The Sydney 500 which was run say the weekend was billed as the final showdown between Ford and Holden, as though it was the end of an era. Although that might very well be true, the circumstances surrounding why that came to be are very very murky indeed.
The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport or CAMS saw as early as 1981 that the Bathurst 1000 was very quickly gaining attention as one of the world's big motor races. As early as 1979, Ford Australia had abandoned their motorsports commitment and Holden through the then Holden Dealer Team and a very very fast driver in Peter Brock, set about winning 6 from 7 races from 1978-1984. CAMS who wanted to see the race become a truly international event decided that Australia should adopt the then FIA Group A touring car regulations.
What happens when Ford and Holden let others play with them
The idea sort of worked. Tom Walkinshaw's Jaguar racing outfit entered 3 cars in 1985 and won the event, in 1986 Schnitzer's BMW and Volvo had come to play and in 1987, the German Eggenberger team won line honours with their Ford Sierra hatchbacks (but were later disqualified) as the Bathurst 1000 became part of the World Touring Car Championship.
The Sierra was so successful that it came to dominate touring car racing in Europe and here in Australia to such a degree (even Peter Brock ran them in 1989) that it took a factory effort from Japan in the form if the Nissan GTR to out-Sierra the Sierra. The Nissan GTR was to be honest, at the time, the single most technically advanced touring car the world had seen.
The car which really caused Ford and Holden's paranoia
Holden was increasingly annoyed that it was spending money to develop race cars and being beaten in its own backyard and so, with a willing co-conspirator in Ford, a new set of regulations were drawn up which would ban the Nissan and effectively close the doors to other manufacturers. No other manufacturers in the world apart from Holden and Ford were persisting with putting 5L V8s into four door sedans and so the new rules effectively locked out all cars except the Commodore and Falcon.
Mitsubishi had toyed with the idea of coming to play and a single prototype of sorts was built based on a Magna but that project was doomed (as eventually was Mitsubishi's Australian plant) and so, for 15 years all was safe and sound, and Ford and Holden had their ivory tower.
The thing which shook the tower was a little matter of the Global Financial Crisis. GM in Detroit suffered bankruptcy proceedings and Ford fared not much better. In the meantime, flagging sales of both the Commodore and Falcon began to call into question their continued existence; Ford has subsequently terminated production of the Falcon wagon.
How can there be a touring car championship with no cars to go in it?
The Car Of The Future regulations were drawn up c.2011 as an insurance policy to ensure the continued survival if the sport. The idea is to keep the same basic DNA of the cars and is an admission that the racing cars ceased to bear proper resemblance to their road going variants a long time ago.
So the 2013 V8Supercar championship isn't necessarily surprising or particularly innovative, it is however necessary.
Nissan have again joined the party with the yet unreleased Altima and Erebus Motorsports have decided to run 3 Mercedes-Benz E Class cars.
These two cars won't really share any components with the cars on the road but then again, neither do the Commodore or Falcon. All four marques in 2013 will be running purpose built race cars, which given that they're not even marketed as touring cars any more seems apt.
Given that it's taken 20 years to reach this point for Holden and Ford to finally relent and let someone else play, it makes me wonder where technology would have gone had they decided to beat Nissan at its own game at the time.
Ford took everything it learnt from the Sierra and then developed those bits into the Escort and then Focus. The RS Focus I suppose is the logical conclusion to that story.
Meanwhile, Holden may have countered with the Astra, which eventually won the British Touring Car Championship comprehensively but perhaps it too would have grown turbocharging and 4WD.
Perhaps choosing purpose built race cars with a rigid set of rules is the best way to go. Allowing too much freedom inevitably leads to a spending and technology war which is unsustainable. Who knows?
I do rather like the idea though that in theory anyone can take any four door sedan, throw some standard bits at it and go racing. I would like to see marques like Kia, Hyundai, Chery or Brilliant come and play top. Of course I would still like to see Ford and Holden throw their hat in the ring but then again, I've also always wanted them to take on the world at Le Mans, which is a far more impressive arena than touring cat racing ever was.
If they won't play in someone else's backyard, then at least letting everyone else play in ours is the next best thing.
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