I do believe it was Moffat and someone else too I think
and yes brains are very much a part of it, and slightly related to that (kinda) is the Japanese car builders generally just use off the shelf parts (still to this day) havea look at their time attack events, 99% of the time the cars just run expensive standard replacement parts, that dont address the natural flaws in design
which is why the GMS GTR's were so much faster than the GTR's in japan, I'm sure you have looked under the GMS GTR before...it doesnt look very GTRish does it lol
Same goes for the DJR Sierra's, whilst in Europe and the UK the cars were making 450-500hp and running standard gearboxes and 7" wide wheels etc
the Cars out here went to hell with that idea and fitted Hollingers, 9" wide wheels, changed all the suspension, squeezed another 100hp from the motor etc etc
I would have loved to see some of the Aussie cars take it to the Japanese, I haev a feeling the Japanese teams would have had their ass handed to them by Commodores lol
That imo wouldve been due to the Japanese being rather protective of their own (see Nissan saying no to Freddo) which doesnt allow developement, same goes their current GT series, if you want to run a porsche or Ferrari in GT300 then expect to have 11ty billion more restrictions on your car compared to the Japanese cars
Where as out here we learnt, and learnt real fast when the likes of TWR, Nissan Works, and some Euros (Eddenberger Sierras anyone?!?!) came out for Bathurst and blew everyone away for a couple of years