Chrysler no longer V8’s Safety Car
December 11, 2008 by Matt Brogan
Chrysler Australia has today announced that it will no longer continue as the official Safety and Course Car provider for the V8 Supercar Championship Series.
After four years of leading the pack, the sponsorship came to an end at the conclusion of this year’s 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series.
“Chrysler has been a wonderful partner in our great sport,” V8 Supercars Australia CEO Cameron Levick said. “Their sponsorship has been fantastic for Chrysler and V8 Supercars Australia. We thank them for bringing the magnificent 300C to the sport for the last four years and their efforts in raising not only their profile but the brand of V8 Supercars.”
In its duties as the V8 Supercar Championships Series Safety Car, the Chrysler 300C HEMI opened and closed the circuit before and after each race, providing race control with feedback on track conditions as well as holding formation under yellow flag situations.
“The Chrysler safety cars were literally seen by millions of fans, both at the event and broadcast coverage, this was an innovative way to introduce one of our iconic cars to the Australian market.” said Craig Bradshaw, General Manager Marketing, Chrysler Australia.
It has not yet decided which manufacturer will accept the role for the 2009 series.
Print it: 
I’ll eat my shorts if it isn’t a Toyota Aurion TRD.
I hope it is a Holden as everyone knows they are the greatest cars in the world. Go the might HSV!!!!1111
Or maybe, “Don’t like my driving? Call 1800 Don’t Give a Shit”.
F6 FTW :P That would be funny ;)
What flavour sauce do you want with your shorts Bob?
It will more likely be an FPV F6 as the Course Car and a Holden SS Sportwagon as the Pace/Safety Car.
Though If it was a TuRD it would bring the total sales of TRDs ot what…. 5; maybe 10?
How about a Tata Nano?
BOB,
your thought isnt as silly as it sounds.
i think both toyota and ford would rather put the money into the actual teams rather than spread some the way of the safety car.
I also think toyota would like the idea of getting a toe in the door. At least they could lead the race that way ha ha ha ha ha ha.
the sign on the back would have the 60kmh sign with the words “if i go faster, i will torque steer off the track”
Sorry ^^^^ should have read…….
I think both “HOLDEN” and ford would rather put the money into the actual teams rather than spread some the way of the safety car.
ford FPV gt fg go the fords let ford have it not holden
Heres a thought; The cost of running the Pace Car etc would be reduced if instead of dragging them all over the country in the back of a Kenworth semi… they used demo models from a local dealership.. it doesn’t have to be a fully worked car given it will be lucky to get out of 2nd gear.
Or if it gets too expensive; get rid of the Pace/Safety cars all together and go back to the old days where:
The area where the incident is was covered by a yellow flag telling drivers to slow down / no overtaking.
Then a subsequent green flag [once they passed the crash] which allows drivers to go flat out and continue racing and a progressive white flag is used to cover the recovery and emergency vehicles as they make their way to/from the scene.
I mean Brock Moffat Richards Johnson and Geoghean all managed without a Safety Car for ny years didn’t they?
Wheelnut,
The sport is too commercial not to have a safety car. so much revolves around the results nowdays. they cant afford to assume the drivers will get it right
Also, the safety car is a valuable billboard and big money generator for the sport.
it would cost AVESCO more not to have a safety car.
would there be be that many V8 Supercar fans who would know who sponsored the Pace / Saftey Car this year…?
I mean you very rarely saw it on TV because of Channel Sevens never-ending ad-breaks.
Or they could use the Freightliner Pace-Truck which is used during the V8 Brute utes?.
Otherwise they could use one of the Kenworths Freightliners or Mack Trucks the teams use – it could be the truck which belongs to whatever team is leading the championship..
I thought about having the XXX Angels parade around the track with the cars following them – but some of the drivers would be tempted to run the unco-ordinated airheads over
Why would you renew the sponsorship if there’s a more than even chance that you won’t be in business in 6 months’ time?
I think the new safety car will be a Hyundai Genesis.
Wheelnut – pitlane used to have no speed limit as well with drivers doing well over 150kph down pitlane with crews working on other cars etc in the “good old days” of motor racing but I hope you don’t want us going back there as well!
As Neil Crompton said, sometimes the good old days where really the stupidly dangerous days!
How about the mighty Holden……….Barina ROFL!
wheelnut,
now you are just getting silly.
the previous pace cars have been embedded with sponsorship which means incoming $$$ for the sport.
if they simply use the leaders truck, it wont generate the extra loot that the current chryslers do, or like the previous holden and ford safety cars before that.
in the utes, using a truck is relevant to the advertisers target group.
you still got it in for channel 7??
i cant honestly see why people whinge so much about chanel 7’s coverage.
do we all want to go back to 2 hours coverage on the sunday to sum up the whole weekend?? thats all channel 10 was giving it.
Short memories……… (”Must have a”)
I don’t think a safety car is going to be such an obnoxious burden that a sports worth in the hundreds of millions such as the v8 supercars can’t afford one.
Yay! Let’s watch all the dinosaurs die together!
And guys, when (not if) Holden and Ford’s motherships implode in the US, will there be any V8 Supercar racing anyway?
Not surprising Chrysler is pulling out – they only sold 29 300Cs last month. The car is well and truly ‘old hat’ and has not acheived anywhere near the success it has in the US, where it’s within the top 30 best selling vehicles. Also, a correction : the 300C has only been on sale in Australia for 3 years, not 4.
Mark, are you surprised the 300C isn’t selling well? I don’t think its a particularly attractive car, and lets be honest, both Holden and Ford have far superior V8 offerings, when it comes to straight line speed, that’s forgetting style, interior quality, build quality, suspension sophistication, the list goes on.
Sorry H.S.V I meant your “love life”
Mark,
I havent seen the latest sales figures on the 300C,
but when they landed here they were rivaling the statesman/caprice on sales, and thats without the 300c gaining fleet sales like the statesman does.
Ill take your word that sales have slumped big time. what that shows is that the novelty has worn off. It always was going to be a novelty item here in OZ.
Andrew I remember one race this year where just after the start of the race Skaife was 3rd… they then wnt to a commercial break… and when they came back Skaife was 22nd – did channel 7 give any explanation as to how/why or show a replay? No
Then there was the race in Phuk-a-cow; where Morris’s car rolled – the pace car came out for several laps whilst the marshalls attended the scene etc.
A couple of minutes later; with only 5 or so laps to go Channel 7 announced the race would be cut short – the telecast ended – and we went straight to a delayed telecast of an AFL match.
The reason Channel Seven gave was because the marshalls took too long extracting morris from the car.. But what do they want the marshalls to do? run on to the track and yank the driver out by the balls; and chuck him and the whats left of car over the fence.. even though as in morris’ case he already had a spinal problem from Oran Park
And seeing that the AFL match was delayed would an extra couple of minutes made any difference to the result?
I was in Adelaide at the time and the AFL match didn’t even involve an Adelaide team.
The 300C never really rivalled the Statesman/Caprice – 2006 sales figures: 1864 versus 3076. It was just bad timing – they released it right before the new Statesman came out, and once it did, sales quickly overtook the 300C. I thought sales might improve when Ford discontinued the Fairlane, but it had no effect. The 300C has many advantages over the local luxury offerings: it has an optional diesel engine, it has a wagon (something Ford never offered at luxury level, and long before the Holden Sportwagon came out).
Mark,
i remember seeing figures a couple of years ago that had the 300c right up there with the statesman.
even 1864 V 3076 in sales is pretty good considering the statesmans large lump of fleet sales.
as of today what is the statesman selling at?? (volume wise)
also whats the percentage of fleet sales on a statesman??
wheelnut,
yes i know you would be able to come up with a couple of examples, but if i dug into the channel 10 memory bank, i would be able to find a couple aswell.
with the Morris crash, the telecast had already been flicked to commercial mode. its hard to pull out once the producer has already pushed the button.
there has always been a time limit on races due to other committments. even channel ten had these deadlines.
the races have always had a time limit put on them. its not a new to channel 7 thing.
at least we now get saturdays happenings on saturday.
In the end channel 10 were starting to show saturdays events on saturday, but you had to wait up till midnight to see it.
Oh, and we never used to get qualifying at all with channel 10
to quote the minister himself…..
“Short memory must have a, shoor-oor-oortt memory”
Statesman sales are 75% fleet, while Caprice are around 85% fleet. The two models sold 4754 in 2007 (compared with 1645 300Cs) and this year they have sold 3238 so far (compared with 1042 300Cs).
Mark,
well even as of todays figures, minus fleet sales, the 300c sells well for not having any (or very little) fleet sales.
it was still only going to be a novelty vehicle.
it seems that most of the private buyers wanted something different for a cruiser. once everyone else started buying one, i guess they werent so special
You could be right. In the US, the 300 sold 144,000 in it’s first year – that gave it a 0.8% share of the market. Here, the vehicle only managed a 0.2% share. If you work out the numbers, the 300 is over 5 times more common on US roads than on our roads. 300 sales have slumped in the US, too, however, possibly more so than they have here.
Mark,
also factor in that the chrysler nameplate was new to Aussie buyers.
also factor in that the bigger cars in general arent as popular as they are in the states
chrysler is a household name in the US, here, it isnt really
whats the statesman hold here?? .4% share including bumped up fleet figures???
for a new comer, i think the 300c held up well.
I agree the 300C is/was a bit of “Novelty” thing is I can remember several times when I was at a Motorshow and the 300C was on display – round about the time details and pictures of the new Challenger were released
The number of People who asked Chrysler reps – “is the Challenger to Australia?” and the reps replied “No” and the customers response was “Pity I’d buy one”
Surely news that there were so many people interested in the Challenger and not the 300C would have made it back to Detroit.. and they would have considered making it RHD
I feel that Chrysler have missed out an alot more sales by not importing the Challenger – one of the only American cars not designed with a ruler
The telecast woiuld be more bearable if they get rid of matthre What and replace him with either Skaifey ifnot Larkahm.
Matthew What is the “Ray Warren” of Australian Motorsport -he has no experience in the sport knows very little about it [hes always agreeing with Crompton or para-phrasing what he said]; He simply loves the sound of his own voice.
At least with Skaifey or Larko we’d have a bit more friendly banter etc.. or even Bargs
Mike Raymond [who What interviewed at Oran park] made it interesting he could learn alot from the Big guy
ill assume you mean Matthew White not What???
For starters if he was the Ray “Warren” of motorsport, he would be the god of motorsport.
im not sure if you are trying to give Matty White a wrap, or insulting Ray Warren.
Matt White is employed as a presenter. Not for his knowledge or expert comments etc, but to keep the show moving, and to do it in a professional manner.
same with football.
you have presenters, and then those with expert comments etc
No it’s an insult towards Matthew White.
I agree as a presenter he’s not that bad but a commentator he’s the same as Ray Warren = pathetic annoying irritating.. I’d almost swear that hes related to Darryl Eastlake
One of the only presenters who is also a good sports commentator is Richie Benaud
They can keep Matthew on to do segways etc but when the races are on pass it over to someone who knows a bit of background and what they are talking about.
The Challenger is a Dodge, not a Chrysler. The Dodge brand is even LESS recognized here than Chrysler (Chrysler has been around since 1997, Dodge only much more recently). Keep in mind the Challenger only just went on sale in the US this year. It’s not too late for it to come down under. It took us a year to get the 300C. Another car I really like the look of is the Dodge Charger sedan. It’s essentially a Dodge ‘clone’ of the 300C but all the panels are different and it’s a lower-end car- perfect to compete against Commodore and Falcon.
Andrew M, you talking short memories? HRRMMPH! I’ve got a memory like one of those cooking implement thingys that lets the flour fall through.
Golfie, that poor memory you have seems to have let you forget to make a relevant comment by the time you scrolled down from above. Ha Ha.
I suspect the real reason is Chryslers financial situation along with familiarity of the car. Who cares what car it the ones behind them that count. How about a AMG C63 thingy.
Should have 380 Mitsubishi’s [nee Magna] as a bit of a stir.
Cheers,
F-0
Someone please refresh my memory has Frugal one ever made a positive contribution towards any thread or topic on this site.. that is had something good to say about a particular car; or said something that was thought out or knowledgeable etc.. or is he just a dumb ass?
The main reason Chrysler supplied the Pace Cars [since the 300Cs release] was to show off of one of their latest [current] models give it more exposure in an attempt to boost sales – I mean hey why not use a Leyland P76?
A Nisaan GTR Hahaha…!!!
wheelnut,
dont ask golfie to refresh your memory.
Golfie,
I think you mean colinder??
Im pretty sure flour would fall through that…….
Yep, you must mean colinder.
Wheelnut,
so you were trying to insult both??
for me its not a rugby league match without the legendary commentator “Rabbits” at the microphone.
He puts some excitement into the game, and bloody well knows what he is talking about.
it would be sad if everyone spoke in monotone.
I also enjoy when Warren and Gould share the mic. Those 2 just niggle away at each other, i find it hilarious.
Matty White doesnt bother me as much as you obviously.
sometimes when you have 2 experts put together neither of them know their place. I think Matty too well knows his place, and his lack of knowledge amplifies how great Cromly is. I think they work well together
It could be worse, they could have Jo Grigs beside Cromly
Or Kochie
Interesting to read that Jason Richards has been released from SGR.
He is destined for another team which offers a good prospect. its not yet announced where it may be.
Its got to be a holden team. The holden boss has said he has kept JR on the red side (whereever that maybe)
possibilities include
HRT (unlikely because Davison is rumoured to get the seat)
PMR (unlikely because its a move to a QLD team)
Kelly Racing (strong possibility if Todd stays with Larry)
BJR (doesnt really want to say much, but no better performer than his current team)
LPR (strong possibility if Todd joins the family team)
I’d like to see a R35 GTR as the pace car but I can’t see that happening :p
hahaha ,that would be cool Howie……you know a V8 Supercar and the R35 GT-R are the same from 0-100 clicks ?Seems to be in good company babe!
I know what about the little Tata Nano for V8’s Safety Car? Now that would be FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hahahaha.shhhhhhhhhh Duck Ive got the stitch from laughing too hard think about it!