Car of the Future could encourage other manufacturers to join Ford and Holden in V8 Supercars.
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By Adrian Musolino 12:48 PM Fri 30 July, 2010
Source: BigPond Sport
Adam Perry, V8 Supercars Australia Director of Racing, has told the latest V8 Insiders podcast that the category has identified seven different manufacturers who have cars that are suitable for the Car of the Future (CotF) specifications.
“We’ve identified probably at least seven different brands that should be able to accommodate the single platform,” he said.
“To the average person, they probably don’t realise we already modify heavily the current bodies, so while they look like showroom products, they are actually a little bit shorter than the genuine car.
“As long as the car is a medium to large passenger car, four-door, rear-wheel drive or the ability to be rear-wheel drive aspect, it will fit on the chassis – it’s just a matter of changing those particular panels to suit.”
CotF will be phased in over the course of the 2012 season, with the intention of saving costs, improving safety and encouraging other manufacturers to join the category.
“One of the key parts of the CotF program was to take the current type cars we have now and merge them into a common type platform so V8 Supercars would have a chassis that was available for other manufacturers to use,” Perry continued.
As reported by BigPond Sport last week, V8 Supercars Australia will oversee the building of two CotF prototypes, with the intention of easing the transition for the teams.
“It’s really about making sure that at the end of the prototype process, we are able to hand over a complete design and build specifications to the teams without them having to be concerned about the build process,” Perry said.
“V8 Supercars will identify the correct process for them to manufacturer at as well and provide them with the drawing for tooling so they can refine the manufacturing process.
“So where teams have previously taken three, four or five months to produce a chassis, this should be worked down substantially. We are looking around 100 hours out of the normal chassis build time we’ve experienced in the past,” he said.
To listen to the latest edition of the V8 Insiders podcast, follow this link: http://v8x.com.au/menu_2391/A_107001/cms/article.html
