The Non - V8 Supercars

A non-V8 engine will appear in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship in 2018 for the first time in more than two decades. And while we often associate the V8 with the series we knew as V8 Supercars until recently, other engines have been raced with great success in Australia.

- Adrian Musolino

The news that Supercars will open up its technical rulebook to allow non-V8 engines into the category was met with hostility from many fans.

The V8 engine has been so entrenched in the series since 1993 that many believe the move to other engines spells the end of Supercars. But the fact is the series grew from non-V8 roots and has for most of its six-decade history run to various engine regulations.

The Australian Touring Car Championship first ran in 1960 to what was called the Appendix J rulebook, dictating cars must be four-door production models sold in the marketplace and with minimal suspension and engine modifications allowed. Classes were split based on engine capacity, with the Jaguar Mark 1, Jaguar Mark 2 and Ford Cortina Mark I GT taking out the championships.

More highly-modified cars came into the equation under the Improved Production rulebook from 1965, paving the way for V8 power to become the engines to have in the likes of the Ford Mustang, Holden Monaro and Chevrolet Camaro.

An evolution of this rulebook to Group C from 1973, run for the first time across the championship and the Bathurst 1000, saw Australian-built models take over from the imported cars and it was in this period when touring-car racing became the most popular form of motorsport in Australia.

While the V8 remained at the forefront of touring cars, particularly in Allan Moffat’s championship and Bathurst-winning Falcons, Holden’s LJ Torana GTR XU-1 was powered by a six-cylinder engine and gave Peter Brock his first Bathurst win in 1972.

The battle between the bulky V8 Falcons of Moffat and nimble Toranas of Brock set the foundations for the Ford versus Holden rivalry that defined the V8 battleground of Australian touring cars.