It’s been a bleak week for Holden and Ford, who reported a combined loss of $820 million as the closure looms of their Australian manufacturing plants.
When they become importers as opposed to homegrown manufacturers in coming years, Holden and Ford’s involvement in V8 Supercars will come under the spotlight.
The manufacturers had exclusivity in the series for two decades, showcasing their respective Commodore and Falcon models before V8 Supercars adapted to the changing automotive landscape and opened its doors to other makes, such as recent additions Nissan, Volvo and AMG Mercedes-Benz.
Holden recently re-signed with leading team Triple Eight in a deal that will take the manufacturer to the end of local production, while Ford’s deal with factory team Ford Performance Racing expires at the end of this season.
As the strain of their huge financial losses and the closure of their plants approach, offering support to motorsport could become untenable.
This would be a huge blow to V8 Supercars, as so much of its fan-base is ingrained in the Holden versus Ford rivalry, though that has been diminishing with the acceptance of new manufacturers.
But Holden and Ford would be wise not to walk away from V8 Supercars once they become imported brands. After all, they’ll need to work even harder in a marketing sense without Australian manufacturing as a selling point.
Doing away with their support of V8 Supercars will only alienate their diehard fans, who bleed either red or blue and will still want to hold on to an Australian quality in the new-look brands.
It will make it that much harder to convince the Australian pubic that the Aussie spirit of Holden and Ford has been retained if they are not represented in the series, even if that doesn’t include Commodores and Falcons.
Which brings us to the cars. Ford has already announced the right-hand drive V8-powered Mustang will become the replacement for the retired Falcon as the manufacturer’s performance model.
Fitting the Mustang over the current control chassis may prove challenging for V8 Supercars, given the dilemma in ensuring parity between a two-door coupe and the current four-door sedans, though it’s not beyond the means of the series, as other touring car categories demonstrate.
For example, Ford races the Mustang in the second-tier NASCAR Nationwide series, adjusting the body shell to fit the template of the category’s technical regulations.
Holden’s parent company General Motors is tipped to retain a Commodore-type model within its range, so both manufacturers will have suitable body shells and can utilise their current V8 powerplants, which for the main have remain unchanged for 20 years.
But, ultimately, it needs the support of both manufacturers to fund the whole project. While independent teams can still run Holdens and Fords without factory support, it’s a challenging proposition and unrealistic when new manufacturers are coming in and providing factory backing.
The decision will be made from a financial perspective, but General Motors and Ford officials need to remember from where the companies gained their appeal in Australia and the importance of continuing to relate to their fan-bases.
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