

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Not on a Holden, lol. Haven't met him yet and can't say I really like him that much tbh.

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Yeah I did, bit arrogant, the worst for that is James Courtney, rude a hole he is. Bargwanna is awesome, Whincup is ok aswell but I can't go past Lowndsy, top bloke.

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I saw him at a helensvale Chinese store years ago picking up food. It was only me in there waiting and just the two staff members working no one else, I saw him come in as I was sitting down waiting for my order, pays for his food. Then I noticed who it was and I asked him to sign a piece of paper for me. First he sayes he has no paper, so the shop owner gives me some paper, then he sayes he has no pen, so shop owner gives me a pen, then he turns around and sayes I have no time and leaves. What a w@nker. To top it of, my order was ready, went out to my car, put it in, had a smoke and this whole time he was just sitting in his pimped out territory in the carpark. No time hey?

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That sort of thing annoys me. He is all smiles at the track but rude in public. It could be argued that we intrude, but if you want to be famous, you will get attention. D'oh!

John Bowe got stuck in the car at Queensland Raceway years ago, someone boxed him in. He was in parc ferme in a car that must have been at 60 degrees with the heat sink post race. When they got him out, he was dripping wet though and looked on the point of collapsing with heat exhaustion. I gave him a bottle of water and was quite concerned for him.

This little kid wandered up and handed him a notebook and a pen. JB took the book, smiled at the kid and signed it. What a legend. I wonder what Courtney would have said.

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Back to Bathurst, what do you think to the rule on minimum number of pitstops because the Nissans and AMGs need more fuel to complete the race? You can probably guess what I think.

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Bit rediculous don't you think? Reminds back in 2010 when Marussia (Virgin back then) didnt have fuel tanks big enough for there cars to make it a full race distance. We didnt see other teams having to make "compulsory"pitstops to aid

Vigin did we?

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Wernt the skylines like that due to the twin turbos? But they had the pace to open the window for the extra stop.

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That's right, the penalty for the pace was the extra stop, which is fine. This effectively handicaps the pushrod engined cars because the multi valve brigade have inferior fuel burn.

Meanwhile, check out the Red Bull Bathurst liveries. Even worse, the race suits, in fact all suits, will be the same.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/motorsport/red-bull-reveal-special-raaf-inspired-v8-livery-for-this-weekends-bathurst-1000/story-fnec58e3-1227083512565

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Man that's horrid. Hate how v8 supercars changed from the group a and group c cars. They were the best to watch. I think the British touring cars are more exciting than the v8s tbh.

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They tend to trip over themselves a fair bit. I also think that they introduce things to fix problems that do not exist. An example of that is E85, so they appear green. The fact is that Ethanol is an energy user, it takes more energy to generate a litre of Ethanol than is yielded by the Ethanol produced. What it means is that diesel is burned by tractors and electricity is used in processing but 20% more energy is used than is generated, roughly.

At the end of the day the amount of energy consumed by haulers, teams flying to race meetings etc fa exceeds that consumed by race cars and we lost the flames!

Another one is tinkering with race formats and I do not like races to determine qualifying.

Anyway, I will be on the balcony for the last time at the Gold Coast 600 later this month.

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Yeah ill probably be walking around. No need for meto stay trackside as I only live ten mins away.

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That would be fine these days, probably a bit feral in the Champ Car and Indycar days.

What the circuit?

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No, Surfer's when the crowds were huge and the open wheelers were doing it large. I know the circuit is shorter these days and V8 Supercars claim the crowds are about two thirds the good old days, but I am convinced that they are not. In the CART/Indycar days it was longer, over 5km and now it is around 3km but the number of people is about 20%, from observation. Also, the number of boobies exposed has reduced from 40,000 to almost zero.

Thank you, Anna Bligh.

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Ahh Anna Bligh, the only thing/event she didnt try and sell.

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No, she just ruined it instead. You have to sign a code of practice since then, guaranteeing that there will be no boobies out on the balcony. Meanwhile, 100m away on Main Beach........

They took her around the circuit one year and she observed 'lewd and obscene acts.'

I have seen lots of bare breasts but nothing lewd and obscene. I guess it depends on your point of view.

FP1 is underway at Bathurst, live timing on V8Supercars.com.au.

Tander fastest from Winterbottom but they are doing 2.10's, so about 4 seconds off the pace of the FL, set by Mr Lowndes.

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