Mercedes to join V8 supercars
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Here’s the link
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/motorsport/mercedes-to-join-v8s-20120915-25zgh.htmlApparently Erebus racing, which has competed for the last couple of years at the bathurst 12-hour event is forming a partnership with stone brothers racing and they’ll be running Mercedes(AMG) bodies with the new Car of the Future regs.
Any thoughts on the matter?
@yogibaer – This appears to be a re-hash of some rumours that started about a month ago. All the players are the same; Erebus Racing bringing Mercedes into the sport via SBR. At the time, Tony Cochrane and Mark Skaife confirmed that they had approached Mercedes, but the marque had quickly decided against joining as the category didn’t fit their brand positioning. Mercedes confirmed as much, while Ross and Jimmy Stone seemed as surprised as anyone else about the rumours as they had not been involved in any negotiations, despite having been named as the team that would take on Mercedes support.
Don’t worry, i’m a sceptical as you in this matter, why would they even want to? Apart from the international racing that hasn’t yet materialised, why would they go for Australian motorsport? But saying that, it was one hell of a poker face Jimmy stone gave at sandown today
I’m guessing it’s because the series recently got granted “International” status from the FIA, so they’re free to expand out into other countries (they just can’t go any further west than Istanbul; Europe is off-limits for now). Mercedes has a strong motorsport presence in Formula 1 and DTM in particular, but they have no representation in the Asian markets. V8 Supercar races in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and a return to China have all been kicked around, and while nothing has been confirmed, it’s probably for Mercedes to establish a presence in the region with.
Thats the problem i see, these international races haven’t been announced yet, the only one’s are Austin and Yas Marina, both F1 tracks, with the yas marina event with F1. The only announcement has been about 16 hours of prime-time racing in the new TV deal (Which i hope goes to Seven or Ten, but never Nine).
Nevertheless, those events have been planned. And even if they don’t happen in 2013, there is nothing preventing them from happening in 2014.
Yeah, i think what would make more sense, if mercedes or anybody elese joins, and these events happen in 2014, they should introduce their cars halfway through next year, giving time to the teams to prepare them properly. I think the grand master of V8’s Tony Cochrane (who is convinced of four manufacturers), suggested this could happen somewhere
if mercedes or anybody elese joins, and these events happen in 2014, they should introduce their cars halfway through next year, giving time to the teams to prepare them properly
Actually, the only real point of difference between the cars next year will be the bodywork and the engine. Most of the chassis and rollcage will be a spec part, maybe with a few minor differences from team to team. It would not be difficult for SBR to build a chassis to fit a Ford and then modify it for Mercedes. As for the engine, I imagine Mercedes would supply the same enigne their DTM cars use, possibly tuned to fit V8 Supercar regulations.
That’s what I meant about introducing them halfway through the year. they’d only need to change bodywork. I’m not sure what regulations dtm engines are, but that could work. I’m sure we’ll know by bathurst in any case.
I don’t think a mid-year start is as viable an option as Cochrane makes it out to be.
On the one hand, if they can produce a contract with a manufacturer to run at any point in 2013, then their existing manufacturer is going to ask when they should only receive support for half a season before switching. So the manufacturer will either ask them to change sooner, or leave it until the end of the year. The end of the year isn’t an option for the new manufacturer, who will want to get involved as soon as possible. So they’re back at square one, entering at the start of 2013.
As far as the engines go, I believe they’re actually quite similar. Both use V8 engines with similar specs, but might need a bit of tweaking to work. At the very least, they won’t need to build an entirely new engine.
With the manufactures i think the only ford teams with ford contracts are FPR, DJR and SBR. And the article says that SBR are losing ford backing at the end of the year. I suppose if the Mercedes group wants in, they should try get in asap.
Apparently the Nissan engines have be within 2% of the power curve of the current dinosaurs, so if the DTM motors can be made that close, I see no problem.
I had no idea! I thought all the talk was that only Chevrolet and maybe some others were interested?
Yeah Mercedes and Nissan we’re the only brands that I’ve heard being connected to the v8’s. The official v8 website has confirmed it here
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