V8 Giants Overview V8 Giants Overview
V8 Giants is an exciting all new motor racing category for 2007. V8 Giants will feature V8 powered Touring Cars from a diverse range of manufacturers, featuring cars with different capacity engines, with different weight and rpm limits determined to provide close, action packed racing. V8 Giants will compete over a 9 round Championship on the 2007 Australian Motor Racing Series program.
Thunder and Lightning. Australian racing fans love the thunder and spectacle of V8 engines. They also love diversity and seeing more than two manufacturers do battle. And this is what V8 Giants is all about - a range of different cars, with a range of different strengths and weaknesses doing high-speed battle on the racing circuits around Australia. Imagine a 550hp, 4.6 litre quad cam V8 powered car, weighing 1300kg, doing battle with a 700hp, 7 litre pushrod V8 powered car weighing in at 1500kg. The lighter car will have the advantage in cornering and braking, while the 7 litre beast will have the advantage on the straights. It's diversity like this that has been the strength of the Australian Touring Car Challenge, and it's this kind of diversity that's taken to a whole new level with V8 Giants.
Birth of a category. It's no accident that the Australian Touring Car Challenge and V8 Giants are mentioned in the same breath - the men behind the ATCC are the very same men who created V8 Giants. Racers themselves, and more importantly, followers of racing, Rod Dale and Garry Willmington have long discussed what has been lacking in Australian Motorsport - excitement, diversity, affordability, and accessibility. The birth of the Australian Motor Racing Series was the first step in Garry's and Rod's plans to bring back excitement, diversity, affordability and accessibility to Australian motorsport. The birth of V8 Giants is phase two.
Growing year. Any new category needs time to find it's feet, and V8 Giants is no different. Such a revolutionary idea in Australian racing means that cars need to be conceived, built and developed. This takes time. For 2007, V8 Giants will run in conjunction with the Australian Touring Car Challenge - allowing a full year where new cars can be developed, where competitors have the opportunity to realise the many virtues of the new category, and where the public get to be a part of the growth of the future of Australian motorsport. As the number of V8 Giants builds during 2007, an extra race will be added to the AMRS scedule solely for the V8 Giants cars (and with a longer distance, non-handicapped format).
New cars already being built. Despite the V8 Giants category keeping a very low profile until now, those who have heard about it have been extremely enthusiastic. So enthusiastic that there are a number of cars already in development. Garry Willmington is building an AU Falcon that will be powered by a pushrod V8. An unnamed Victorian racer is building a 7 litre Commodore. Neil Byers is believed to be heavily into the planning of a 360 ci Chrysler V8 powered Mitsubishi 380. The Mumbo Racing stable is also working on a 4.6 litre quad cam powered Ford Mondeo. All this, plus there are many existing cars all around the country that require no more than the fitment of the control V8 Giants Aero-package to be eligible. What we're really looking forward to seeing though are the Chrysler 300Cs, the Mercedes-Benz S500s, the Ford V8-powered Mazda 6s, the Lexus V8-powered Camrys, the....
Controls. With such a diverse range of vehicles eligible, the technical requirements have been kept relatively simple. All cars will be required to run a control aero package (consisting of control rear wing and mounts, and a control undertray for the front splitter). The V8 (or V6) engine used must be from a manufacturer with a recognised relationship with the car manufacturer, it must be installed in front of the original firewall (with modifications allowed for transmission fitment only), the engine capacity, configuration and rpm limit must comply with the equivalency table (below). Wheels may be 17" or 18" diameter, with a maximum width of 11".
Capacity (up to) Valves/Cyl Rev Limit Minimum Weight 4000cc 4 (OHC) 7500rpm 1200kg 4600cc 4 (OHC) 7500rpm 1250kg 5000cc 2 (Pushrod) 7500rpm 1300kg 5400cc 4 (OHC) 7000rpm 1350kg 6000cc 2 (Pushrod) 7000rpm 1350kg 6400cc 4 (OHC) 7500rpm 1500kg 7000cc 2 (Pushrod) 6500rpm 1500kg *Adjustments to this equivalency table may be issued via bulletin to maintain parity. A full technical review will determine appropriate adjustments.
More Information. To learn more about this exciting new category, visit the website: www.v8giants.com.au or contact the category manager via the details below:
V8 Giants Category Manager - Rod Dale
T: 02 6562 7762
M: 0412 785 486
©
AMRS 2006