Motorsports

The upcoming 2015 Ford Mustang muscle car could keep Ford in the V8 Supercar championship. Prominent V8 Supercars team owner Rod Nash says Ford's famous Mustang-branded muscle car could be the future for the brand in the Australian motorsports category.The last model of the Ford Falcon is set to be released toward the end of the year and Ford's decision to cease local manufacturing by October 2016 has increased doubts over the company's continuing participation in V8 Supercars.Nash, who is a co-owner in the factory-backed Ford Performance Racing (FPR) team, believes the two-door Mustang coupe could be the car to keep Ford in the championship. A sixth-generation version of the Mustang is due for release in Australia in the latter part of next year.Nash says the possibility of racing the car in future years of the V8s is one his team has to look at. "The opportunity is there for a V8 Supercar to be a two-door," Nash said before the round in Townsville this weekend."If we want to do a two-door vehicle going forward then that will be part of it. It's all part of manufacturers going forward and being able to accommodate what they want to do."With the Holden Commodore also facing extinction no later than 2017, V8 Supercars has opened itself to the possibility of changing current regulations to allow two-door coupes to race alongside or in place of the current four-door sedan designs allowed. If that change is adopted, not only will Ford be able to race Mustangs but cars such as Chevrolet Camaros and Dodge Challengers could join the grid."Nothing is granted until you put it up through the V8 Supercars Commission," Nash said. "Any subject has to go up so it's not mandated that you just go out and do it."

The "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" mantra has proven true for Volvo and more than validates the Swedish maker's decision to race V8 Supercars.Book A Test Drive > Request an eBrochure > Find Latest Offers>Volvo Australia boss Matt Braid says a 60 per cent rise in sales of the S60 sedan are directly attributable to the team's V8 success. "Since the weekend of Clipsal (the first V8 race on the calendar, in March) our inquiries have probably doubled," Braid says.That hasn't translated across the entire Volvo range and Braid says the company still needs to educate the public about its sedan, wagon and hatch line-ups. "We know when it comes to a family buying an SUV we're definitely on the shopping list. We're not with our sedans." Referring to Volvo's conservative history, he says: "We're the last market globally to get rid of the view of the hat on the parcel shelf." Braid says building sales of the V40 hatch will be a priority but it won't involve price cuts. "The segment's booming so we've got to be a bit more aggressive with that car. "We're a luxury brand, so we need to push the luxury potential of the brand, push the technology, push the performance aspects." The mix of technology and performance will be highlighted by the arrival of the new XC90 large SUV next year. Braid says the vehicle will use four-cylinder engines. The performance flagship for the range will be a plug-in hybrid."You'll definitely see (the plug-in as a premium vehicle). It won't be priced in line with the other cars. We're still at the tentative stage of exactly what that entails from a price point and also what equipment and technology it will have versus others," he says."People aren't necessarily going to look at hybrid technologies purely as being green. It's going to be, ‘How can I maximise efficiency and performance out of a given vehicle platform?'"  

With this year's running of the Indianapolis 500 it will be 50 years since a front engined, Offenhauser powered race car last won the world's biggest motor sports event. And the guy who profoundly influenced that outcome was Sir Jack Brabham.In 1961 Sir Jack took a rear engine Cooper Climax to the famed oval. No one gave him much of a chance, and many derided the Cooper as toy-like.By comparison with the big, long, sleek Indy roadsters, with their radical left-offset Offenhauser power plants, the Cooper was a small, spindly and fragile thing.And if an engine hanging out of the back was not enough of a challenge to existing Indy orthodoxy, then the fact it was not powered by an Offenhauser really got everyone talking.You see, Offenhauser engines dominated American oval tracks and for as long as anyone cared to remember the sound of racing was "Offy, Offy, and Offy"The unitary construction of the motor (it had no separate cylinder head) meant it was not vulnerable to head gasket or cylinder stud problems. Accordingly, car owners could run higher compression levels than what was achievable with other motors of the day.It was the power plant you had to have to win at Indy and that was the accepted wisdom until Jack arrived.Brabham did not win at Indy that year. He finished ninth. AJ Foyt won. But Jack showed the way of the future and it wasn't front engined and it wasn't Offy powered.In 1963 Ford combined with Colin Chapman's Team Lotus, Jim Clark and Dan Gurney ( who would go on to drive for Brabham) to qualify two fast, rear-engined cars, running Ford's new 260 cubic inch V8. Clark ran second to Parnelli Jones and gave roadster owners and drivers a BIG fright.Chapman and Clark returned in 1964. It was to be a dark year in Indy history. Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald, in two the "new fangled" rear engine cars, died in a turn four crash which became a raging inferno. You can see the horror of it all on YouTube by entering ‘indy1964'.Clark exited on lap 47 with a collapsed left rear suspension and AJ Foyt won. Officials knew the writing was on the wall for the roadsters. As soon as the podium festivities were over they rolled Foyt's  Sheraton-Thompson Special straight into the Indy Museum.It is the only Indy winner in the museum to not have been restored. It made a recent appearance at the Amelia Island Concourse de Elegance and the stone chips and oil sprays are still plainly visible on its handcrafted panels.Clark and Chapman won in 1965. A front engine roadster never saw success at Indianapolis again. By 1967 even the venerable Offenhauser engine was in a rear engined car and Johnny Rutherford gave the iconic engine its last win in 1976.Jim Clark, Dan Gurney, Colin Chapman and Sir Jack Brabham, they changed motor racing as we know it.David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au

Back in the 1970s they made a movie about Le Mans, the car race that is - not the town.

Isuzu MU-X's debut race results in class first at Finke Desert.

Brabham was the first driver to prove Australians could cut it on the world motorsport scene, heading to Europe to try and make his mark in Formula 1 in the late 1950s.He would win his first two world titles aboard a Cooper-Climax, becoming the sport's first world champion driving a rear-engined car. After waning success with Cooper, Brabham struck out on his own and founded the eponymous Brabham team. Combining with design genius Ron Tauranac, and engines designed, built and developed in Australia, Brabham's cars conquered the world.In 1966, Brabham became the first and only man to win the world championship in a car bearing his own name. It is a feat unlikely to ever be replicated.Misfortune saw another couple of potential titles slip through his fingers before he retired from Formula 1 at the end of 1970. He made several appearances in sportscars, racing touring cars in Australia in the late 1970s, as well as making one-off appearances in celebrity races and in revival events at Goodwood.Sir Jack also was the head of our greatest motorsport dynasty. His sons Geoff, Gary and David followed him into the sport with great success, Geoff and David making their greatest mark in sportcars and both winning the Le Mans 24 Hours race.Their sons are now upholding the Brabham name across the world, Geoff's son Matthew winning his first Indy Lights race in America just one week ago, while David's son Sam is racing in Formula Ford in Great Britain.Brabham, who had been in ill-health for some time, is survived by his three racing sons and their families, and his wife Lady Margaret. 

In the quest to find out what Red Bull race driver Daniel Ricciardo could do after his F1 driving days are over, he’s trying out a few different career prospects.Yesterday we saw him give pizza delivery a whirl, but today it’s AFL. However he might have more success trying to punt the ball through the posts with a car than with his fot.Watch the desktop version of Ricciardo on the ball with AFL video here. 

More than $170 million worth Ferraris of are being primped, preened and primed today for the biggest Australian event in the history of the famed Italian brand.That's the combined worth of more than 400 cars that have targeted Sydney Motorsport Park for the inaugural running of the Ferrari Racing Days, an event that combines everything from a series of grand prix speed runs to a children's play zone.The first and only public appearance of LaFerrari, the sellout new $1.5 million Ferrari supercar, headlines the event but there are also nine F1 cars, a group of FXX customer racecars and two rounds of the 458 Challenge to spark the track action through Saturday and Sunday."It's the biggest event for Ferrari in Australia and probably the southern hemisphere," says Herbert Appleroth, chief executive of Ferrari Australasia. "To have 400 cars, when the total Ferrari carpark in Australia is only around 2000 cars, is just amazing. Lots of owners are driving their cars to Sydney and I know we have people coming from Perth for the event."The headline cars have been freighted from Italy and around the Pacific region in an airlift that's too costly for Appleroth to discuss. It's the same story for the shipment of more than 40 container loads of cars, parts and equipment, as well as the factory technicians to prepare the cars and run a full-scale F1 pitstop simulation."But you should see the bill for the insurance. It's just insane," he jokes. The Racing Days in Australia follows similar successful events in Japan and Malaysia and, as always, F1 track action is the pivotal play.Appleroth says nine grand prix Ferraris are installed in the garages at Sydney Motorsport Park, six for private owners and three that belong to Ferrari. One of those will be used by F1 test driver Marc Gene, one is a spare, and the third is just for display."You cannot take any chances. People want to see our cars in action," Appleroth says. The F1 cars will share the track with a rare 333 SP sports racer that will be handled by V8 Supercar driver Tony D'Alberto and there will also be sessions for FXX customer cars, two races in the 458 Challenge and track time for owners in their own cars."The owners are not going to puddle around. They'll have a go, and we'll have Marc Gene to coach them," Appleroth says. "It will be non-stop action. We're hoping for up to 10,000 spectators and they will see something unique in Australia." 

Ferrari F1 test driver Marc Gene will only have a 2010-specification Ferrari at his disposal for the Ferrari Racing Days, but is still likely to threaten the existing benchmark time set by Aussie hero Dan Ricciardo last month.Ricciardo re-wrote the record in in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix when he lapped a Red Bull RB7 in 1 minute 13.08 seconds, undercutting the previous benchmark time set by Mark Webber - also in an RB7 - in 2013 by six-tenths of a second.Gene is not promising an all-out attack but tells Carsguide there is always a temptation when he straps into a grand prix car. "We are racing drivers, we always push. Sometimes you do the lap record," Gene tells Carsguide."The car is run by the Formula One team and very much as it used to race. It's more-or-less three years old, so a 2010 car." Gene and the F1 missile are the star attraction at the Racing Days, a two-day event that's being run for the first time in Australia with everything from a debut appearance by the LaFerrari supercar to a children's activity area. But there will be as many as eight Formula One cars in action, most driven by wealthy owners who purchased the cars once their grand prix careers were finished."All Racing Days involve a Formula One demonstration. There are hot laps and also a pitstop," says Gene. "I'm really enjoying it. I know it might be one of the last shots I have."Gene is an official test driver for Ferrari but his work has been severely limited since F1 test days were cut back. He is now mostly involved with track days and demonstration runs, including the Racing Days program that has already visited Malaysia this year."Nowadays, I'm enjoying it a lot more than seven or eight years ago, because there are no tests these days. I'm doing 15 or 20 laps and really enjoying it."Gene promises all sorts of action, from the violence of a full-scale race start to the smoking craziness of donuts. "It's an exhibition. Of course, I try to put on a good show. So you do things that you don't normally do, like sliding and donuts."But he also knows he has the car and speed to go for the record, something he has already achieved at the Laguna Seca circuit in California, USA."I have the lap record at Laguna Seca. That shows that all of us, whichever teams do an exhibition, can achieve. "We'll see (in Sydney). It depends on the car. I'm too experienced to take any risks. I would regret it big time."Gene says there has been a huge response to earlier Racing Days, particularly in Japan. "There are many reasons. One of them is the cars. There is no other brand that is able to do such extreme cars. It is a car that people dream to drive," he says."There is no other brand in the world that is about to sell F1 cars and have a program for very special clients who own these cars."This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover 

Red Bull Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo is obviously looking to life beyond racing, and the career prospects for somebody with his driving skills.While in Australia for the recent Melbourne GP, the Aussie racer had a try at delivering pizza. Fast.Renault has some other stunts lined up for Ricciardo to get some handy work experience in other roles. But in the meantime, all those pizza parlours that offer the food free if it doesn't get there on time might want to give him a call -- he's a sure thing as a delivery driver to beat the clock.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincottWatch the Daniel Ricciardo delivers pizza video on our desktop site.