Jack,
As Andrew hasn't replied immediately (but he is indeed the saloon car guru
for Australia on this list and I'm merely an itinerant Irishman who is
currently in Australia but knows a few folk on the racing scene here) allow
me to offer a doubtless moderately inaccurate guide to the world of what was
Group C sedans:
The Australian Touring Car Championship in various guises and regulations
has long been Australia's premier formula. F5000 and F Atlantic were the
leading single seater categopries but neither managed to supercede
saloons/sedans, certainly not since the Group C regs of 1973. The Oz. saloon
championship has long been centred around the Bathurst enduro race
(regardless of whether or not this actually counted for the championship)
along with sprint races and a couple of other enduros including Sandown
which takes the cars all over Australia (including Western Australia to
Wanneroo which is about the same distance from Sydney as London, England is
from Moscow, Russia - probably making Oz. racing the most spread out of all
in relation to population (barely 20 million).
Anyway, the big cars in Group C were largely the local Holdens, stuff like
Commodores/Torranas and so forth with big 5 litre engines ("local" but they
actually came from one side of Detroit or the other) fitted to GM Holdens or
the Fords. In fact, as you mention the likes of Camaros, they did also race
in this series driven by the likes of Kevin Bartlett - a local racing big
name in the 1960s and 1970s.
In terms of following FIA regs, Australia has often done it's own thing for
saloons, particularly because the market for cars is very different. While
the domestic market in Oz even today is being over-run with subsidised
little Oriental shitboxes which just get in the way of the proper 6 cylinder
circa 4 litre Ford Falcon and Holen Commodore saloons (also available with 5
litre V8s) - which is very unlike the European market where those litre 2
litre front wheel drive shopping cars predominate, hence the reason for 2
litre touring cars there. Oz did run to essentially FIA Group A saloon
regulations for a brief few years in the 1980s when they had 5 litre cars
running alongside Ford Sierra Cosworths etc. etc. Then Australia went for
its own Group A regs a few years back which allows only 5 litre cars from
Australian manufacturers (Holden or Ford) to compete. Whether or not this
restrictiveness is a good thing I'm not going to comment on especially as
I'm starting to veer into contemporaneity, and actually I don't think
anybody else markets a V8 sedan in this country. However, the racing in the
current Group A is awesome and the cars magnificently exciting on their own
(the former largely true for 2-litre cars but the latter largely not imho).
Oh, and the Australian public votes with its feet. This year with "head to
head" competition, 2 litres got about 20 thousand to their Bathurst outing.
5 litres got over 50 thousand a few weeks later.
Andrew will doubtless put me right on the bits I have got wrong and add more
details. However, in terms of racing a Group C versus US Camaros etc. would
make intriguing racing. If you're interested in coming to Oz let me know!
>Your conversations are interesting to say the least. Could you list a short
>definition of your various categories, such as what a Group C saloon car is?
>From your talk, it doesn't seem that you follow the FIA regs in total. I would
>be great if you guys could load up a container and come over here. Your
>Holdens, etc. against our Camaros and Mustangs.
>
>BTW, another stupid yank question; what is a "sheep station"?
As I understand it merely a farm full of Sheep. Simple as that. Don't know
why they call them "stations", few if any are near railways.
Regards,
Patrick
>Jack Woehrle
>Technical Director
>Sportscar Vintage Racing Association
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