SUPERCARS IN A PICKLE? Opinions on Supercars' Parity Issues and Potential Future

Supercars is a great series, but at the minute it feels like it's lost its way a bit. Whether that's the change from the familiar cars, or the constant whining about parity and the dominance of the Camaro, I'm not sure. But with the problems going on, it looks like one of the series' stalwarts could be gone if things don't sort themselves out.
In addition, the parity changes that were supposed to happen in time for the series' biggest race of the season never came to fruition, which annoyed a lot of the fans who wanted to see the annual fight for supremacy by team red and team blue.
So what is going on, and how can this hurt this awesome category in the long run? Let's find out.
Enjoy! And remember to like and subscribe for more!
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[@corporalpunishment1133]

Dude every point you make is spot on as someone who remembers Peter Brock driving a Ford Sierra. Parity only becomes an issue when a Holden (GM) is not winning.

[@hogtownhenry]

Yep, plain as a proboscus on an anteater's face.

[@noelwebb6843]

Garbage there have been more changes to benefit fords & once after being forced to use an entirely different front end & 3 Holden teams were not permitted to test

[@mikespearwood3914]

When did Brock drive a Ford??

[@noelwebb6843]

@@mikespearwood3914 1989/90

[@TwistLosi]

@@mikespearwood3914 Back in the 89 / 90, he also drove a BMW in 88 after parting ways with Holden.

[@gusm5128]

One of the biggest gripes from Ford fans , me included , is when in 2019 when the Mustang came out and it started winning Supercars jumped on it and were regularly adjusting it till they got the Holden on an even keel with the commodore. Now it’s much worse for Ford as the brand have only one race all season and still Supercars refuse to do anything of substance. I believe Ford will pull out and Supercars will only have themselves to blame .

[@paulscrimgour4769]

U read my mind and the speed these changes happened with no fkn triggers i tell you there are heaps of ford fans fuming bout this

[@TheWolfandreptile]

Supercars funded the Camaro while Ford themselves funded the Mustang.

[@brod100]

Amen. I dont watch Supercars anymore because of this.

[@mattyguff1]

I hope so.

[@AidanMillward]

@@realist5687 Larko is blue to the core but at least he gives credit where credit is due. Crompton isn’t bad tho.

[@noname-sd5dt]

Im an Aussie and didn't even watch Bathurst this year. Supercars is just modified TransAM at this point. The bathurst 12h is more interesting.

[@falconmclenny7284]

Series died when we stopped building cars.

[@dylanangel2870]

well youre one of the few, yeah its sports sedans, really need that arb control back though

[@haydonclampitt]

Honestly they just need to bring the previous gen cars back. Maybe have a Chevy chassis built for branding reasons but yeah

[@kevfartt]

Sad this is we have a trans am series with great racing but it gets no funding because of Supercars.

[@joshiek7839]

@@kevfarttwhat did Supercars do?

[@billrosenberg20]

You have stated the facts perfectly, it is a Holden/GM club, it always appear that Ford are welcome to compete, but definitely not actually win.

[@mattyguff1]

Exactly. Rigged.

[@harrywalker968]

88. sierras, 4 laps ahead.. banned.. holdens run 9'' diffs,, but thats o.k.. eh.. hq racing. used ford cranks.. holden gm, scurge..

[@ChrisMusson-kv8ph]

No Fords just suck. They can’t win in Nascar either.

[@fordfalcon01]

There is the problem, Skaife, failed at running a team and had to be saved by Ryan walkinshaw. As said a GM lifer, who not only was involved in the development of Gen3, but also part of the ownership group of the sport and commentates. For the sake of the sport, he needs to be removed.

[@timjohnun4297]

To be fair, Skaife was thrown into running HRT after Holden themselves rescued the operation from Tom Walkinshaw Racing, which went belly up. The rules said that the team couldn't be factory owned, so he bought it himself and ended up selling it back to Walkinshaw. And I wouldn't say he was a GM lifer. He started racing in Ford Lasers and spent a long time driving for Gibson, in Nissans. Had Ford backed Gibson as he requested, Skaife would have driven a Falcon, not a Commodore

[@sonofdat]

For someone on the other side of the world, your explaination and execution is brilliantly spot on. I Grew up a massive Holden fan and switched to the blue oval following my favourite driver at the time, (and actually driving some fords and realising they were better cars.) I am really disappointed with the sport, i knew my guy Cam Waters (6) had no chance, so i spent the day begging for cars to fail rather than egging on favourites to win. Ive never hated a car with as much passion as i hate Camaros! its the first time ive ever seen your channel and your a likeable guy, come to Australia and join our commentary team, we can always sack Mark Skaife!

[@slavojalois1639]

This is the first time here for me too, and yep, this guy is on point for sure. For me this stuff has been going on for at the very least, since the days of Allan Moffat, Bob Jane and Peter Brock Ford's huge dominance of the time, the Holden/GM dudes hatted AM with a passion and they hated him because they thought he was American (Yank), trust me on this I grew up as a wog kid in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. It seems to me the Fords always have to do the adjusting and the hard work to achieve the so-called parity and listening to Skafe babble-on is like someone scraping fingernails down a blackboard!

[@tulmar4548]

Was at the 1000 this year. Sitting on the case exit about 6m from the track. Its a chest thumping experience. However, the Ford Holden rivalry definitely has not been replaced by the gm Ford rivalry like suoercars had hoped. It felt like noone actually gave two sh*ts about who made the cars. Crowd was also pretty tame , more of a family day out than anything. Gizzy was greeted with dull claps and cheers on his last lap, it seemed to lack any excitement. Sad really , its kinda lost some of its zing. I've met quite a few who just don't care for the series anymore. Maybe the international viewers will be the only ones that keep this series alive over the next few years.

[@joefratianni8693]

I just cancelled my superview subscription, it went to $100 bucks a year...just too much. So I wouldn't hold out hope for us internationals to keep it alive.

[@isthatrubble]

seemed like there were less people near the track than in years past, but that might be a restriction from the organisers rather than people not wanting to do it anymore, idk. I think it's crazy to expect a "new" rivalry to emerge so quickly when the replacement for one "team" is the company that killed the old "team" and has seemingly made no attempt to make inroads into aussie culture to get brand loyalty going. I honestly don't know what will happen to fan interest going forward, I can't imagine it will be good.

[@muaythaigoof]

My family are huge fans of the category (my channel has onboard from ride days I've been on) but the series has lost it's soul. Feels way too political now. Makes us question whether to renew our team memberships. We were at Bathurst ourselves, near pit entry, and the race just felt meh.

[@fuller9x]

I'm finding the 12 hours GT racing to be a much more exciting race as it grows in popularity.

[@DDS029]

@@muaythaigoof Welcome to NASCAR. I long for the days you could fix a race car by finding a stock part, new or used, put your modification to it and go racing. That I guess is the automotive definition of a "pipe dream." Come to think of it, that attitude, for the modern era, could help the parity. Take these standardized parts allow the teams to modify them WITHIN NARROW PARAMETERS, to look for their advantage, or in a lot of cases, their equalizer.

[@sdx3918]

I ain't Australian but i feel like previous generation supercars from like 2000s to early 2020s really felt like its own distinguishable thing completely separated from other motorsport leagues which helped it stand out on its own but with Gen 3 even though I still find the racing enjoyable. I can't see it being anything other than NASCAR with wings or GT3 but there's no assists..

[@ataritheplaneliker]

dude I'm an aussie and I grew up watching gen2 and you couldn't be more spot on

[@tturi2]

I think having the falcon and commodore as the main cars helped, I absolutely wish the new gen3 engines were in the older cars and not the 1990s engines

[@elmonteslim3711]

Since it is no longer Holden vs Ford Falcon most Australians have completely lost interest. I didn't even bother watching it.

[@antonyread5595]

This is exactly it from my point of view. I loved v8 supercars growing up, I’m British like Aiden. It was so awesome and Aussie, flame spitting v8 saloons, sideways at will of unchecked! Nothing else like it. Then there was/is the talent driving the cars. Now it just looks and seems like another gt3 class and has lost a lot of its identity.

[@irishcufta8]

More like GT4 with the low aero kit. I liked that I can see Opel insignia in my neighbourhood and think of V8 supercars... No camaros in Cork Ireland. Saw few mustangs this summer. I like the Brazilian stock car pro. Still V8 and nice car shapes Chevy vs Toyota

[@otrab1080]

Haven't followed Supercars in almost a decade now. I checked it out again for the Gen 3 cars and it put me off following it again. Supercars was originally a touring car series for domestic manufacturers. We don't have domestic manufacturing any more. They're trying to keep it as Holden vs Ford when Holden doesn't exist anymore. Supercars now seems to be more concerned about Mark Skaife's ego than putting out the best product that they can.

[@bjorn1583]

the touring car series was for any car manufacturer no matter where it was built until ford no longer stood a chance of winning so they were all kicked out and it became domestically produced V8s only

[@TassieLorenzo]

@@bjorn1583 I think you mean Holden. The Ford Sierra was still somewhat competitive against the Nissan GT-R and Ford could always have developed an equivalent AWD model for racing like the Sierra Sapphire 4x4 or Escort Cosworth.

[@bjorn1583]

@@TassieLorenzo no l mean ford, it was completely fine to have a non australian car to win as long as it was ford but the moment ford got its a$$ handed to it by nissan including with nissan having having massive weight penalties and boost restrictions. you say the sierra could hold its own then how come nissan won most of the races with lots of 1st and 2nd place finishes with the 3rd place no where in sight, just look at how far the first sierra was to the nissan in the last bathurst it raced, you know the "your a pack of a$$holes" year

[@mikespearwood3914]

No, it's been a Holden/GM category for decades. Look at how the Gen2 & Gen3 Mustang have been treated!@@bjorn1583

[@warrenellis167]

@@bjorn1583 errr.. how well were Commodores going in those days? Worse than the Sierras from memory. I'd hazard a guess that Holden had a lot to do with group A being punted in favour of 5.0l touring cars.............

[@garyeanes4747]

Absolutely LOVED V8 Supercars. I have over 100 1/18 scale diecast models of various Holdens (Commodores and Monaros) and Ford Falcons. Watched them race here in Austin TX at COTA 10 years ago. Then, they stopped televising races here in the States. Using VPNs is still difficult to access streaming of races. In the end, the race series died for me several years ago and I have largely forgotten about it. Sad really. I thought V8 Supercars had the potential to be a world class series. Racing was exciting. It was the "rawness" and muscle of NASCAR on actual road circuits with talented drivers.

[@PickstockRacingFabrication]

7plus shows some races (they're split with foxtel) Bathurst was live streamed but I'm not sure how other events are being handled.

[@SAHOYT71013]

I discovered that Supercars has an official global streaming subscription, so I bought a month- $10 AUD and the exchange rate for yanks turns that to $6ish USD. I'm comfortable tossing that money and I was able to stream the whole race in high quality.

[@harrywalker968]

ausi,, i watch races, on computer.. last bathurst i watched was 87..all MORE, bs after that.. dont pay them money, there ass holes.. cheats.. btcc is better.. less or no, bs rules..@@SAHOYT71013

[@cowcocky]

Great write up. Only thing I’d add is Chev isn’t putting any money into Supercars whereas Ford is putting in a lot. So Ford is paying for their cars to be beaten. Also the focus on corporate dollar has seen the fans being ignored to a great extent. Ticket prices have soared with crowd numbers tumbling. As a friend told me the historic car meet is now getting a bigger crowd at Phillip Island than Supercars at the same track.

[@bjorn1583]

the ticket prices have gone up to try and make up for the loss of spectators due to the cars not being australian anymore which in turn turns more spectators away

[@mattyguff1]

Touring car masters is the future.

[@mattyguff1]

@@bjorn1583 and they don't like televising the support classes. Because they are better races to watch.

[@harrywalker968]

yeh.. id rather visit a running farm, than a horse in a paddock..

[@TheOneWhoMightBe]

This year was the first year in 30, perhaps 40 years where I have not booked the entire weekend off and worn a groove in the sofa due to sitting and watching all the practices, Qualy, and the race live. I found that this year, for the first time, I frankly couldn't care less about it. I knew who was going to win (and he did), and I knew Ford wasn't going to be competitive. I also couldn't care about both shells; I grew up with Commodores and Falcons racing around the track. Camaros and Mustangs hold no particular interest to me so there wasn't that drawcard either (and 6th Gen Camaro production is ending sometime next year, so good job spending all the resources to wedge it into the series). Side note: Larko actually got fired when Supercars changed FTA broadcasters a few years back, and was only reinstated because the fanbase practically rioted.

[@johnphillips519]

Absolutely agree with everything you said

[@formulafish1536]

As a life Holden man, I have been screaming about the failure of Gen3 all year. The fords are fast, but as stated, between stalling rear aero and the engine stuttering, they have no chance at all Half of the board needs sacking and capable people put in charge. Gen 3 has only improved engine mileage, everything else has gone the opposite way they wanted

[@harrywalker968]

lifer holden guy, brainwashed from birth.. fk,,if you knew the real story.. its a 1 horse race with horse rules, from day dot.. tell me,, how does a 6 cyl torana, with illegal /legal, sidedraughts, win bathurst.. multiple time,, & the SLR,s , commodores,with 9'' diffs.. because no salisbury diff would last 2 laps.. &, v8 brakes on 6 cyl toranas.????... holdens are cheats.. fk holdens,. thank fk broky is dead & holdens dont exist anymore.. good fkn ridence.. holden killed themselves.. my bro worked there for 6 yrs,, says there patheitic, stuk in the 60,s.. even the gm ceo came out, & was disgusted.. if,, the aus gov. didnt favour jap sht. we would have denali,s camero,s, pontiacs.suburbans, blazers,ect.. all the decent gm produce, not sht commodores.. the u.s. sent the first commodore,s back to aus.. as the paint wasnt good enough.. only good holdens, were the last 3 models..mate still has his LS monaro. maroon.. id be driving a corvette.. IF..

[@harrywalker968]

the oparative word here.. is... RACE.... my the best man win.. not dogged by bs rules..

[@Holden308]

Fun Fact: After racing karts and other introductory series in the early-mid 1980s, Mark Skaife began his top line racing career with the old Fred Gibson Racing who at the time (1986-1992) were also the official works Nissan team in Australian touring car racing (to the point where they even had NISMO support from Japan). When Group A was coming to an end in Australia at the end of 1992, Gibson being an ex-Ford Works Team driver from the 1960s and 70s (a Bathurst winner in 1967 no less, the first V8 win), went to his old stomping ground to talk about racing a V8 Falcon in 1993 ... and was rejected. Thus, the only option was to take his multi-million dollar Winfield sponsorship (remember the red Winfield Williams F1 cars?? Same sponsor, Aussie cigarette brand owned by Rothmans of Pall Mall) to run Holden Commodore's, which they did. And that is how Mark Skaife in 1993 became a Holden driver, because Ford Australia had said no to supporting Gibson Racing in what was then called Group 3A 5.0L Touring Cars, which became V8 Supercars from 1997. Ironically, Ford's factory support in the early days of the V8 formula was minimal. The front runners were obviously Dick Johnson Racing and Glenn Seton Racing, but usually the extent of their factory support from the Blue Oval was getting new body shells direct from the factory without all the on the road extras like sound deadening etc, and sponsorship through their Motorcraft parts brand.

[@ArnoldTriyudho]

Rejected because Gibson was running the R32??

[@bjorn1583]

@@ArnoldTriyudho the r32 was being banned cos they couldnt win against it thats why gibson motorsport went to ford then holden, its also why it went from australian touring car championship to V8 supercars so none of the non australian cars could compete

[@TassieLorenzo]

@@bjorn1583 To be fair, all turbocharged engines were banned (which I do not agree with). Anyone intending to run a Sierra in 1993 or 1994 also had to run it without the turbo in the 2000cc class. But as you say, the lack of effort to keep the works Nissan and BMW teams involved was disgraceful. For example, why was no consideration given to homologate the Nissan Cima or E34 BMW 540i? They were substantially similar V8 saloons to the Commodore and Falcon, after all.

[@warrenellis167]

@holden308 I never knew Fred Gibson approached Ford to run Falcons, I always wondered why he ran Commodores back then. It pisses me off how stupid & arrogant Ford have been to some of their most loyal & best people & teams, I mean who the HELL made the decision to pull support from 888 racing back in the mid 2000's?? The most successful team of the supercars era & Ford gave them the middle finger & said on your bike!! Absolute madness.

[@Holden308]

@@warrenellis167 ...Gibson approached Ford first out of loyalty, but went with Holden as Ford Australia were not really in racing at the time. They (Ford Australia) had a history of doing that, offering factory support one year, pulling it the next. Allan Moffat Racing went from factory to privateer to factory with Ford Australia more times than you can poke a stick at in the 1970s. In the end it even the Ford King himself got jack of it and went to Mazda. @tassielorenzo7070 is correct, it was all turbos banned from 1993. The GT-R is often credited with killing Group A, but the reality is that it was just the final nail in the coffin of a dying category. In Australia, most motor racing fans grew up on big Aussie V8's and that's what the public (and broadcaster Channel 7) wanted. And from 1993 until Volvo, Mercedes and Nissan came back into it, the rules did actually only allow for Ford Falcon's and Holden Commodore's running V8's. The BMW M3 Evo (2.5L straight 4) was allowed to run in 1993, but not from 1994. BMW, Nissan and Volvo, plus Audi later on, all went on to be the major players in Australian Super Touring. And if you're young and have never watched those races, go have a look here on KZbin. They put on racing that was equal to and sometimes better than the V8's.

[@thirdwheel1985au]

10:44 Something like this happened in the 70s and early 80s - after the supercar scare, Ford pulled out while Holden shifted the development to the dealership teams, being hands off just enough to not anger the fleet buyers that threatened to pull out. In 1980, Holden pulled out as well, reasoning that there was no competition so there was no point. The 1980 season only got the new Commodore and Falcon because someone at CAMS had the idea to put the homologation in the hands of drivers - Murray Carter and Gary Wilmington for Ford, Peter Brock and the HDT for Holden. Side note, Moffat gave up on Ford and got a factory backed Mazda RX7 homologated in 1981.

[@grantleyhughes]

Really well thought out response to an ongoing issue. I miss proper touring cars and the privateers mostly. How they managed to screw Gen3 up so badly is beyond me, especially with the 18 month delay to "get it right" . Currently it's like F1 where one of two teams will win.

[@theanticom4053]

Cheers for the video. The second Ford victory was due to tyre bank after a DNF the day before. Mark Larkham was sacked and reinstated to avoid rioting. The old boys Holden club is in fact, the culture of the sport for all time.

[@TakFR]

As someone who has been watching since they were about 6 years old I agree, I could bring up so many examples of things being skewed into HRT's favour ever since the AU and VX days.

[@lilbickleymane]

The best thing about Bathurst is that honestly anyone can win it, especially when rivalries were big in the 2000’s. Now there barely any rivalry and the cars are so dialled in it’s just a snooze fest. SVG up by 90 seconds ahead of the pack with 30 laps to go, boring a fuck.

[@hart-of-gold]

This has happened before, kind of. I forget which year, early 90's IIRC, but the opposite was happening the Holden front tyres were wearing rapidly and the Holden teams wanted a few millimetres change to the spliters. The ruling a week before Bathurst was the Fords needed to take 100mm width off their front spliters. The cars ran with 40mm-50mm of front tyre showing from the front and had no chance to race on the straights.

[@no-namecrown5510]

Seeing the homologation specials that go hand in hand with Bathurst on the road is now history 😢

[@jimmymiddleton1307]

Spot on mate. I stopped watching in 2019 with the crap show that was going on then. The whole championship has ALWAYS been in GM's interest. Right back to the AU's. I've been searching for years for the clip where Russell Ingall actually spoke out about the disparity when Holden had 3 times the front end downforce, and NOTHING happened. I only keep tabs through socials, and laugh at the dead man walking the category has become. GT3 racing will eclipse Supercars in the next few years. It's a shame.

[@daniellebcooper7160]

Even in its first year, after they stopped racing seiras (early 90's) , the falcons were dominant. So Cams waited till bathurst before they stung the falcons, and it was a commodore cake-walk.

[@hogtownhenry]

Absolutely. In Nascar and Supercars same shit, different day. I don't bother watching any more. Now seeing Moffat, Geoghan, Jane, Beechey, Johson pushing their 4 wheel kamikase machines around good circuits. Wonderful memories before the whole shooting match was seized by money grubbing promoters.

[@paulscrimgour4769]

Spot on ive been following since early 90s its always been gm orientated which is very very unfair

[@melo83ish]

It's a relief to hear that people on the other side of the world can see clearly what's happening and what's wrong with the category at the moment. That fact still won't wake supercars up to themselves unfortunately

[@dukedragon28]

They are doing a parity review ahead of the Gold Coast 500

[@Grant80]

@@dukedragon28big surprise jus5 after Bathurst

[@dukedragon28]

@@Grant80 Thats the rules for the parity review, as dumb as it is

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@dukedragon28 The problem was the Ford teams needed some help with parity at Bathurst.

[@ayrtonsenna1989luke]

I lived in Perth, WA back in 2015. I went to the V8 Supeecar race at Baragulleo. Was great. Had alot of Manufacturers, Ford, Holden, Volvo, Merc, Nissan. Good times

[@davidbooth8492]

Hi Aiden, Love the channel. You are correct again on this topic. Being Australian and watched motor racing all my life (born 1960 and a Ford fan) it has been disheartening to see that there has nearly always been Holden (now Chevy) bias in Australian motor sport. I believe this is due to Holden always putting more money into the sport and Ford never being as interested in a small backwater that Australia is motoring wise. Going back to the 70's Holden had proper works teams, we called them "Dealer Teams" in those days and Ford really only had a couple of stalwarts Moffat and Johnson that really kept Ford as engaged as they have been. This al meant that Holden had greater success and it follows that most of the power brokers ended up Holden supporters, which as you mentioned still influences decisions made today. Parity is an evil necessity and it takes time to get sorted at times but the screaming is always louder when the Ford may have a perceived advantage, as was witnessed when the first Mustang was introduced, although it was only McLaughlin beating them there were plenty of Mustangs behind the Redbull Commodores. As you said it is so stupid that an organisation as large as Supercars can' have access to a wind tunnel to insure fairness. Supercars have at least removed some of the aero and most components cost less which is all heading in the right direction but I will never forgive them for not telecasting on free to air, that is UNFORGIVABLE!! I believe the sport was at its height when Tony Cochrane was in in charge, sometimes a benevolent dictator is what sports need but it does have to be the right one of course. Anyway they are my thoughts, Have a great day.

[@bjorn1583]

holden had more success because they made smaller, lighter and more nimble cars and they had to restrict elements of the holdens so ford stood a chance and now all the cars are built to ford specs so get lost with your so called holden bias

[@TassieLorenzo]

​@@bjorn1583 The VN Group A & VP Group 3A (V8 Supercar) Commodore was more or less the same size as a Falcon again!

[@BadApe351]

@@bjorn1583 How are all the cars built to Ford specs? Chev's got it's own engine, own body - but most other components are common to both - as opposed to Gen 2 where we had to put up with Mustangs that looked so weird - because Ford had to bastardise the body to fit the Commodore's dimensions. And yes I agree with Aiden - there's been an underlying bias towards Holden - and now Chev - for most of the 60 years of touring car racing in Australia. True...Ford has run hot and cold with the money over that time. So the company is partly to blame. And the results over that time have reflected it. The only really dominant years for Ford have been the early 70's and the Sierra era. But this year has been particularly one sided towards Chev - because Supercars threw it's own money into the development of the Camaro - so as to keep Holden fans coming to the track. That's because Chevrolet wouldn't throw any real money into it. But in the end they have made it so dominant that Ford is seriously considering pulling out all together. And I don't blame them. Personally I'd love to see Ford pull the pin just long enough for Superfarce to collapse - so touring cars here could start with a clean slate - and get back to fairer and more exciting racing.

[@bjorn1583]

@@BadApe351 the chassis and diff are to fords specs, you know the most important parts and its been that way for years

[@davidbooth8492]

Glad to see someone else knows whats going on.@@BadApe351

[@Oblivion9873]

All Im saying is theres reasons why SVG wants to move to nascar...

[@polycube868]

Brody Kostecki also did a NASCAR race, being in the States I've not seen the Aussie Supercars regularly since Speed Channel became FOX Sports, I know CBS Sports had highlights and showed bits of 1 race and a longer 40ish minutes of the other, but I haven't seen those since 2017.

[@typeoddnamehere2362]

Wasn't he told off (and penalised, no less!) at one point for complaining about the cars too much? That alone says a lot.

[@AidanMillward]

@@typeoddnamehere2362SVG was told to shut up by Supercars yeah.

[@wadeturner3791]

It's a fairly interesting point that they waited till after bathurst to "approve" the changes. Considering at bathurst they said no. Seems abit suspect if you ask me. I hope that ford pull out completely.

[@VinylScratchOfficial]

It's entirely suspect, without a shadow of a doubt. Had to make sure Ford was kept under boot for the only race of the year anyone cares about. Supercars needs to thanking its good graces that it's Erebus winning most of the races, because if it was T8 all year the series probably could have collapsed already.

[@MattyS02]

The parity trigger hadn't been hit before Bathurst. The changes had to be signed off by all the teams to be included, and what GM team is going to approve that? The teams have too much power and someone needs to make the tough decisions for the good of the category.

[@ascendanthunter]

Bogan Christmas! as an Aussie i've never heard that before but it's perfect. Subbed!

[@marksimpson2689]

Great video Aidan, one minor point which you missed is that Ford is the only manufacturer involved as Suoercars went to GM and got permission to use the Camaro IP and build thier own race cars from that

[@tonymartin2151]

DINOSAURS

[@didgereemedia194]

I'm a Holden guy, have been almost all my life, but I am desperate for more Ford wins.

[@Inveterate-introvert]

This is very much how I feel hypercar is going to go. Tons of interest but in a few years when no one can touch Toyota or the grid is flooded with privateer Porsche's certain marquees will leave because they can't compete. There was a time in the 60s where touring cars had tiny minis that were brilliant in the corners and slow in the straights and massive V8s that were great in the straights and like boats when the steering wheel wasn't straight. That WAS the BOP. But now there's so much money and R&D in car development - and reliability, that parity and BOP has become toxic and easy to get wrong. Look at how bad the Porsches GTs were at the Daytona 24... and then marques leave the series because they feel they can't compete.

[@TmanUtube]

As a die hard fan of the Bathurst 1000 since I was a kid in the 70s on free to air. I refuse to give Murdoch any of my coin just to watch it. I was bored this year I had Bathurst on in the background but barely lifted my head to watch it. I also was recovering after seeing KISS play their "last" ever Sydney show, so that's probably another factor.😂

[@bjorn1583]

l haven't watched bathurst since they became purpose built race cars which goes against the whole spirit of the race

[@Dasha17177]

Well done this is very refreshing hearing from another fan of motorsport from a different country. Everything was explained really well & without any bias. Great job.

[@marcuscoquer5958]

I have always had split feelings about parity. I think my favourite racing has been when you have light nimble low power cars against lumbering v8 beasts. Then again single make racing is amazing too. Having a strict set of rules for multiple manufacturers will always end with people crying about parity due to the fact that one manufacturer has found an edge in those rules whereas the others are powerless within the rules to make their car, for example, lighter to compete. Improved production is probably the most entertaining Australian series due to this.

[@chrisdavidson911]

When the rules basically say “take a normal one and make it into a racing car” everything’s awesome. As soon as they start messing around trying to improve things, everything gets worse. I, for one, remember success ballast working but feeling occasionally unfair. This supercars situation smells of people bending the rules for their favourite team, but it’s sometimes hard to be 100% fair and accurate.

[@RMesbah]

"... and Bently can have something the size of the Death Star and still be competitive." 🤣💀

[@TassieLorenzo]

I thought that meme was for the BMW M8!

[@brmbrrmm5442]

Great video Aiden, be proud with your Ford hat on. Love Larko but remember he was sacked and removed from the telecast but was reinstated thanks to a fan backlash. Keep up the good work.

[@gregfelix6979]

Well said, Aidan. The future of the category is not looking great with the current “leadership”…

[@warrenself]

This is very similar to what NASCAR Cup racing has turned to. The whole history of Cup racing can be reduced to GM whining about Dodge and Ford being faster and getting a rules change. They’ve also failed to attract any manufacturers. Hemi ban, Ford 427 SOHC ban, 1998 Ford Taurus spoiler change, 2012 fuel injection change, 2017 mid-season rear ride height rules change, 2019 aero and horsepower package change, 2022 pre-season Mustang nose change, 2023 body changes. Meanwhile Chevy trends to win more races and championships consistently.

[@tadroid3858]

Much like the Aussie Football Draft, I can't figure it out, but I love to watch the game.

[@Hugh.Gilbert]

The issue that makes me pretty disinterested in the V8 Supercars series as it is at the moment is the fact that it doesn't have any Australian model cars in it. There is just an American car racing against another American car.... In Australia! What made it interesting for me was the cars that you couldn't get over here in the UK (well... other than the Vauxhall badged Holdens) Now to me it's kind of... boring

[@Dick.n.B-RockShow]

I'm 43 and have grown up around "Supercars" all my life. When it became "V8 Supercars" after the Group A era, it was an exciting format but I did worry (even as a teenager when this rebranding began) that it wouldn't encourage new manufacturers to join. I was somewhat spoiled growing up with the ATCC being a Group A formula but I've always believed (and almost all motorsport governing bodies agree) that more manufacturers equals more fans and tighter competition. Group A suffered in that manufacturers started making race cars as road cars to enter in to races with but we have "control" parts now and spending caps so I fail to see why the boffins at "Supercars" couldn't make that work which is what makes them look like they have only one interest, and it's not the racing.

[@andrewstewart01]

As a life long fan, and a holden supporter, even I think that it is important that ford gets better treatment. And supercars dropped the V8 from their name, yet failed to let turbo v6's and the like in. They need to drop the old guard and pick up some new ones, keeping Larko until he drops dead from old age.

[@peteburness944]

Ok Aidan, being an Aussie I'll tell you straight up it has basically become the Camaro Cup. There are serious parity issues and the series is losing interest among punters. In my opinion it's demise is imminent, and a more realistic race platform is GT3, or even TA2. Love your content...

[@The_Evil_Monkey_93]

The problem at the moment is drag for the Mustang, When supercars tried fixing the Mustang pre Townsville by trying to eliminate the loss of downforce under pitch during braking. What ended up happening was it gave the Mustangs drag and now the rear wing disappears at high speed. So the Mustang teams constantly run max wing and set the car up with understeer so it murders the rear tyres and the Mustang falters. Ford wanted to take away some front downforce to shift it rearward and eliminate the drag that was introduced. Before, With COTF/Gen2, Ford would just be able to engineer their way out of the cars problems with front suspension, the one thing that wasn't tightly controlled.

[@jamsstar2010]

Needs the engine in the middle

[@joshiek7839]

They run the wing at max angle yet the only mustangs with any rake was the grove cars? Strange setup.

[@jyfoord]

I have been a fan of Aussie touring car racing from the 60's through to the 90's. Not any more. I have witnessed over the years the bias toward Holden, now GM. And this has turned me off the sport. It is a great shame. Bathurst is unique, but it is being destroyed by a lack of imagination , action, and misplaced loyalties. Your comments are spot on. Thanks.

[@camelapodo]

I remember reading in 2010 about Car of the Future, and thinking it was going to be the silhouette-ification and ultimate downfall of the sport, and knew that as long as Mark Skaife was in any level of authority things could only get worse. Sadly I was right.

[@ianmorris7485]

This was always going to be an issue when the whole Ford v Holden thing died. The Falcon and the Commodore were built for the same market so were pretty similar in general so parity was relatively easy to maintain. Essentially the Suipercars were the exact same car apart from the body stuck on the rolling chassis and the tweaks in the aero packages to get the bodies to work the same were not that huge. This does not apply now and parity is always going to be harder to maintain when there are significant differences between the cars. The upshot is that Supercars has been dying for a while and its total demise is not far off. I used to work pit lane at Darwin, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Perth V8 Supercar events in the 2000's and they were fun, and miss those days, tossing the likes of Craig Lowndes out of the pit area due to not wearing his credentials.

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

Aussies watch all this shit, have a Fosters and say Fuuuu, I'm going to buy a Toyota! (Huge Ambrose & Craig Lowndes fan from Indiana)

[@TassieLorenzo]

@@GregBrownsWorldORacing No Australians drink Fosters... Fosters isn't even available in most Australian bottle shops or pubs.

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@GregBrownsWorldORacing Accurate statement...apart from the Fosters reference.😆

[@EnvyCT9A]

What Supercars did to Nissan was theft. They enticed them in, they did well, and then because they had an engine advantage of it not being a giga-iron block on the front end they nerfed them into the ground. It was lighter, and it was located further behind the front axle. It did well initially, not massively but well enough but then Roland Dane and Ford complained and they were forced to add ballast to the front end. Despite the engine producing less power. Mercedes were also barred from engine development until the second year but by then it was too late and Erebus switched to Holden. Quite frankly Roland Dane has ruined the category beyond repair. Best mate of mine was a mech on the Norton 360 team for a couple of years, it wasn't a secret that if the Nissans had their ballast penalty removed they would be hugely competitive, but Supercars doesn't actually want other manufacturers to be competitive, just the idea that its a multi-manufacturer series. They only want to see either GM or Ford on the top step.

[@MadRS]

The other thing to remember with the 2nd Ford win in Townsville was from Anton de Pasquale having a fresh tyre advantage due to being wrecked in the first race (the round was a reduced tyre allocation round). There are basically 2 ways that Supercars can go from here: 1. Adopt a GT3 category with BoP set for each track. With GM releasing a GT3 version of the Z06 Corvette and Ford dropping a GT3 Mustang I could see this being a very good option. It would also allow Teams to participate in the Bathurst 12 Hour and other GT3 events world wide if they so with. It would also allow easier integration with other makes and models. It would be great to see BMW's. Lexus, Aston Martin etc racing in Australia more often too. 2. Go a more same chassis, same engine and same everything so that Drivers are the deciding factor. It would basically cut out the manufactures though and I don't think Supercars is big enough to sustain itself without manufacturer backing. Personally I would definitely get behind a GT3 based Championship. it would be great to see 4, 5 or 6+ manufacturers racing regularly in Australia and the cars would be more relatable to the public than a "single make" clone car.

[@irishcufta8]

Ugh, why be another GT3 series. I like that they are low tech, but went too far into musclecars istead of staying as supercars. Look at Brazilian Stock cars. They have sedan shape with V8 still and it looks good. They even have camaro safety car and it looks ridiculous in comparison. Toyota is there when it could have been in supercars with Corolla. But series rejected them. Saw it in some comments so don't hold me to veracity of that statement. Cheers

[@Davidsmyth55]

GT3 is far too expensive. And Supercars did want to use one single spec engine. Ford vetoed it.

[@mattireland6841]

As someone from Midwest America, its noticeable that the highlights on youtube have seen less drama and feel almost boring the last couple of years. I enjoyed the series becuase it felt like NASCAR mixed with a bit of indy or GT3. But NASCAR doing more and mlre road courses, i find myself less intersted in the kiwis

[@ROWSELLTV]

Kiwis? It’s an Australian series mate, not a New Zealand series ahah

[@bjorn1583]

@@ROWSELLTV australia dont exist remember

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@bjorn1583 That's more like New Zealand, no? It doesn't appear on world maps.

[@jakepalmer1986]

This is just the video i wanted to see, thank you for explaining these things well, I love supercars but its always been Holden (GM) dominated and as a Ford guy its frustrating to watch when the sport bends over for GM but won't for Ford, I don't blame Ford for pulling their sponsorship.

[@RyanHellyer]

I think these series which try to reach parity in this way, should automate the system. If a car starts beating everyone, then an automatic penalty should be applied to it before the next event. The same would work well in sim racing IMHO. It avoids flawed human judgements and biases being involved.

[@AidanMillward]

I do the stewarding for an rf2 BTCC series and there’s loads of people that think we’ve got some magic bullet BoP that keeps the cars running close together and competitive. We literally just add ballast to the best performing drivers, like the real series did 😂

[@RyanHellyer]

@@AidanMillward Exactly, a simple calculation will balance things out quite nicely. It's not complicated. iRacing always has issues with certain cars being way to competitive each seasons, but they could fix that instantly by just automating the darned process based on which cars are most popular. If one becomes too popular ... performance balast it. Easy peasy and we'd end up with grids of GT3s (not that I bother racing them often) with a complete sweep of the various available cars.

[@AidanMillward]

@@RyanHellyer iracing always has the new cars fastest so people buy them. It’s all marketing.

[@fix0the0spade]

Basically the way they used to do it by adding ballast until somebody else wins. The JGTC had the right idea in the early 2000s when they'd just womp 100kg into whoever won each race, making sure there was a good spread of winners over the season even if the Castrol Toyota and Pennzoil/Xanavi Nissan teams tended to take the title.

[@stuntvist]

@@AidanMillward iracing is all marketing in every aspect anyway. If they actually cared enough to live up to their "not a game" shtick they would use the absolutely torrential amounts of money people are forced to spend on their "service" to continually improve the core aspects of the game instead of adding a few new cars that cost you a kidney every year. Just look at how they treat exploits, running on the grass to cool off your tyres? Well you get banned, because we're too lazy to fix our own physics engine to prevent that from happening. Brake dragging? We'll just reset your tyre temps if you're doing it for too long instead of fixing the underlying problem. And all because no one in the simracing space has enough of a brain to make or get financing for a similar online system for their games which are often far cheaper and don't require you to shill out your life savings on what is ultimately an entertainment product. Oh, and iRacing spent almost a decade working on a go kart before scrapping it because they couldn't get it to work. Which honestly, isn't as bad as them keeping the 2005-2010 video game obligatory piss filter white balance for even longer than that, in a game you're forced to spend roughly 200 quid on per year to play.

[@danesorensen1775]

Supercars was designed as an Old Boys' Club, intentionally, way back in 1993. That's what it's always been; what's changed is that the number of people outside that bubble has steadily grown and made it weird. It'll either adapt or die, like anything else in this world.

[@thirdwheel1985au]

Yep. Probably in a last ditch effort to get rid of Godzilla.

[@weaselman24]

I stopped caring when it ceased being the touring cars. But I tuned out when they nerfed the GTR.

[@elmonteslim3711]

Since it is no longer Holden vs Ford Falcon most Australians have completely lost interest. I didn't even bother watching it.

[@carisi2k11]

Do you have any idea of what was before 1993? Touring car races would happen with only 10 cars in them. Not everybody would race at all the races with Bathurst the only race guaranteed to get 30+ cars. Do you remember how dominant the GTR was or the Sierra before that? I bet you don't

[@carisi2k11]

@@weaselman24 As awesome as the GTR was it made the races extremely boring. The Australian GTR's in particular were the best in the world and faster then even the Japanese GTR's. They let the Fred Gibson cars race once in Japan and it trounced the Japanese GTR's.

[@waynec3563]

Ford vs GM. Or a car sold in Australia vs a car not sold in Australia since 2020. A car that will continue in production vs a car that will cease production in January 2024 - 3 months time. A brand with long history in Australia (Ford), and one not so much (Chevrolet). Honestly, a series based on GT3 cars, perhaps only front engined cars, would not be so bad. At least it would allow for more manufacturers, and it would help internationals come to race in Australia. And events like Bathurst may get a bigger grid as international teams can bring their GT3s as well.

[@greatsageclok-roo9013]

People whinging about the Camaro being dominant CLEARLY forgot that we’ve had years where either the Ford or Holden were leaves ahead. I think it was ‘02 were the factory Holden just about clean swept the entire season? (Almost.)

[@craigjones6887]

very well said from a ford supporter that camps on the mountain for a week since 1988

[@astonwards7236]

The biggest problem with Bathurst this year was the tyre wear, no team could run at 100%, using the soft tyre was a stupid decision made for a stupid reason (they didn't want the Super 2 cars to lap faster). If the drivers aren't pushing then they aren't making mistakes, Moffat is a special case. The parity problem is quite complex, the engine power/torque isn't just close, it's near perfectly identical, however for whatever reasons, the Ford engine has issues delivering that power/torque, SC has used a band-aid fix in adjusting shift cuts but that has knock on effects. As for aero, the cars weren't designed in a wind tunnel, CFD should be good enough for parity, they have essentially the same aerodynamic/downforce components, the complaints from the Ford teams haven't been specific, in fact, very little has been heard from DJR (the homologation team), they need both downforce and less drag, they need more top end but their tyres get burnt up on acceleration. The results for the Ford teams have been terrible, there is definitely an imbalance, but the teams need to step up to the plate, the changes that they need aren't a silver bullet. Erebus frequently have a significant advantage even to other Camaro's, they are clearly doing something right (or wrong), if one particular Mustang team was consistently faster than the others then it'd make the parity discussion obvious, but the best Mustang changes every week, the Monster car was on for the win in Newcastle before hitting a wall, was leading at another race when it caught fire, it also had a wheel land on it at Sandown, and hit the wall at Bathurst. The fastest Mustang at Sandown had a rookie kid and an outsider behind the wheel, it shouldn't be that way.

[@hobbitman27]

Spot on, as ever Aidan. Loving your work.

[@otanica]

The other problem is GM isnt really a manufacturer in Australia now. They need to scrap the gen 3 cars and adopt GT3. 12h at the start of the season and the 1000 at the end.

[@flamingfrancis]

"GM isnt really a manufacturer in Australia now".....who is?

[@amaccama3267]

As an Australian, I struggle to relate to the Mustang/Camaro thing anyway.

[@Gnrnrvids]

Especially when either are out of the price range for most people, Camaro in particular.

[@Cliffy1616]

@Gnrnrvids I was gonna say yeah Mustangs are a bit pricey but you still see plenty of them a round and Aussie’s have taken to them fairly well. But you almost never see Camaro’s over here. Due to Gm not making them in RHD from factory it means they’re stupid expensive to import and convert so you don’t really ever see them. So there’s not exactly a Mustang vs Camaro rivalry when it comes to the average person as almost no one has a Camaro.

[@Gnrnrvids]

@@Cliffy1616 Yeah I was looking at getting a 2015 FM but ended up getting a cayman S :D Covid pushed up those prices insanely. GMSV (formerly HSV) do the conversions for the Camaro. I think they do the Corvette too and possibly the RAM's and Silverados.

[@Cliffy1616]

@@Gnrnrvidsyeah I was looking at Mustang’s earlier in the year as I was contemplating upgrading from the old Ba xr8 Ute. But for a 2015/16 Mustang GT/FM you were still looking at around $50k (give or take) for one with reasonably low kms. I figured stuff that, I’ll just keep plodding along in me xr8 Ute and keep looking around for something else.

[@Gnrnrvids]

@@Cliffy1616 Yeah I was looking back in 2019 and they were around that back then. Ended up picking up a Cayman S for the same money. Got the last "cheap" one.

[@Exponaut_R-01]

I reeeeaally hope this gets sorted out properly V8SC had Holden as my selling point inherently. Where else could I (an American) see a Holden?! The cars are still their own unique brand of “weirdly heavy but nimble” and that gives them a flavor to watch. When DTM died at least Class 1 style cars didn’t because we still have Super GT… There’s no backup for Supercars, regionally OR functionally unless I’m missing something.

[@TassieLorenzo]

"There’s no backup for Supercars" Don't forget the Australian Touring Car Championship was a standard mixed Group C and Group A touring car class in the 1980's: there were Jaguar XJS V12s winning the Bathurst 1000, there were Volvo 240 turbos winning the ATCC, the BMW 635csi took a title, there were not just Nissan Skylines but also Bluebirds winning and even the first-generation Mazda RX-7 won a driver's championship. "V8 Supercars" seemed to be a throwback to the 1970's when Australian Touring Car racing was dominated by the Holden Torana and Ford Falcon -- a kind of partisan elimination of " foreign " manufacturers which had supported the ATCC so well in the 1980s. BMW Motorsport were so furious about being relegated to the 2000cc class that they started a separate Australian Super Touring Championship. The idea of putting wings on the Group A Commodores and making an equivalent (parity was controversial even from the first race, "Holden Horror!" was the headline) Falcon with the same 9" spool diff, Holinger gearbox etc was very much undermining ATCC competitors BMW Motorsport or Nissan Motorsport (and Team Toyota Australia with Supras and Corollas too etc). The original idea was that the bewinged Commodores & Falcons would only have 400hp and would do *the same lap times* as the booming British Touring Car Championship 2000cc class cars. This soon went out the window and the 2L class seperated from the championship by 1994 and from Bathurst by 1996, although they took over the original Bathurst 1000km in 1997 and 1998, while "V8 Supercars" started their own Bathurst 1000km due to a television rights dispute... Gen 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to *right these wrongs* and get turbocharged Nissan Zs, BMW M4s and Toyota Supras out there racing against naturally aspirated Ford Mustangs (and Chevrolet Camaros). But instead they have doubled down on Americana, and even then manage to alienate one of the two (and the only real committed, Chevrolet sells hardly any cars in Australia) American manufacturers they have...

[@jamesyuille3178]

I wouldn't be saddened to see the end of this series and to see some more universal cars competing around Australia.

[@blackhornetf]

The most ironic thing about this and SuperCars in general is that GM doesn't even sell the Camero in Australia ( GM doesn't sell any sports/muscle cars in Australia) but Ford sells the Mustang in Australia If Ford leaves Supercars then that only leaves GM ( A company that is not very popular in OZ since Holden shut down) So I wouldn't be suprised if they one day pull out of Supercars ( I wouldn't be suprised if thats why Supercars Inc sides with GM ) But they will end up losing both companies if they not careful. You can buy a Camero in Aus from a certain company that imports limited numbers of them then modifies them for Australia but its very expensive. On the other hand Ford still sells lots of vehicles in Australia- The Ranger ( top selling vehicle in Aus ), The Raptor and the Mustang just to name a few.

[@KrikkitWarlord]

Not to disagree with Aidan's points in the video (I completely agree). BUT, as a technical point, it's actually a valid option to perform drag measurements by doing a coast-down test on a runway etc. In a lot of cases it's more accurate than trying to do it on a wind tunnel. Unless you have a moving floor wind tunnel (££££££) the drag measurements are a long way from what's representative in the real world, and fudging them requires guesswork which can be difficult to replicate between cars (which produce drag in different areas, and the interaction with the floor boundary layer is complex). The ideal solution is to do both, but a controlled environment is better again - Chip Ganassi have a disused rail tunnel in Pennsylvania where the ends are capped off, then the whole thing is temperature controlled (by being a sealed tunnel underground) and dehumidified, as a measure for their cars' drag profile when developing their aero kits.

[@CLANKGOLF]

I think it rather peculiar that a sport that is so rich with history where competing brands fought it out on the track in road cars modified for racing. Now we have precision built, class specific racing cars built to create parity in the class and ensure close racing. We use to have competing brands of tires from different manufacturers and cars from Nissan, GMH, Ford, Mercedes and even more in earlier years. After all this time, Supercars now have a parity problem, an image problem and cars that are 15 kilometers per hour slower through Conrod Chase than the modified road car version - when it was called V8 Supercars. Whilst I love the sound of the new "cars of the future" and the performance around the track as a whole, it all seems too controlled now and is far less entertaining. V8 Supercars also got prime time TV coverage across Australia and New Zealand and ever since the inception of the new cars - TV coverage is now limited to Pay TV and is only on commercial television when it's a major event like Bathurst or the Grand Prix weekend. It use to be "The Great Race" with many brands competing in different classes, all of which had many different component options available for their cars such as wheels, tires, brakes, springs, shocks, aero packages and much more. Passing traffic was part of the race and as all setups were different for most cars, there were no patterns to pit stops and the race was much more competitive as cars exposed different strengths and weakness's around the track. We had turbo 4 cylinder cars competing directly with 5.8ltr V8's and flat 6 cylinder engines competing against rotary motors. Jaguars had V12's, Fords had 351's and Holden's had 308's.. It was so competitive it built the history the car's of the future are trying to destroy. It's funny that the new "Car of the Future" with all it's power and custom built race feature's - is no faster down the back straight at Sandown Park Raceway (283kph) than my 500hp road registered VE Ute on a track day. If we want to watch cars with identical performance race we already have Carrera Cup, Aussie Racing Cars and Toyota 86 series. Use the Mustangs, Camaro's, Dodge Charger, Mercedes C63, Jag's or any other V8 powered passenger car or coupe, give them a maximum power to weight, a few spring and shock options, multiple tire brand and compound choices, any brake package they want and basic aero packages. This would bring back the old "Great Race" mantra immediately and it's following would probably grow ten-fold, while also putting some effective marketing back into the brands that race in the series.

[@_stitch]

Good take, although I disagree with everything from 15:52 onwards. Listening to the fans is a germane point; Supercars tried to fire Larko, remember, and it was only the massive fan support and complaints that kept him his job. Likewise the constant threats to, at various points, a) move to turbo charged V6 engines b) move to a DTM-esque GT3 based set of regulations (in the hope of involving more manufacturers) c) the introduction of the paddle shift system. Time and time again people have made it clear they do not want these things, yet every year Supercars raises them as proposals; whether as rage bait or because they feel they know better than the fans only they know. Supercars seem to forget that they are a touring car series, not a GT series, and the reason their series has been so popular for so long is because of how exciting the premise is - a car with far too much power, barely any aero and a lack of traction being absolutely caned around some of the very best racing circuits in the world by the scruffs of their necks. I've been watching Supercars religiously for 12 or so years now; this season is the first I've not bothered with every practice quali and test session as well. I'm not a Ford or GM fan; but it's just not been that entertaining. It is salient that so many drivers are loudly talking of leaving - and very few international touring car drivers are looking at transferring into Supercars. They need to get an Alan Gow-like grip on the rotten part of the championship and excise it fast, or as you say it will very soon become another victim of it's own mismanagement, just like DTM.

[@AidanMillward]

Turbo V6 is more relevant to road cars than a V8 is. If you're keeping it a touring car series, you've got to move more in that direction. Same for paddle shifters, most autos have them so it makes a bit of sense at that level. Plus it probably doesn't help you've got Ingall and Morris on their show having their 'it's not 1991 anymore and I don't like it' moments.

[@EstebanRapido]

Why did they detune the Ford engine? Do we literally mean "detune"? Wouldn't it have been easier to restrict intake air or add weight? If the tune for the engine has hurt the performance of the car, in a more general sense, it was obviously the wrong way to go. If it's a problem with the fix, why didn't they try to fix that problem in a less problematic way?

[@cmajaa1]

GT3 doesn't seem to have a problem with their variety of engines, what gives?

[@13smarts1]

Blind Freddie could see at Bathurst the advantage the Camaro's had going down the hill especially, (reminds me of the Nissan GTR days),Yours is the best analysis I have seen or read so thank you very much

[@petert3355]

And yet the result of the top 10 shows your talking shit... Top six cars, 3 mustangs, 3 camaros. Alternating brands.

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@petert3355 You don't have a clue Pete. Will B stuffed up his qualifying and was out of position, and Broc had his mechanical issues. These two Camaros are clearly top 4 cars that had issues for Bathurst...so you're not fooling anyone!!

[@petert3355]

@@mikespearwood3914 and yet the results are posted and part of history. You cannot deny what I said about the results of the top 10. Hell, there were more mustangs in the top ten than camaros. That as well says the whining about parity is just so much bullshit. The parity triggers are clear, and as yet we're nowhere near triggering them.

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@petert3355 The results don't show the clear context that I provided. And there's another parity review actually underway right now!

[@petert3355]

@@mikespearwood3914 ah, so supercars caved in to Fords whining. That is so sad. As for results, what better data is there for the competition?

[@paulmccourt6185]

To tell how much of an "old boys club" supercharger has become, Adrian Burgess the head of motorsport for supercars was recently done for high range drink driving, not a word was said about except for a couple of newspaper articles, any other motorsport he would've been made an example of, but not supercars

[@theshed8802]

If i was the boss of Ford MotorSports, I'd fail to see the value of getting my arse kicked in a disparity based formula. Personally, I'd be telling Supercar's that we're out. This year i failed to watch Bathurst for the first time in over 40 years. It was simply a case of which Chevy was going to win

[@KR1736]

Would love a video on John Force, Don Garlits or anything on Drag Racing in general

[@royferntorp]

I like it when manufacturers and builders are allowed to build a better mouse trap. In other words, not a huge fan of parity restrictions.

[@RyanHellyer]

Unfortunately, that results in garbage racing :/

[@royferntorp]

Maybe. If you are my age you will remember when Holden built a 6 cyl car that nailed the heavier GTHO. Disparity forcers manufacturers to play. Also the driver equation can't allow for parity. If a driver is just better....@@RyanHellyer

[@mikespearwood3914]

Someone should've told T8 that in 2019. They had a massive hissy fit because literally one Mustang driver was dominant, and they demanded the car to be changed. That driver was so good his own boss took him to the US to race in Indycar!@@royferntorp

[@cmajaa1]

@@RyanHellyer And costs get out of hand, remember group B & C and DTM

[@pagey007]

Excellent info , subbed , There are several top level ford drivers that simply dont have the car for the job , SVG coasted to the end , The most boring Bathurst I have watched , PS: Hello from NZ 🙂

[@dominicbarden4436]

I've grown to really love Supercars since I came across old races on KZbin during lockdown, but it's a bit of a shame that I became a fan as it entered into a strange era where every year its future seems in debate. The Ford Mustang vs the Holden Insignia, the end of Holden and the switch to the Gen 3 regs. And this year's been odd. I think the racing's generally been pretty good even with the Chevy domination and Ford drivers have had some moments, but Triple Eight and Erebus are both having brilliant seasons which I think might distort the picture a bit. Not to mention the disillusionment of some of the drivers with the category, and top drivers too: SVG's off to NASCAR after all, but Cam Waters' (and his engineer's) rant on the radio at Sydney after being penalised for an unsafe release also stands out ("It's a joke of a category, mate. A joke."). That bit about the 'old boys club' is interesting. I do wonder if there's a conflict of interest with Mark Skaife for instance, being a key pundit a key part of the board and therefore one of the key parts of the whole Gen3 process. And he was in that role for Car of the Future as well. I don't wholly believe there's a bias towards GM but the cynical side of me does ponder that possibility and I can see why some Ford fans feel that way, especially given that after Scott McLaughlin left T8 just flat-out dominated the next two years, but part of that was simply due to SVG being the clear class of the field now that Scotty had gone to IndyCar and Penske sold his stake in DJR. Wins from 2019-'22: Ford: 2019: 21 (DJR: 20, Tickford: 1) 2020: 16 (DJR: 14, Tickford: 2) 2021: 10 (DJR: 6, Tickford: 3, Kelly Grove: 1) 2022: 7 (DJR: 4, Tickford: 3) Holden: 2019: 11 (including Sandown qualifying races) (all Triple Eight) 2020: 11 (Triple Eight: 8, BJR: 2, Erebus: 1) 2021: 20 (Triple Eight: 16, WAU: 3, Erebus: 1) 2022: 27 (Triple Eight: 22, WAU: 5) 2023 after Bathurst: Ford: 2 (DJR: 1, Tickford: 1) Chevrolet: 22 (Erebus: 10, Triple Eight: 10, Team 18: 1, MSR: 1) I did a bit of a what-if: take out T8 and Erebus and just move everyone else up, and it turned out that Ford would actually have more wins than Chevrolet in this scenario, which shows just how good T8 and Erebus have been; they've won twenty out of the 24 races thus far between them; 10 apiece. Did it for 2019-'22 as well (taking out T8 and DJR), which threw up some interesting results: Ford: 2019: 19 (all Tickford though three of them went to Will Davison in the 23Red entry) 2020: 12 (Tickford: 11, Kelly Racing: 1) 2021: 11 (Tickford: 10, Kelly Grove Racing: 1) 2022: 16 (Tickford: 11, Grove: 5) 2023 (so far): 16 (WAU: 7, Tickford: 5, Grove: 2, DJR: 2) Holden: 2019: 11 (Erebus: 7, BJR: 2, WAU: 1, Team 18: 1) 2020: 15 (WAU: 5, Erebus: 5, BJR: 4, Team 18: 1) 2021: 19 (WAU: 10, Erebus: 6, BJR: 3) 2022: 18 (WAU: 14, BJR: 3, Erebus: 1) Nissan: 2019: 2 (both Kelly Racing) Chevrolet: 2023 (so far): 8 (BJR: 5, MSR: 2, Team 18: 1)

[@mikespearwood3914]

This is highly misleading because the Gen2 Mustang "parity" drama in 2019 was started essentially because T8 couldn't handle the fact the combination of a competitive Gen2 Mustang car along with a once in several generation top level talent driver was dominant. So literally just one absolute gun driver dominating led to the car itself being neutered. I don't take SVG's dominance seriously because the Gen2 Mustang was completely neutered, such as the next generation of talent (guys like Cam Waters etc) just didn't have the car to fight with.

[@SupercarsMabeanie]

​@@mikespearwood3914what about McLaughlin winning the championship in the 2018 Falcon?

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@SupercarsMabeanie What about it?

[@SupercarsMabeanie]

@@mikespearwood3914 never mind. Don't know what I was thinking when I said that.

[@nate_motorsport_photography]

Little note. The Camaro is a property of Supercars. The mustang is property of ford. And the Supercars built car is at an advantage

[@reaps912]

Now that GM have announced they’re shitcanning the Camaro (again lmao), it seems even stranger to have this Mustang v Camaro “rivalry” going on

[@irishcufta8]

Second Ford victory was because DePasquale saved tyres. Retired early in race one so had fresh boots for the second race. Executed aggressive 3 stop strategy. 3 fords in top 13 in that race.

[@superninja252]

Since you talked about DTM at end of video, can you make a video about the suposed new Group A system that Super GT is trying to get with DTM and suposed plans to bring the Super Cars in board too

[@novarossi5653]

Interesting video , I hope you thanked Top Gear for your opening lines…

[@feelincrispy7053]

Great video absolutely great video. Aussies (I am one) just can’t seem to admit their faults and you perfectly called them out here. V8SC is definitely dying but corporate V8SC just want to bury their heads in the sand

[@PJHOOKA]

"Bentley can have something the size of the Death Star." Mate!! Best. Line. EVER!

[@mizudori6211]

This is where I get my supercars goss, not the local news, not motorsports journals, not watching it natively... As an Adelaideian 😂

[@DDS029]

Here's how I see it a half of a world away. The rule makers can tweak the cars to keep chasing the parity unicorn. Not going to happen the way they are doing it. Same as in NASCAR. Everyone here knows that if Toyota were to stop shooting themselves in the foot, or "sandbagging" until the end of the season, because of the point system, they would win everything in sight. They spend too much on one team, (JGR and 23XI ARE one team, don't let them fool you) and to NASCAR for advertising. Some of us whose vision extends past Charlotte and Daytona know why Penske took a temporary "buy-in" to ASC. To apply what tech they could, as NASCAR started to believe the unicorn does exist. Parity only comes from the same parts once they left the factory and get into the hands of the mechanics, not engineers. Mechanics. Smokey Yunick, when given the parameters, could make any brand of car competitive with any other. How? Massaging the parts available to him. Or the ones he was allowed to make. Back in his day, no one wanted to go so fast that inspectors kept giving them the side eye. Granted he took it too far at times, but it still was a proof of concept. If you let people have options, parameters, adjustments, whatever you would call them, they will find a way to keep themselves competitive. When you REQUIRE everyone to be EXACTLY the same, someone isn't. If you require everyone to be similar, that's parity in this sense. Give them some (very small) wiggle room on these parts, and you will at least mix the pot. The question becomes how do you get the "technical support", factory or in house, out of the sport so real mechanics can take back their rightful place. Right now, they could take the race cars to dealerships and have their "professional parts changers" maintain the cars. I was an inspector in a series that a two tracks required 300 lbs./in. springs in the rear. Industry standards at that time were 3% variation. So, in theory a 291 could be shipped as a 300. After being used some, you couldn't find a 300 spring. But the top teams kept searching until they found them. Lower funded teams had to run 325's in order to have springs that rated 300+, usually around 320. If they had made the rule 295, 99.9% of all the 300's would be allowed. He top team would still have the money and manpower to find 295's, but smaller teams would be running springs 295-305 or so. A lot closer than their 320+ against the others 300's Bottom line if the sanctioning body tries to achieve parity by messing with the cars and parts, let the mechanics do it then. Give them the box to work within. Will the "top" teams still look for every little advantage? Sure, but now the small teams can do it too.

[@williamford9564]

5:47: It is a different series but something similar has been happening in IMSA in the US with the Porsche GT3s. IMSA BOP'd the Porsches just before its biggest race, The Rolex 24, last January, rendering the cars totally uncompetitive and the situation has not not been remedied in all of 2024. One major Porsche team backed off on full series participation during the year and in the last few days, the next ball fell when Porsche's top team , Pfaff Motorsports, announced they are switching to McLarens in 2024. I wonder if the "parity' issues may lead to teams or possibly even Ford altogether bailing on Supercars somewhere down the road.

[@hogtownhenry]

I suspect that could happen. maybe Supercars will switch to hot EV's. I mean hot by way of becoming a fast food bbq. Imagine 300 ks down conrod trying to outrun the thermal runaway!!

[@grantfrancis4126]

I grew up on this from the seventies from when it was ATCC, loved how there were diff makes etc, then evolved to V8 Supercars. Rejoiced when Nissan, Volvo, Mercedes joined in, (would go regularly to Adelaide 500), then they fell by the wayside and it was two! I'm Ford but I lost interest as it turned into a 2-horse race, ho hum. One brand dominating? the other teams Can't be that poor at race team competition. You have highlighted the disparities, now I get it.

[@wabba67]

I've been watching Supercars since 2009. The biggest problem the series has this year is that the races aren't that exciting. Newcastle was pretty good (always is), but I struggle to remember details from the rest of the races. I'm not calling the current cars a failure, but there is definitely something not right with the series.

[@TheJosu145]

They need to see how Stock Car Pro Series is working here in Brazil.

[@Dexter037S4]

So Crossovers? LOL.

[@TheJosu145]

@@Dexter037S4 well, this is only going to happen in 2025, and was a unfortunate thing, at least, they still are RWD

[@peteburness944]

And now I have watched your video in entirety, I completely agree with your comments. Further, I don't know if you watched the race, but it was boring as bat shit... As for Mark Larkham, absolute champion with his knowledge, regardless of which side of the fence you are on.... he is a valuable asset to the TV presentation and appreciated by viewers with his knowledge and insights...

[@ChrisCroft77]

From an Aussie, the engine issues were technically caused by Ford. In an article from Roland Dane he discussed it, the original idea was to both cars were going to use the Ford motor but Ford said no to that. Then they insisted they had to use the 5.4l engine knowing Chev did not have a similar engine. This caused them to get KRE to build a race engine which now requires the Ford engine to be detuned. The changes were not meant to done before Bathurst as the parity trigger had not been met. This means that any change outside of this required all teams to agree, which was never going to happen. I believe the parity triggers etc were added after 2019 and the debacle that was the Mustang approval and multiple changes. I do wonder with DJR were doing in the homologation process where they get all of the data from the Camaro to have this much deficit. Finally this GM bias that Supercars have is a load of BS when the commission has more Ford people on it than GM people.

[@cradleyheath1142]

The 12 hour race is now the closest thing to the original Bathurst style of racing. Ford -v- Holden is gone, sadly. Win Sunday sell Monday has gone with it, or has it? I wonder if the 12 hour race was promoted more that way could a similar level of intense rivalry (esp in the similar classes as seen in the 60s and 70s) be rejuvenated? Which manufacturers are interested ?

[@fisherman8178]

theres been a bias towards gm since the 1990s with the els/efs/ebs getting slowed till being too slow. and most annoyingly when the shoes on any other foot then gms nothings done, at all in some cases with the au days. the fact they had the au to learn from this imo makes it 100x worse.

[@cmajaa1]

Whenever GM is involved in a series I tune out, terrible influence.

[@audoinxr6372]

Oddly the AU prototype V8Sc was an all destroying monster. But was clipped early. Hence the AU got EL aero and sucked.

[@two-eyedRoy]

AUS here, grew bored of the V8s when they were no longer representative of what was on the showroom floor. To me, not unlike NASCAR, the cars have become too aero specific/sensitive. The sports have gotten too focused on performance for the chest beating luddite fan base it grew from and still garners. For NASCAR the perfect point is SVGs debut win. The cars (and some drivers) were out of their element in Chicago and it was great! Heck, F1 for the last few seasons when the teams have been out of their comfort zone has regularly been some of the better races/weekends. I'd actually propose that the comp takes a gigantic step backwards and sample +/-5y of the start of V8SC... Simplify. Next to no aero (just stabilizes the car at the very top end), fat tyres for the physical grip, lairy power that the tyres can't handle, minimal electronics intervention. Option 2. Bin it all and either go back to being an Improved Production category or a GT4 series.

[@michaelpage5499]

Doesn’t corporate greed ruin everything 🤷🏻‍♂️ Your “going behind the paywall” comment was spot on. 👍🏼👍🏼🇦🇺

[@Ktmfan450]

How good were the V8 Super Utes though?

[@Mr_Jingles_147]

Like you, favourite track and favourite race of the year that I (in the UK) usually stay up and watch live BUT, this year was different. From watching most of the season it was blatantly obvious that this was going to be a parade, not a race. "Parity" , or lack of it, is the reason that the WEC is now where EVERY manufacturer wants to be. Personally, I enjoy the endurance GT races at the Mountain more than Supercars over the last few seasons, and from a nostalgia point of view, that kinda sucks as the passion in the fans has watered down, there's no "hero's" or manufacturers to cheer for like the Brock/Holden, Perkins, Skaife, Godzilla Nissan days or when the BTCC guys had a punt. Drop the regs, attract the manufacturers and drivers, divide the fans, go racing!

[@joshiek7839]

WEC is little better than GT3 as being a sporting parity.

[@millennialchicken]

I love the Supercars but this season has had me at a full on knife edge with ''Do I want to keep following with the dull-drums going on?'' It's losing it's allure, just like DTM did.

[@TassieLorenzo]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the GT3 DTM even though some like it. Ideally, DTM and Supercars should have collaborated on a common set of regulations: front engine, rear wheel drive, various coupes. I have no issues with touring cars being "slow", in Gen 3's case slower than Carrera Cup let alone GT3, I don't think that's the problem. People watch touring cars for close, exciting racing, not fast lap times.

[@intersepter100]

Very well said

[@RavenSL65]

I am Australian and an on again off again fan of this series and its previous iterations and it has always been this way! Too many ex holden people in the management of the series and with a clear bias toward the GM, any time Ford has made headway they have been hobbled and then we see years of GM domination and they wonder why no one wants to join their racing, Nissan and Volvo and Mercedes were all duded by bias. It could have been the greatest racing series on the planet, but some GM sooks with tiny minds and other things no doubt, didn't want their precious GM to get its ass handed to it.

[@paulchasteauneuf2098]

Great report. My wife and I went to Bathurst because the track and the bravery shown by the drivers as they go over the top of the mountain at 11 tenths. Like you said we knew GM we’re going to win. The idea of the gen 3 car is to attract other manufacturers, yet Supercars continue to favour the GM brand so what are the chances of a BMW, Toyota or Kia getting on board. 🙄

[@cmajaa1]

GT3 manages it's plethora of makes and models with different engine configurations, why can't they figure it out?

[@TassieLorenzo]

Ford Performance CEO Mark Rushbrook was concerned about parity since before the 2023 season even started. He raised Supercars parity as a topic at the Red Bull Ford Powertrains launch event. You don't want to think that Supercars administrators are biased, but given how slowly they have worked to address this issue it looks a bit that way... 888 Race Engineering/Chevrolet Racing seems to have more political influence than Ford Performance for whatever reason.

[@VinylScratchOfficial]

Because GT3 doesn't have a vested interest in one specific brand succeeding like VASC does with GM.

[@bjarulez]

That is definitely a video for another day, please do

[@ngefan76]

Part of me wonders why NASCAR hasn't bought Supercars, or at least haven't done some sort of collaboration on a common chassis - both series run V8 Touring Cars that represent American-brand Muscle Cars. Having the same car run in both would guarantee 3 manufacturers in Supercars, drive down costs for both Supercar teams and NASCAR teams, and possibly attract other manufacturers to both series. It would also enable more crossover between the 2 series.

[@joshanderson9391]

They tried to a few years ago but Supercars rejected it