Video: Can you drift a V8 Supercar?

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By Karl Peskett | June 23rd, 2011

On the weekend, Shane Van Gisbergen decided to celebrate his V8 Supercar race win with a spot of drifting – but not in a purpose-built drift car. He did an impromptu drift lap straight after his race with his V8 Supercar, sticky tyres and all.

You can see the car fighting his efforts to slide it; these cars aren’t exactly set up to drift like the low-slung Japanese competition cars, however the crowd seems delighted with his efforts.

At least it’s a change from the all-too-common post-race burnout.

http://www.caradvice.com.au Anthony Crawford

Awesome stuff from the Kiwi racer
Chris

At least he didn’t get a fine for doing that

Andrew M

They were told before the race that they were allowed to do it between the 1st corner and corner 14.

Lowndes got fined at the same event 10K for doing his burnout because he did it on the drag strip (not the permitted area)

Al Juraj

I saw Craig drift his car at the last corner approaching victory lane in a race a few years ago.

This is an awesome victory for Shane. I wouldn’t wonder if the scavengers from the red corner knock on his door in the near future.
Richo

This is what we need more of, fans love seeing emotion from their athletes, sport is all about emotion, but V8 supercar drivers find it very difficult to show the fans any emotion because their inside a race car, helmet on so you can’t see their face, and they are so inboard in the car now that they can’t even stick their hands out the window, which is bolted shut anyway, and give the fans a wave! So they do burnouts and drifts!! And so they should, thank god V8 Supercar has finally got with the program and allowed the drivers to go for it!
Richo

And its amazing the power of a good drift.. I never really liked Gizzy before, but I’ve started to warm to him now after that!!

Andrew M

Never liked Giz before that??

Come on, this isnt his first awesome drive.

Richo

I dunno, something about him I didn’t warm to, you know how these things are sometimes. But I’m warming to him now

Lloyd

Gizz is the next big thing in v8 supercars and he is so down to earth. The Stones and him are gelling just like in the Ambrose days. I also think their other drivers have great potential.
Shane, don’t sign with anyone else, you know who we mean!!.
James

Love the gizz!! 10 bucks holden steals him next season
Woody

Awsome stuff, and great to see the Gizz finally winning, i think he is the next big thing in V8 supercars…
Sam

Gizz is a real ‘racer’, unlike some of the other drivers in the Ford camp. He is also outstanding in the wet and is maturing as a driver. – GO THE GIZZ -
Mad Max

At least Shane got away with it. Lowndes did some burnout in his car and was fined $10’000. Apparantly only the winner is allowed to do that and only in nominated points on the track. Still I suppose $10’000 to Craig and 888 is not a lot.
Ima Hogg

Bogan sport. Formula one is where its at

JML

Then go and comment on a Formula 1 article.
Y

I don’t like F1 at all. Too much politics and too many rules and regulations. And the F1 “cars” don’t even look like cars, they look like robots. Kthxbye.
gmh-bogan

Formula 1 is like watching paint dry.

Dave S

I still have trouble seeing what F1 bring to the world of entertainment. Lots of tech. and politics and not much direction.

DWS1

F1 sounds like a wasp flying round and round in a bottle.
But if you like one kind of motorsport you must surely appreciate the others…

Richo

F1 is the pinnacle and I love it, but I admit that you have to be a bit of a hard core to appreciate the racing, its far more strategy based with less of the on track action, I can understand why people don’t like it.

But what I don’t understand is how you can love F1, but not also love V8′s! Motorsport is motorsport, I love all of it! Except dirt bike stuff.. that stuff is boring!
Ima Hogg

V8′s are alright But I much prefer F1. Much more close action and less predictability. I do like the V8s when its a good race but I much prefer the F1. Much more skill in the F1 to.

MPS funjet

Grood effrort Gaijin
Y

Why not? Even a shopping trolley could be drifted.
Dave S

Great drift action by the ‘Giz’. Fans loved it. Great to see a round win go to one of the other teams. Easy to see why the sport is so popular.
MPS funjet

It would be nice to see something like Group A racing again. It made us proud to see our Aussie cars stick it up the establishment. It produced better road cars that were collectable. Our current V8 road cars are very fast and agile and would be competitive in the right hands. I am bored of watching Holden taxi vs Ford taxi. If only they were that fast on a Friday night/ Saturday morning. Lol.

Lloyd

I loved group c and hated group a when it came out in 1985, however, age makes you appreciate things and i reckon something could come of the formula that group a gave us regarding engine size, weight and tyre size if the day ever comes for a complete rethink on touring cars.

Richo

Oh how the years have dulled people’s memories… the conept of Group A sounds fantastic, production modified racers with cars that have different strengths and weaknesses etc, the thing everyone forgets though was how incredibly BORING it was! The very nature of the sport was that there was next to no parity, so some cars where way faster then others, which meant at first if you didn’t have a sierra then you couldn’t win, don’t even bother turning up. That was atleast palatable given that so many sierra’s where racing, but then along came the GTR, nothing could compete, but there was only THREE of them! So it was a race amongst three, and it was as boring as bat poo!

Hung Low

Thats what makes Bathurst so exciting, so many variables that at times can crown the underdog as the winner.
Lloyd

I’m thinking that the lesson was learnt about what you say re sierras and gtr’s so if there was a change coming in years ahead hopefully some sort of a formula would be a bit more .advanced and more of a level playing field.
The first two years wasn;t so bad with Volvo, BMW, c/dore and Mustang plus other classes – it was mainly when rules were pushed and cars dominating but this can happen in any formula when it matures and goes unchecked.
One big plus was a VARIETY.
(I agree it was bloody boring watching sierras blaze off into the distance from @1987 – 1991).
I think the best days ever were the Beechey, Jane,Moffat, Geoghegan, Petrelli days but as im often reminded we can’t go back.

hehe

you call that drifting???

Richo

Given the car has super sticky tyres, not super hard gripless drift tyres, the cars for a race like that would have been set up with an understeer bias to look after the rear tyres during the race, not setup to be as taily as possible, and given there is no handbrake, he had to do big down changes and drop the clutch to compression lock the rear end to get it to step out, and given he has 30 degrees steering lock in a V8 supercar so holding a big slide is more about throttle control then steering because he basically has none, then yes, yes I’d call that drifting!

UMWHAT

can formula 1 cars be drifted?

Ford Fairlane

Yes,on a ship or boat.

DWS1

Nice one.

Pez

I like Arab drifting! youtube it…
Andrew M

This Kid is the next biggest thing since Craig Lowndes.

Tonnes of natural talent, and a real good sport with the fans.
Also, in being with the stones we are assured he wont become up himself about his sucess.

What I love is that the whole crowd just loves him. Holden fans, Ford fans, the whole crowd just goes off in a way they dont for any other driver.

Lock him up stone bros, he will be hot property and will pull you the big time sponsors

Richo

Not sure if he is the next Craig Lowndes, theres something very special about Craig that is hard to put your finger on, the fact that pretty much everyone likes him, thats very rare. Lowndes was the next Brock, but i’m not yet convinced we have a next Lowndes yet…

Andrew M

Probably because when Lowndes started we didnt know what we were going to get. He wasnt an instant superstar either.

I rate him similar to Lowndes based on raw talent and un-divided fan appeal, the last of those points especially is very rare.

The best Rookie in the modern era would still be Marcus Ambrose, But the Red fans hated him, not so with the Giz

Richo

Lowndes was a folk hero amongst the Holden fans even before his rookie season with HRT in 1996 due to his exploits at Bathurst 1994, and then qualifying performances in the enduro’s in 1995. I’d say he was an instant superstar!

And it wasn’t just the Holden fans who hated Ambrose, even a lot of Ford fans struggled to warm to the bloke! Going to America humbled him because he knew when he started their he was at the bottom of the food chain, and I think that experience has changed Marcus and he is a much more likeable person, but back when he was in Australia, man even his dog didn’t like him I reckon!

Andrew M

All Holden fans like yourself (no disrespect) say everyone hated Ambrose.
Why would the Ford fans have hated the man that was breaking the Holden domination at the time??

I also remember sighting a big boom in Devil racer merchandise and SBR gear in general.

Ambrose was also an instant superstar. He grabbed a pole on debut and did it in gear that noone else could get to work (the AU chassis- due to sensitivity).

He also went on to grab back to back championships and achieved many things in a much shorter time fram than mark skaiffe did with all the gear behind him.

Ambrose never created as big of a legacy as he didnt hang around long enough.

Amborse was also an instant superstar, but he was a great achiever.
The Giz wasnt an instant superstar (the game is tougher now too dont forget), but I argue he has and will grow the undivided fan base like lowndes (which is rare)

Hayzel

One can get into a stock nissan GTR and compete against a v8 supercar and GTR will win…a v8 supercar is just hopeless, no technical marvel at all just plain souped up falcodores that can’t even compete against a production sports car. Lots of technologies and research ,however, goes into producing an F1 car and that is why F1 racing is watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world unlike bogan v8 supercars.

Andrew M

No technical Marvel??

That maybe so, but I like motorracing that involves a bit of good old driver input.

I dont watch anything for the “technical marvel”, Im into the close racing and action not the follow the leader like F1
Richo

WRONG! At the recent Bathurst 12 hour, the Nissan GTR’s fastest lap time for the event was 2 minutes 26.1198 seconds, which is TWENTY seconds SLOWER then what a V8 Supercar can lap Bathurst in.

Don’t know where you where fed this bullsh!t from but you really should fact check before making a fool of yourself on the internet!

Richo

And if you actually do some research on a V8 supercar, they are anything but an un-technological race car! Just because it uses a live axle and pushrods, mate thats just because what the rules state! If F1 rules stipulated pushrods then they would have to use them too, wouldn’t make them any less technological! 650BHP out of a naturally aspirated 5.0L engine is pretty damn incredible actually, the fact they use pushrods actually makes that feet MORE impressive!

Richo

*feat

spelling failure

adam

Bathurst 12 hour is more of an event like targa west (tarmac rally) and the drivers who compete in those events are more like rag tag low profile drivers.

http://www.caradvice.com.au/20442/nissan-gt-r-the-new-pace-car-for-v8-supercars/

to Quote from the article “Well, for those of you old enough to remember, the GT-R simply flogged the home made metal years ago, leading to the infamous “pack of arseholes” quote from Gentleman Jim Richards – not so gentlemanly at the time, though”

GTR is banned from V8 supercars racing for a reason….a GTR worth 165k and a v8 supercar worth 600k+, you think v8 supercar can keep up after 435k+ worth of tuning?

Richo

I’m not entering into a debate as to whether a GTR with 435k of tuning could beat a V8 Supercar because its totally impossible to prove one way or the other. But certainly in a straight line a GTR with that much tuning would be quicker, but 1800kg is still a lot of weight the GTR has to carry around a race track, so I seriously doubt it could ever corner as hard as a 1300kg purpose built race car, live axle or not.

As for the Bathurst 12 hour having amature drivers, all entries are allowed one professional driver, hence why Lowndes was there in an Audi, so was Luffy, Craig Baird, John Bowe, David Reynolds, there as lots of pro’s at that race mate! But even if it was an amature who set the GTR’s time, I doubt a pro is going to make up TWENTY seconds!! And that was the suggestion, that a stock GTR could beat a V8 supercar, complete bullsh!t

MPS funjet

Hey Richo,
Those V8 boat anchors can make more power than 6500BHP, it’s the rules that limit the power. The rules are dictated indirectly by Ford and Holden and I think that’s the problem.

F1 in particular, lay down rules and teams and manufacturers try to exploit them. Hence technology keeps rolling forward. That’s a good thing.

I think you’d agree our cast iron v8 does not have the same volumetric efficiency as F1 engine

Richo

Your comparing an engine revving to 7,500rpm to an engine revving to 18,000rpm, so not a valid comparison!

650BHP from 5,000cc naturally aspirated at 7,500rpm, thats an impressive figure in anyones book, but in any form of motorsport, the end product is directly reflected by the rules. To suggest Australian engineers do not have the talent to produce an advanced race car in my opinion is total horse sh!t. They are as advanced as they can be under the rules.

And the rules wheren’t handed down by Ford or Holden, they where formulated by Larry Perkins under instruction from TEGA and CAMS to produce a low cost form of motorsport that had produced evenly matched race cars in response to the Group A formula that they had before V8 Supercars, which was first and foremost incredibly expensive (Dick Johnson said he was able to almost halve his race budget when he switched to the V8 formula over Group A) as well as allow all teams to be competitive, where as before under Group A if you didn’t have a GTR, you couldn’t win.