Category |
Touring car racing Silhouette racing car |
---|---|
Country | New Zealand |
Inaugural season | 2012 |
Folded | 2015 |
Constructors |
Holden Ford |
Engine suppliers | Chevrolet 7.0 V8 |
Tyre suppliers | Hankook |
Last Drivers' champion | Simon Evans |
The V8SuperTourers Championship was a motor racing series in New Zealand which started in 2012 and folded in 2015. The cars were then absorbed into the NZ Touring Cars championship.
The car was based on a "Car-of-the-Future" prototype built by Paul Ceprnich of Pace Innovations Australia similar to that of the Australian V8 Supercar series. It was designed to be customised to many different manufacturers vehicles including a Holden VE Commodore, Ford FG Falcon, Toyota Camry or BMW 5 Series. Testing started in April 2010.
The V8SuperTourer Championship was run by V8SuperTourers Limited, a company formed by current NZV8 team owners Mark Petch, Wayne Anderson and Garry Pedersen.
The aim of the company was to build a new V8 touring car, similar to a current Australian V8 Supercar but at less than half the cost. The V8SuperTourer was designed to have performance similar to that of a current Australian V8 Supercar and was designed for both sprint and long distance racing, including a 120-litre capacity fuel cell.
Designed and built by Paul Ceprnich of Pace Innovations Australia, the V8SuperTourer prototype utilises a Holden VE Commodore body mounted on a purpose-built chassis. The chassis, like the Australian V8 Supercar car of the future (or COTF) project, is built to not only accommodate both the current VE Commodore and Ford FG Falcon bodies, but any other similar sized four-dour production vehicle such a Toyota Camry or BMW 5 Series. Interested vehicle manufacturers of four-door saloon cars of a similar size to the Holden Commodore VE and Ford FG Falcon models can apply to race in the series.
The V8SuperTourer utilises a strictly-controlled, one make, all-alloy, fuel injected and dry sumped 7-litre V8 ST engine. The power-plant is derived from the Le Mans Corvette C6.R programme and is hand-built in the United States. It delivers 550 horsepower at 6,800 revs per minute and is expected to have a racing life of 10,000 kilometres before requiring maintenance. This engine is identical to that of the Mosler Automotives current and very successful GT3 sports-car.