While I am not trying to take away from just how good the engineers are in V8 “Supercars” (which is world class), you can’t honestly compare a purpose built V8 “Supercar” RACE engine to the Lambo PRODUCTION CAR engine. How can you compare an engine designed to last a few thousand kms before a rebuild on heavily regulated fuel and top of the line lubricants with regular preventitive maintenance, to an engine that should last over 200,000km before a rebuild and could be owned by someone who doesn’t care what fuel/oil goes into it as well as not servicing it as often as they should? Put a V8 “Supercar” engine in a cooking model Falcon/Commodore and drive it like an everyday car with 12 monthly or longer oil changes etc and see how long it lasts and how driveable it is. It would be an urban pain in the neck in stop start traffic etc.

BTW, the live axle was not ORIGINALLY due to cost cutting. It was due the fact that the Falcon at the time of inception didn’t have a model with IRS and with more Commodores with live axles, the live axle was decided to be the easiest to engineer into the chassis.

You as a reporter have two perspectives to deal with, your own as you witness it and that of your audience. It is your job to consider the perspective and wants of the target audience aligned with with publishers mission statement. If the target audience is left to second guess you and critique your biases then you will just become like every other media outlet and that would be a shame.

Take the leading sentence:
“The fuels you and I buy need to be used in all manner of different engine types, engine ages, atmospheric conditions and altitude, which all playing their part in a fuel’s performance, and it is each of these factors that Shell engineers must account for in formulating road going fuels.”

Devoid of any back ground knowledge (teaching the alien scenario) that sentence implies that Shell engineers make formulate all fuels. Obviously that’s not true, even slightly dramatic to bring up. However, cynical me is not used to such accidental bias that seems to be commercially influenced on this website.

The reason they don’t use more production orientated cars is two fold, one parity, its just too hard to get two production based race cars to be completely fair and level in a competitive sense, and secondly cost savings again, believe it or not but purpose built race cars are in fact, and always have been, cheaper to race then modified production spec race cars. Group A, which was 100% production based, is the most expensive formula ever used in the Australian Touring Car Championship (what is noe V8 Supercar) and the racing was never particularly close as the cars where so different and lap times between first and last on the grid where often over 6 seconds, today they are less then 2

The invitation from Shell was as much an endorsement of the quality of journalism on this site as the number of hits/blog threads.

Adrien Burgess worked with James Courtney in europe previously as his engineer

People who say these cars are low tech are just plain ignorant.

It’s so easy for people to look at something and decide whether or not its high or low tech based on its engine or suspension configuration, but thats like saying a current model Holden Barina has a technologically advanced motor because it has DOHC… i mean come on there is more to a motor then how the valves are actuated! Also, the compact and lightweight nature of pushrod engines is often overlooked, they are significantly lighter, more compact and have lower centres of gravity then DOHC motors, perfect for race car handling which is why Merceedes benz used pushrods in their DTM engines untill 2000

I remember when Prodrive first started FPR by taking over Glenn Seton Racing, they designed what they thought was this phenominal “catagory killer” motor in their UK headquarters which was supposed to be absolutely state of the art and have mega-lightweight internals and was going to kill everyone else… they shipped the motor out to Glenn Seton to put in his race car, Seton got his engine man to put it on the dyno and promptly found that the motor had less power and less torque then his own engine, Prodrive didn’t care and demanded the engine be put in Craig Lowndes race car.

Well… apart from the fact that SBR, HRT, Perkins, DJR and GRM all killed FPR in a straight line, but Lowndes suffered engine failure after engine failure…

Do NOT underestimate the abilities of V8 Supercar engineers… Adrien Burgess runs DJR and was previously the technical director of Jordan F1, just to give you an idea!

Was I supposed to say “a certain fuel provider” to a “certain F1 team” through out the article? Give me a break!

I agree – it would be wrong for you not to mention who gave you the rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of one of the most iconic teams international motorsport.

Alan Moffatt learned that you don’t get very far if you don’t mention your sponsors or the ones who helped you get where you are or achieve what you did etc.

As I said earlier, a Gold Star effort given that No other automotive media outlet in Australia was afforded that kind of access.

To Flying High and Anthoni (no need foe the second I mate) they tell me this site is huge as far as numbers go so boys, we won’t miss you, in fact, readers like me won’t have to read senseless and meaningless comments from halfwits like you two.

See ya