Horse 1200 - Please Build a Legend, Holden

I do realise that this is a gratuitous excuse to put a picture of a BMW M3 GTS on this blog because to be perfectly blunt, I do think that it does look quite cool, however this post addresses something a little bit more than this. It's the big letter M on the door I'm concerned with. That M stands for Motorsport and that's something more important than how cool the car looks. Motorsport as a rule actually improves the breed.

If I look back through the mysts of time and try to pick the two coolest touring cars in Australian motor racing history, there are two obvious stand outs: namely the Ford Falcon XC Coupe and the Holden Torana A9X hatchback.

These two cars were both modified versions of cars you could buy from a showroom at any time. If you had the cash spare, you could very easily walk into a Ford or Holden dealership, plonk your money on the counter and drive away with a car that wasn't that far removed from the road car.
With a modern V8 Supercar, the cars are so far removed from the road-going versions that apart from the bodyshell in the case of the Falcon and not at all in the case of the current V8 Supercar Commodore, the cars they race are pretty well much prototypes; hence the reason why I mentioned the BMW M3 GTS in the first place. The M3 GTS is a development of sorts from the regular M3 and vicariously the 3-Series rep-box. Admittedly it's far far far removed from sat a

The M3 GTS has forced the hand of development at BMW. Faced with challenges to make the cars last 24 hours, BMW has over the past few years turned a relatively "fragile" car into a robust racer.
The V8 Supercars have been playing the same basic formula now since 1993, and in principle haven't really undergone anything like the developmental process that the BMW M3 GTR has, and nor are they really "pushing the envelope" that far either.

It seems to me that Holden and Ford in Australia are playing with dinosaur technology. Basically the single-cam pushrod V8 from Holden dates in principle from GM's "small block" V8 of 1968 and the Falcon's Windsor engine dates from 1962.
Why in 2011 are they still playing with engines more than 40 years old?

I think that the Le Mans 24 Hours would provide a proper challenge for Ford and Holden. Holden "tried" with their 427 Monaro to have a go at a 24 Hour Race but it wasn't really a proper test because the rules were bent to allow it to compete... and win. Ford on the other hand haven't really made a proper effort at Le Mans since the GT40 of 1969.

As it is, Craig Lowdnes was racing for Team Joest in an Audi of all things; at Bathurst no less in the 12 Hours this year. The first Ford across the line was an FPV Falcon GT in 13th and the first Holden was an HSV spec Astra. An ASTRA?! What is this? Being beaten in your own backyard is disgraceful.
If an Audi R8 can come to the Bathurst 12 Hour, what's  to stop Holden from going over to Le Mans and having a go in the 24 Hours?
I think that there is a case to be made to send three 7L HSV Maloos to Le Mans to try and beat the BMW M3 GTS and the Corvette C6. I think that it would help to rekindle the flame of competition and even if it wasn't all that successful, the coolness factor and the legend which would result from Utes at Le Mans would stretch on for years to come.
Obviously you could draw from the existing componentry of V8 Supercars for the suspension and drivetrain etc. and maybe develop a bit of a long-tail body kit for it to give you the downforce to cope with Mulsanne, but I know that the potential is there just waiting to be unleashed.




If someone is from Holden and you are reading this*, then please do it. Get the HRT or 888 to build them for you. Heck even send Bob Katter as an ambassador with them with his big hat, whatever happens, we'd all win.

*If you are from Ford and you're reading this, then I have less faith in FoMoCo generally to support motor racing. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie bounces... or the ball crumbles.