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'ahhh Memories'

Ryan.R34

By Ryan.R34,
in Queensland

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Bunta Grand Master

Bunta

Posted
Posted
i know the sierras were running massively high boost, i remember watching them when i was a kid

i was so stoked when we went to the UK with the family, that our hire car was a sierra (non turbo, bodge version)

I had a look at them at the bathurst museum 2 years ago...massive turbo too!

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted (edited)
Got this on DVD, great to watch.

It would be great to see this brought back, Group A touring that is.

djr81, just because they lead by so much didn't mean they were going to win. Really the other car companies needed to come to the plate with their cars and build something decent. Instead they changed the face of australian racing to give the cheaper local manufacturers a go.

Just because back then the rules needed to be tweaked and cars needed to catch up to the GTR doesn't mean it was a bad time. But instead of everybody coming to the plate to create better cars, they changed the rules and changed australian racing forever.

Talk on the net, a lot of the older people still remember the Bathurst races and they were known world wide.

I'd love to see Todays M3, Evo's, GTRs and WRX's getting around the track along with Monaros, XR6 Turbos and Ford GTs. But instead we are stuck with the v8 super cars...

"Just because they led by so much didn't mean they were going to win."

No, they did occasionally break down.

What you need to take account of is the reality that by late 1990 the group A category was on its last legs. Most companies who had previously been actively involved ceased doing so. Most of the homologation specials had by that time been finished & there was very little factory development. It just so happened that Nissan were (other than BMW) one of the last companies to bother homologating cars to the regulations. For instance the Sierra was eligible in '87 in its evolution form. It was still doing the rounds 5 years later - which in motor racing terms is an age.

There was no chance that the group A formula could continue. As an international formula which required factory backing it could not survive without such backing. It was a case of which formula to replace it with 2 litre or 5 litre. Given the state of the BTCC presently I think it is a bit churlish to criticise CAMS for picking up on the 5 litre category.

Lastly production cars racing was never Australias premier formula. Even back in the early 70's the improved touring cars were more of a headline act than the production cars - Bathurst aside. Even if you do include Bathurst the most famous race there was an improved touring car race. Geoghegans Falcon versus Moffat's Mustang. Basically the growth in production car racing/improved touring car racing can be traced to the decline of the Tasman series from approx 1969 onwards. Production car racing still survives today, but at a much lesser level than the topline categories. It is still worth watching, however.

If you like your old school motor racing I would suggest checking out Late Night Legends on ABC 2. They periodically show old stuff, mostly from Warwick Farm. The shot below is of Pete Geoghegan in his Falcon (with tyre smoke) chasing the Camaro of either Norm Beachey or Bob Jane (Yes that Bob jane). Can't quite remember which.

post-5134-1172012638.jpg

Edited by djr81

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