2011 Holden Commodore V8 Supercars race car
We got a taste of Australia’s V-8 muscle car love with the short-lived Pontiac G8 GT and high-performance GT GXP, which were essentially a rebadged Holden Commodore and its more exclusive Holden Special Vehicles variant, both designed and engineered Down Under.
Well, it seems the Aussies also love to race their locally bred heroes, specifically, in a two make touring car race series called V8 Supercars, with the Holden Commodore taking on its longtime rival, the Ford Falcon, in an epic battle, the highlight of which is a 1,000 km (621 mile) race around the Mount Panorama race track in Bathurst.
If you’re familiar with the series and have been longing to see the cars on local shores, you may be in luck as V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane recently revealed that he was keen to see the series host a race in the U.S.
V8 Supercars has previously held races in the Middle-East, China and New Zealand, but with recent changes made to the territorial boundaries that once limited it, we could be seeing a greater variation of regions added to that list. The FIA recently approved a proposal to increase the number of races in the series to 18, six of which are to have international status.
2011 Ford Falcon V8 Supercars race car
Cochrane is now reportedly in talks with a number of U.S. track managers and promoters regarding hosting a race on the V8 Supercars calendar.
Stay tuned for an update.
In case you were wondering, the Ford and Holden race cars are loosely based on their respective production twins but come packing their own unique 5.0-liter V-8 engine with output limited to between 620 and 650 horsepower. Rear-wheel drive is standard, of course.
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