Skaife to race in 2005 spec VZ!

[Y2kGoofball]

Its briefly been mentioned elsewhere on this forum but I wanted to break the news!

Briefly on todays RPM there was mention of the #2 HRT being a glimpse of the future!

As well all know the #05 car was written off (ie stuffed) after Bathurst. In reality the 05 car was the championship #2 HRT, and the bathurst #2 HRT is the championship #22

For Indy Skaife was forced to use his old championship + bathurst winning VX with a VY front / rear end.

With only 2 rounds left, and Skaife forced to buy a new car, he's decided to pickup a VZ for the next 2 rounds!

As Ive said elsewhere I can sense Skaife has sat down and started changing the team around to try and climb back on top, and the last few rounds have shown this especially Todds podium finish at Indy

Skaife admitted the VZ will look the same, I assume he means because of the VZ's using the VY aero it'll look practically the same in this years livery, but under the paintwork will be an important tool to 2005 HRT!

Skaife also said the main point of it is to start setting up the car, getting used to it, and being 2 rounds ahead of the other teams when they debut theirs next year! It is a strange move, I always thought no team could use the new model until the first round of the next year but it seems I was wrong, its just when the new road commodore / falcon is released the teams wait until the next year to use them in V8 Supercars, because while we see a VY racing on track, the team is actually prepairing the VZ behind the scenes ready for round 1 next year.

In this case I can see the sense of it, with 2 rounds to go and Skaife needing to buy a new car would you a) use the very out dated VX with a VY bumper kit on it or b) buy next years VZ and start getting used to it :D

Naturally theres no pics yet but I'm waiting to see what it looks like :D

[VQ]

Yeah this will be good to see, can't wait, but remeber when bargs rolled? They rebuilt that car in 7 days!!

[monaro]

they should slap on the VZ aero kit for the photos, so we can see what next years cars are going to look like, like with fords T-car.

wonder if the tail-lights will be VZ? thats not changing the aero is it..

[VQ]

Tails are the same size, just different on the inside, the front are Vy berlina shaped, but more powerful then the Vy lights.

[Y2kGoofball]

yeah what he said

The VZ on the road had been a fairly major change for Holden in lead up to the VE, such as Alloytec, electronic features etc, but on the track its ultimately just a head / rear light change with a bit of a buldge on the front bumper, like the VT > VX or VR > VS, which is why Skaife wants to get in now because every car is different but he knows the VY to VZ shift wont be as different as the VZ to VE, and he knows now the VY is capable of winning races against the BA, so he'd be hoping to prepair the VZ so when next year comes its ready to battle the buldge (get it ... bonet buldge)

The VE will be the real new race car to wait for, but back on topic yes, I want some pictures as well

I thought they woulda done it being the Holden factory team ... show off your new product pre-release as such ^_^ They do it with games, let us play demos ;)

[monaro]

yeah thats what im saying VQ, no real areo changes in the lights so why not slap them on.

obviously skaifey cant use the whole VZ aero as it would have a completely different drag coeffiecent to the VY. in saying that however the BA MkII includes no real aerodynamic changes so you would think the coefficients of the VY and VZ will have to be the same for fair racing (back to project blueprint).

[VQ]

I think it's like VR/VS, they also had the same bodykit, one was slightly different because of rules, but other then that they are interchangable.

[chris]

BA MK.II? Do you mean for road cars or is there an updated race-car?

The road-car is nothing but mechanical and interior specification changes as far as I can tell, and aerodynamics remain absolutely unchanged. Not that they needed changing anyway, the shape was quite effective from the start.

For the mech. changes, some cars got 6 speed manual gearboxes, while I believe at some point down the road, 6 speed automatic transmissions will be included (ZF 6HP26 is the one they might use I think, well known from the BMW 7er).

None of those have any significance on the race cars, since they don't use road-car engines, or road-car transmissions, or road-car anything else for that matter with the exception of probably the basic shell. And even that is most likely different some ways.

[VQ]

It is strengthened and the fact that the V8's are still live axle means something too, so basically it is just a shell with a dashboard that is based on it, but modified with carbon-fibre.

[chris]

That was what I thought. I look at these cars and think silhouette cars, like the old 2.5L DTM monsters from the mid-90's, although maybe not quite as extreme.

No ordinary team could develop a competitive DTM car, the technology was so advanced, and the complexity so high. Sometimes a hundred individual settings of traction control and ABS brakes were possible. And the 6 cylinder 2.5L engines with pneumatic valves responded so fast that sometimes all the RPM counter lights came on nearly all at once.

Wild cars, and actually even faster than V8 Supercars, despite less outright power (think around 370-380kW at around 11,500rpm) and 2.5L less. Eventually even big manufacturers like Opel and Alfa pulled out because the costs of staying competitive were so huge. A top level car could be in the region of $5,000,000.

Shame about the costs, because the racing was pretty good and exciting to watch, and the speeds were high.

[Y2kGoofball]

well there you go ... its a VZ chassis but a VY shell, thats why it still looks the same :mad:

I thought it'd be the VZ shell but I'm wrong

[VQ]

ok, well i just means that they will change the lights for next year, which means not having the eye drop on the front basically.

Yeah, DTM is still happening isn't it? The widebody eruo cars and all? they are beasts, Opel relesed one a while ago with a V8, looks liek the race car, but slightly heavier for safety reasons of course.

[Mickcals]

Y2k what made you think he was running the VZ shell.

All HRT are doing is pre-testing the VZ chassis, which will give HRT a slight advantage for next year.

[monaro]

crompo said on the telly that it went like a bloody bullet at winton tetsing, should be good to see how it fairs in the next 2 races as the first skaifey bogged it twice, at the start he bogged it down and ingall punted him off and he got bogged in the sand.

[Perko_Rulz]

Yeah, DTM is still running. Otherwise why would Mika Hakkenin sign a contract to race in a series that won't exist.

The VZ is is hard to tell from the VY unless you have a look from all angles.

[VQ]

Road cars, it's easy, the side skirts, and bumpers are different and the lights are too, there are enough changes to make it look different, unlike the VR-VS upgrade.