SUPER TOURINGelcome to the future. Supercars has ush-
ered in the Gen2 regulations, the next
step in the sport’s evolution. It’s meant
to build on the foundations laid by the Car of
the Future and set the sport up as the auto-
motive industry in Australia goes through
one of the most radical changes in its history.
There’s only one problem, an elephant of sorts
in the room. It’s the fact Supercars 2017-style
looks much like it did last year and the year before.
The problem has been a lack of appetite from man-
ufacturers to engage in the new rules and a similar
reluctance from teams to take on the cost of develop-
ing a new car for the new regulations. After all, for the
thick end of a generation, the top end of motorsport in
Australia has been dominated by V8 racing. Brand it
however you like, the fundamental formula has been
a large chunk of iron wrapped up in a shell that sharesmore than a passing resemblance to the car you or I have
parked in the driveway.
A lot of criticism has been levelled at Supercars in
recent years because it’s no longer ‘relevant’ or that the
cars are simply silhouettes of the family sedan they’re
meant to represent. There’s truth in that but, if you’re
honest about it, hasn’t that always been the case? Ever
since Ford, Holden and Chrysler invested in homolo-
gation specials and fuelled the ‘Supercar Scare’ of the
early 1970s, the sport has been moving ever so slowly
away from what was originally a production-car style
of racing.
We went through an era where the cars were largely
sports sedans and then into Group A, which saw costs
grow to the point where it became unaffordable even
for the manufacturers to stomach, all the while the cars
edging further and further away from that which sits on
the showroom at your local dealership. We were simplyWORDS Matt Coch IMAGES Autopics.com.auSupercars is desperately seeking manufacturers to enter its series under the Gen2
regulations. The irony is that 20 years ago multiple manufacturers raced at Mount
Panorama in the Super Touring Bathurst 1000s, having been shut out of V8 Supercars.