Bathurst specials

There's virtually no similarity between the Bathurst racers and the road cars you and I buy from Ford or Holden, apart from a vaguely similar appearance. The engines are purpose-built 5.0-litre V8s. Neither Ford nor Holden have a production 5.0-litre V8 on sale. The gearboxes are purpose-built for racing and the suspensions are special, as are the brakes, wheels and tyres. The bodies may look like the production equivalent, but they're specially built, incorporating roll cages and other reinforcements. And get this: the Commodores now run a Falcon-type wishbone front suspension instead of the MacPherson strut the production cars run. The Commodore racers have long-run Ford nine-inch diffs as well.