(Words by Bryan McTaggart) – Let me be straight off the bat: NASCAR sucks. If I wanted to watch overgrown go-karts turn left while the drivers strut like primadonnas, I’d self-medicate with a ton of Valium and do that. Trans-Am is dead. IMSA is dead. Let’s face the facts: unlessyou are a diehard racer, most racing in America doesn’t appeal anymore. Whatwould reverse the trend?
The SuperStars series, which became the EuroV8 series for 2014 and the SuperTouringSeries for 2015, is a very enticing option. The cars must be a production platform car…no BS, it’s a modified production piece! You KNOW what you’re looking at! Yeah, there’s some touches like a spoiler and some aero and cooling tricks, but nothing so far out there that you lose sight of the car itself. The minimum engine size (yeah, minimum!) is 3.8L. If the production car uses forced induction, so can the race car. H-pattern manuals or approved sequential gearboxes only…no semiautomatics or automatics allowed. Two or four doors are allowed, but the production car must seat at least four people.
The cars themselves bring in a decent mix of brands. In addition to typical Europeacars like Audi’s, Jaguars, BMW’s and Mercedes-Benzes, you have Chevrolets (Camaro and the Lumina CR8, which is a Holden-based platform), the Chrysler 300C SRT8,Caddy CTS-V, Maserati Quattroporte, Lexus IS-F, and even Porsche’s big-assed Panamera S. The races are set up in a two-race sprint style, and the points system is simple: spread points for 1st fastest lap of the race. Easy to follow, right?
So, what about the actual racing, you may ask? SuperStars racing looks a lot like Euro/Aussie Touring Car racing: it’s a lot of roadcourses, and driver’s tempers cancome flying out without abandon. Remember, in the UK, it was very common for drivers in the Touring Car series to hit each other on purpose or to be caught on camera flipping off other drivers. Now, give them some of the ballsiest cars that you can reasonably purchase on the market today, upgrade those cars with the proper racing safety items, and let them go to town. Yeah, I’ll take that any day.
If you needed any more inspiration of why we could really use this here in the States, listen to the soundtrack. If that doesn’t convince you, nothing will.
Editor’s note: McTaggart’s right. These videos flipping rule.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THESE GUYS SLAMMING AND BANGING AROUND. KILLER ACTION!
Yeah just what we need. A bunch of yuppies in their stupid BMWs and all running around hitting each other. That crap is one reason why NASCAR sucks.
If I wanted to see a demolition derby I go to one.
How could you guys talk about Australian V8 Supercars and not show the video of Darrell Waltrip riding in one around Bathurst, screaming like a little girl the whole time?
Nick that’s because there are not Aussie V8 super cars.
Nick, I’ve seen that footage, and it rules. But Aussie Touring Cars are well known on BangShift…SuperStars (or whatever name it uses this week), not so much. That, and there’s little variation in ATC: Holden, Ford, and if I remember right, Nissan. That’s it.