After 11 years of growth, the V8 Supercar Championship Series is more healthy and prosperous than most could ever have imagined. From backyard-based outfits to modern purpose-built facilities, today’s era has become more than just about the drivers and teams.

More squads in pitlane are taking control of their own manufacturing to the extent of building their entire race cars from the ground up, focusing more on the engineering prowess that really is the driving force behind the spectacle of this sport.

But the increasingly expensive technology and state-of-the-art equipment required to find the maximum horsepower and performance from these 5.0-litre engines is prompting a switch from manufacturing to purchasing, particularly where engines are concerned.

Stone Brothers Racing is leading the way for the Ford teams, while the strongest Holden powerhouse – and arguably the strongest of the current field – is the Walkinshaw Group.

Already powering the dual-championship-winning Toll HSV Dealer Team, its stablemate the Holden Racing Team and numerous development series cars, the Holden Motorsport engine and its development has been a fundamental ingredient in Team Red’s resurgence of the past few seasons, providing fans with closer racing, placing a greater emphasis on driver skill and ultimately boosting the entertainment factor out on the track.

CHANGING TIMES

Few people find themselves at the centre of opinion like Tom Walkinshaw. But there is no doubt that since his company Walkinshaw Performance took over what was then known as Holden Motorsport (HMS) in October 2005, the turnaround in performance of the Clayton Quartet of HRT and Toll HSV cars has paved the way for Holden to get back on top after three years of Ford dominance.

The new-for-2007 engine transparency regulations, coupled with HMS’s tried and proven engine program, is now seeing other teams make the most of the Walkinshaw R&D without them having to outlay the exorbitant capital expenditure themselves, thereby hopefully allowing them to bridge the gap with the front-runners.

For 2008, Garry Rogers Motorsport has a confirmed technical partnership with WP, and we can expect to hear of Brad Jones Racing and Fujitsu V8 Development Series Champion Tony D’Alberto doing the same for their 2008 campaigns.

But it’s not just costs, or cost-cutting, that has influenced the progression of having more customer teams for next year’s grid.

"It’s a combination of Holden’s request for us to support other Holden teams, the fact there’s greater transparency rules in place now with engines and the commercial realities of that going forward," says Craig Wilson, CEO of Walkinshaw Performance.

"From our point of view, we’ve still got a lot of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) to protect, but it’s not like it was two years ago. There’s a greater degree of transparency so it’s more likely that as a result other teams will eventually be able to get their engines up to the level of ours, although they’ll still have issues because it takes time, engineering resources, competence and everything else, so right now we may as well utilise the commercial realities of that and support some other teams."

After running an in-house engine building program for many years, Rogers has still been able to deliver impressive results, most recently with Lee Holdsworth’s round win at Oran Park, but Wilson believes the constant gap in horsepower to the leading Holden outfits has prompted Rogers to take the ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ approach.

"That is the case," he says. "We and Garry have been sort of competitors for a number of years. The thing is, with a tone of reluctance, Garry’s acknowledged that our engines are what he needs. So if he can’t develop it himself, he just wants to buy it."

Initially, GRM engines will be overhauled by WP with the transition to full-spec HMS powerplants planned for late next year. But infrastructure limitations have also been a key in GRM making the switch. The outfit’s recent relocation from Waverley to Dandenong South – with its lack of space, and the greater government red tape now in place to build new dyno facilities – sees a two-year stop-gap deal with WP until future engine programs are a viable option. Using the "best engines out there" is what team manager Kevin Shawyer says will give the small budget team a chance to build on bringing home more positive results for sponsors.

"We could probably get to where they (WP) are in two years, when in two years they will have developed something else, so we’re always playing catch-up," Shawyer admits.

"This gives us two years to get our things in order and use the best engines, and see what we can do. We’re doing a pretty good job with what we’ve got so with their engines we should be able to hopefully do better than them. At this point in time it’s just the best deal for us. It just fills the hole, so that will get us going and keep us racing at the pointy end, hopefully even close to the front."

BUDGET BUSTERS

As one of the most stressed and arguably expensive components of the V8 Supercar – costing almost one third of the entire car-build budget – the phenomenal amount of research and development needed to produce a podium-worthy engine, not to mention manufacturer budget cuts across the board, is forcing the customer option path. But Wilson says it hasn’t been the main reason for teams opting to change over to WP’s HMS engines.

"No, it’s purely performance based," say Wilson. "These teams want to have similar performance to what we can offer but they haven’t got the resources or money to develop that themselves. Some of the teams just can’t get the engineering base together to do it either, so it’s not just about the money – you’ve also got to have the right organisation."

While outfits similar to GRM are not as well-off in the funding department as the leading Holden outfits, Shawyer hopes that by supporting the teams who are capable of supplying the rest of the field with competitive and cost effective alternatives to in-house engineering programs, it could potentially open doors for even more funding from Holden in the future.

"It’s not going to cost us any more than doing our own engines. I’m hoping this will help us get more money from Holden because we’re seen to be doing everything we can to get a result for them."

HELP OR HINDER?

With the 2008 main game growing to nine cars with HMS engines (out of a total 32-car field), there is no doubt that the newcomers to HMS power will turn up the heat on the track, but also put the pressure on the remaining Holden squads to catch up. Wilson believes the increase is good for the sport in both an economic and
sporting sense.

"It’s good given that the organisers of the sport have gone and introduced these transparency rules where anyone can go and in time look to copy what we’ve got anyhow – I’d rather we
were supplying engines to people on those terms."

And it won’t be to the detriment of the already pacey Toll HSV Commodores, he believes: "Others will just have to try harder. It’s good, it raises the bar."

With Tasman Motorsport continuing to invest heavily in its own in-house engine design and assembly program, with support from Harrop Engineering, team manager Jeff Grech offers a word of warning to the customer teams who may not be in control of their fate.

"If you are a customer, you are a customer," he stresses, "and there might be times where you have to wait in line when you need to react quickly to another organisation’s speed and performance. That’s different to when you’re in control of your own destiny."

However, TEGA board member Larry Perkins, as one of the non-WP powered team owners, says he isn’t troubled by the increased presence in the field next year, saying that in the grand scheme of the sport, sometimes too much focus is placed on the engine.

"An engine’s not the start and finish of whether you’re good on the track," says Perkins. "If teams are wishing to do a commercial deal with HSV or whoever else, I just think that’s good; commercial business should be encouraged. The (HMS) engine itself is a great engine but the limitations and rules we have in place are even greater, and that’s what provides the stability."

FAIR FOR ALL

Project Blueprint’s introduction in 2003 saw racing between Holden and Ford grow closer than ever before, just as 2007’s Engine Transparency Regulations – although being slower than expected to come into effect – are helping to ensure a sense of equality remains between both marques and their 5.0-litre engines.

V8 Supercar regulations in Section C7 of the operations manual stresses the requirement of all teams to ensure components used are approved and able to be inspected during scrutineering. The implementation of these regulations are not only key to reducing the costs of competitively running a V8 Supercar team and systematically eliminating engine R&D expenditure, but they help nullify any questions arising from customers about getting what they paid for, particularly in the cut-throat industry of V8 Supercar racing. Wilson says that while customer teams are paying a privilege price for the HMS-spec engine, the equality between all engines developed, for whichever team, remains constant.

"That’s what we agreed to. We’ve got a contract with Holden that asks us to support other Holden teams if we (Walkinshaw Performance) can, as they’d like some other Holden teams to be more competitive. In part the 2007 season’s results confirm that Holden could do with raising the competitiveness of some of its teams, and if we can help achieve that we will."

But Ford’s motorsport manager Ray Price believes that, in regards to the engine transparency rules, there is still work to be done in kerbing costs.

"I think it helps but at the end of the day I don’t think it’s gone far enough," says Price. "Nothing has really changed as far as their durability is concerned. What we’ve got to look at is how we can make an engine last longer – if you can do that then you reduce the cost of how often you overhaul it, how many times you rebuild it, when and where it needs to be rebuilt and so on. If they’re not going to change the engines themselves, they’ve got to look at things like the rev limiter – can you pull that down, say, by a few hundred rpm, and as long as it happens to all cars nothing’s going to change except the times on the scoreboard. To me, that makes smarter business sense."

BUSY TIMES The Holden Motorsport (Aurora) engine was introduced at the beginning of the 2003 season, and, despite having a rocky start with some teams preferring to stay with the 18 Degree Chevrolet engine, it has been one of the biggest leaps in engine development for the sport. Although the resilient Chev engine was a proven performer still capable of results, the older block was destined to be left behind by a fast-evolving industry. With four main-game cars and four development series cars all running the HMS engine, the Walkinshaw Performance engine shop keeps busy, not just with the four new engines it builds each year, but with rebuilds, too. Required every 2000 to 2500km of track time, that equates to around six rebuilds per engine per year. Add to that the increased volume expected for 2008, where 10 new engines will need to be built before the season starts alone, and that makes for one very hectic off-season.