Who are the top 10 Australasian racing drivers of today and all time?

[Falcon500]

Oh good morning matra...didnt realise thatyou where going to join...i would of clearly stated that they arnt used to fordv8s coupled with our strict engine rules the only reason why i didnt state that was fpv in general knows what i mean...
I was pointing out that they have limited acsess to info in v8 supercars where some teams have a decade of data to fall back on that was my point...soon theyll be bringing their engine building plant to australia so their experimental engine dont need to be freighted from england too....Damn thing grenaded on glen seton...posted some good times never the less...
Anmd those land slugs where quite popular here too and the rover engine was a good donk...but it couldent even pull the skin off a rice pudding! it was much better in the Triumph cars and the leyland p76...the 4.4 liter version of the p76 donk was streched to 4.9 liters and raced in serveral raceing catigorys and replaced the repco holden based engine that Sir jack brabbam raced with...

[fpv_gtho]

Well Prodrive in the UK at least have their heads in WRC and F1 which work highly from new technologies like the valve systems on F1, the anti-lag systems in WRC and all the drivetrain equipment for both respective motorsports. When they come over here where we're using a simple 5 link, RWD, 6 speed H pattern drivetrain and pushrod engines, and you cant exactly win races because your engine development guys the day before, made you engine rev 100 revs more or you improved the shift times in the transmission. You win in V8 Supercars with the combination of a generally fast car, reliability and a good driver with a good knowledge of the track and i think Prodrive are trying to make a technological marvel rather than make it reliable and on par with the rest.

[Falcon500]

Well if they keep it up theyll more then likly makea marvel....the thing is we dont know how long itll take

[fpv_gtho]

well they may end up doing that but thats not their primary task, david richards is trying to get seton and lowndes on the front row and as it stands, LMS and SBR are the only Ford teams showing sufficient speed to do so off far smaller budgets. 888 are showing pace, but they dont have reliability as yet

[Falcon500]

Oh they have reliability...their drivers just over cooked a few manuvers and found the armco
So far many teams have great packages its going to shape up great this year...i also cant wait for eastern creek...i wonder if amrbrose will dominte like he did last time....the SBR Flacon absolutly flys on that track

[fordfan2]

Well as afar as touring cars go i would have to vote jim richards as the top...as much as im not afan youd find it hard not to admit he was defintly the greatest in the late 80s early 90s..
my list of touring car drivers goes
1. Jim richards
2. Dick jonhson (for all his touring car wins and immense desication)
3. Ian Gehoagen
3. Bob Jane
4. Peter Brock
5. Mark Skaife
6. Allan Moffat
7. "Stomin" Norman Beechy
8. Craig lowndes
9. Glenn Seton
10. Colin Bond (who was both rally and touring car champion)
This is what i think i would be willing to change...any opions edditions?

HI,
When you put as number 3 Bob Jane definately couldnt argue with you on that one won bathurst a couple of times i believe on now ownes the biggest tyre company in Australia Bob Jane T-marts i know this as my dad owns 2 Bob Jane T-mart stores here in Perth

[Falcon500]

Well i couldent decide between Geohagen and Bob so i made an =3rd...
He owned some of the most amzing vehicals in this country like his monza and his Camaro and still loves his motorsport even today....to bad hes a very sick man right now
His son rondey jane shares a passion for raceing but focuses his effort on the carerra cup...
His son now runs the show but he established it so i think the credit belongs mostly to him
And welcome to the forums...

[fordfan2]

Well i couldent decide between Geohagen and Bob so i made an =3rd...
He owned some of the most amzing vehicals in this country like his monza and his Camaro and still loves his motorsport even today....to bad hes a very sick man right now
His son rondey jane shares a passion for raceing but focuses his effort on the carerra cup...
His son now runs the show but he established it so i think the credit belongs mostly to him
And welcome to the forums...

Thanks yeh i Rodney crashed his porche which he races in the car last weekend bet he wasn;t too happy about that but i surpose that with all of his money he'll just buy a new one did you know that bob jane actually owns his own car museum.

[motorsportnerd]

Anmd those land slugs where quite popular here too and the rover engine was a good donk...but it couldent even pull the skin off a rice pudding! it was much better in the Triumph cars and the leyland p76...the 4.4 liter version of the p76 donk was streched to 4.9 liters and raced in serveral raceing catigorys and replaced the repco holden based engine that Sir jack brabbam raced with...

I realise that you were talking about Prodrive and Triple 888's lack of V8 experience earlier in the thread. Just thought I'd agree with Matra about other British race team success with V8s and point out that the Rover V8 was pretty successful in TWR Rover Vitesses in the European Touring Car Championship in the 80s. Didn't do so well in Aust though. Also the Brits had the road going version of the Rover Vitesse, which was a pretty good car. A few were imported to New Zealand, but don't think many made it to Australia. And, fill me in re the P76 4.4 litre engine. I know it was all alluminium, but I didn't realise it was related to the 3500 Rover engine.

[motorsportnerd]

I'm sure you all noticed, but in the picture of the Rover Vitesse that I posted, yes that is the Peter Brock/Allan Moffat Mobil Holden Dealer Team Commodore in 3rd place...

[fpv_gtho]

Oh they have reliability...their drivers just over cooked a few manuvers and found the armco
So far many teams have great packages its going to shape up great this year...i also cant wait for eastern creek...i wonder if amrbrose will dominte like he did last time....the SBR Flacon absolutly flys on that track

Well Rnd3 last year when Ambrose really took the race by the scruff of the throat, had there not been a safety car about 20-15 laps before the finish, Ambrose wouldve finished in excess of 1 minute ahead of 2nd place which was Craig Lowndes. Thw safety car came out when Ambrose had a 40 second lead and he finished with about a 20 second lead so thats a minute there.

well about 10 laps into race 2 at clipsal, Seton was out after he crashed making a passing manouvre through the hairpin on Skaife i believe, but i think it was down to a problem with his tear wheels, wether it was brake fade or rear tyre wear im not too sure of. Lowndes himself throughout clipsal seemed to be feeling all the reliability issues whilst seton managed to have the better car of the two, whilst towards the end of last year Seton was in a position to get some good results but the developmetn prodrive R8 engines he was using were starting to have some problems like misfiring which dulled his performance

[Falcon500]

The engine is identical other then a longer storke added in by leyland australia...repco found the engine was streached to its limit by 4.9 which was also leylands idea for the Force VII coupe motor...but the engine only saw the lightof day in super sedans and trans tasman F5000 and similar cars and most of the force 7s where crash tested leaveing only a small handfull alvie today....
Rover manifolding works on them and is a popular swap if the origonals are missing....
Yeah and that pic more then likly would of been the rover getting lapped....and im not kidding their they had some of the most absolutly pathetic race records...
Yeah but spot the diffrences between an ex Buick come english all alloy v8 3.5 and a ford 302 4.9 Windsor...you might be suprised the diffrences are immense...the only things the really have in common are the number of pistons....My point was the kind of engines eg american in origen and our specific rules are what they mainly lack in....Not to mention our catigory of raceing is quite the mystery to most people...5 link rear end blah blah blah...

[fpv_gtho]

well get the right person and they'll spot a million differences between a windsor, cleveland and Australian built 351.....you just got to know the right person i suppose.

the only real technical marvels of V8 Supercars are the telemetry used, the front suspension and the MoTec ECU.......everything else is fairly oldtech like the 5 link rear end, gravity fed fuel filler i suppose, the pushrod engines.......its just a proven formula and we're cautious of a change

[Falcon500]

Cautious to change and have been working on dman near the same things since 92....prodrive might be up to date with computers and high tech but outmethod has been refined over time....

[fpv_gtho]

well as we've said about SBR rebuilding their cars when FPR and 888 build new ones: why make changes when your onto a good thing. i forgot to mention before though the brakes are pretty good especially with the rotor size theyre fitting into a 17 inch wheel