Having spent about an hour hovering around a HRT v8 with the team icl drivers recently I would say for the NZ based teams maybe for the Aussy teams hell no, these things are amazing and there aint anything thats orginal, not even the chassis or the actual body (did ya know the Commodore has 300 mm chopped out of the middle hence the car is shorter.
These cars are truly amazing pieces of engineering, Oh and RT they run some awesome looking OHLINS kits.
Hate to think of the money involved in running a team.
back to bikes, I say (always have) standardize the classes with only mods allowed being Pipes Brakes and suspension and thats it, makes for cheaper racing = more involvement and more involvement = more of a spectacle= = more specatoators = more attention = more sponsorship dollars = a bigger and better racing scene.
dunno why that isnt obvious to everyone really, simple shit.
Ive run out of fucks to give
Maybee Im just a stupid old bastard but the most exciting racing Ive seen or been involved in was 250 production.
This class wasn't just subscribed it was most often so oversubscribed they needed to run a and B grade for it.
I remember watching one race where the freight train was 12 bikes long any one of the 12 could have won. (actually Billy was one of that train)
The intent of the 250 proddy rules was that you bought ya bike ,slapped some tyres on and raced
Yea I know I live in the world of dream because yes some of the lead bikes had "factory" parts not availble to joe bloggs off the street. And RGV250's had "reconditioned" rear shocks in em
But the arguments about the racing not being exciting without spending $10000 on race this or that is utter BS.
To see a life newly created.To watch it grow and prosper. Isn't that the greatest gift a human being can be given?
Oh it is not only white people who have racist views - I once had a Chinese woman tell me that Winston Peters was a racist, and in the same breath say that all Pacific Islanders were lazy ???
However it is only those who have POWER who can exercise their racist/religious/gender beliefs and BE a racist/sexist.
Everyone has racial/religious/gender stereotypes to some extent the trick is try to not buy into it by reinforcing the negative side.
WE know that all motorcyclists are not ignorant, dirty etc. etc. but people love to put labels on things, and the media (and a few politicians) like to appeal to the worst side of human nature and exploit prejudices. Racism/sexism/Religious persecution (I can' think of the 'ism for that) are all about POWER and CONTROL .
A scotsman, an Irishman, an Englishman and an Australian walked into a bar, the barman said "is this some kind of joke ?"
"You never understood that it ain't no good, you shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you" - Bob Dylan
To see a life newly created.To watch it grow and prosper. Isn't that the greatest gift a human being can be given?
Thanks for clarifying that before I had the chance to jump in. The real Aussie V8 race cars have either highest level Ohlins ( predominantly ) Sachs or Penske. There may be a little bit of Koni but only for low budget teams at the rear end of the field ( such as TKR ) Our NZV8s substitute the injection with a control carburetor, dodgy single acting control Konis etc.
Frankly they are chalk and cheese.
Indeed it is. Glorified Stockcar drivers, the lot of em.
Vote David Bain for MNZ president
But I for one wouldn't turn up just to watch 250 proddy racing.
I'm kinda with Brian on this one, I go along as much to check out the amazing machines in the pits as much as for the racing. As it is soon going to stand I might as well wander through the local car park 'cos the machines will not be much better than anything on the street.
Worse still I don't think they'll achieve much on their own. Racers are still going to choose 600's over thou's because of our loopy cross entry rules and Stroudy, Shirriffs, Clee and co will still be in a class of their own because they've been exposed to a tougher spec of bike and tougher competition. Club 600 grids will still be oversubscribed and they still won't be bothered turning up to the Nat's.
I think back to the glory days of Macintosh Suzuki's, the Roberts "Plastic Fantastic" and 500 GP 2 strokes racing against modded proddy bikes at Wanganui. They were the bikes I turned up to see. Sure the close racing made the tiddlers exciting but not a soul left to grab a hot dog when the wildly diverse open class got going.
Although I love muscle cars the NZV8's aren't a positve analogy for me. I just find the whole sameness to everything boring and the "can't pass without a nudge" business shits me to tears. The other frustrating thing is the display of money in 4 wheels as opposed to two. There are huge sums being bandied about in lots of different classes on 4 wheels yet we can hardly raise a bean at a National event. The contrast is amazing and well done to the 4 wheel brigade 'cos they are obviously doing something right. I mean how is a Porsche GT3 series viable in NZ?! 17 year olds are driving $40k open wheelers. And have a look at some of the carbon fibre mega horsepower marvels in the TraNZam series....a-fuckin-mazing.
i think part of the success back then was bikes were "new" aand relatively exciting to a segement of the population.At that time the vic club(for example) had 400 members and if a new model bike was available you could bet your bottom dollar that there would be two or three at the next club night.The manufacturers were bringing out new models to outdo each other....this started to flow through into the racing classes ...BUT the only decent crowds only turned up at the castrol six hour.Despite different strategies we could never get big crowds to Manfeild to the nationals.The entry fees were relatively high and we lost money every time.
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