2018 Calendars: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship

3 thoughts on “2018 Calendars: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship”

1. Pat,
   the age of the V8 is dying because of Anthropogenic Global Warming, or rather, the threat of said earthly condition. F1 is the first and most obvious target, and they succumbed by introducing grotesquely expensive hybrid engines into the sport instead of concentrating on manufacturing efficient internal combustion motors.

   Ironically, one of the last bastions of V8 racing is Australia, where day to day energy prices have soared because they are shutting down efficient coal fired power stations and replacing them with inefficient wind turbines.

   And I’ll embark on a rant here if permitted. All this is blamed on CO2, emitted from burning fossil fuels. But the entire human race adds approximately 2 parts per million (yes, two parts per million [ppm], not a typo) molecules of CO2 to the atmosphere, per year. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but whilst it forms 3% of all greenhouse gases, water vapour forms 95%.

   President Trump has withdrawn from the Paris accord because America would be forced to subsidise China and India to build over 1,000 (yes, one thousand) coal fired power stations over the coming years, whilst America is forced to shut their own down, because of CO2 emissions, at 2ppm!

   I wont go on, other than to urge every motorsport lover to visit Whatsupwiththat (WUWT) and notalotofpeopleknowthat for some truthful information on global warming and climate change We do more good than harm to human existence. And our sport does no harm whatsoever to our planets future, in fact, it does a lot of good.

   The planet has never been as starved of atmospheric CO2 as it is now. Astronauts and submariners breathe CO2 at 5,000 ppm, yet the planet exists at 400 ppm right now. Optimum growing conditions for foliage worthwhile to mammals is around 1,500 ppm – 2,000 ppm, and all plants die around 150 ppm, which are we closer to?

   Thanks for all your work Pat. But this message is important.

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2. What utter nonsense.

   First, my point about the rules was as a large saloon car series without too much aero, with big grids, popular drivers, fast cars, different styles of races in one championship, tons of sponsors and a big media profile. It was more a dig at BTCC and WTCC who should just adopt the Supercars technical and sporting rulebooks. In any case the series is moving across to V6s soon.

   I agree motorsport can and should be solution in the drive for efficient engines. That’ll never happen without hybridisation. We’ve had a hundred years of development in standard engines, they ain’t getting more efficient now. I personally think hybridisation is a better strategy for manufacturers – for those of us outside cities – than electric cars which won’t gain traction until a leap in battery tech and/or fast-charging tech. Also I have a problem with where the stuff in the batteries comes from.. surely that’s just as bad as fossil fuels.

   While I don’t like the noise or the expense, or the cap on number of engines used (which should be unlimited in F1 as each iteration will be better), I do like the idea of hybrid racing engines. Current hybrid engines produce the same power for 30% to 40% less fuel of the V10 / V8 era, all while gaining significantly in thermal efficiency (energy gained from heat input) which in the case of Mercedes is over 50%, vs 29% of the decade-old F1 V8s. The development is extraordinary and would never have been achieved by continuing to refine the old engines. A similar story was true with Factory LMP1-H and probably to a greater extent.

   Even if CO2 was not a concern – which it is – it certainly is very prudent to reduce the usage of fuel oil so as to be less dependent on the oil-supplying states, though the sport has unfortunately become dependent on their money in other ways in terms of them buying up teams and so forth.

   Wind and solar power costs have decreased rapidly. The days of the coal station are numbered and have been for a very long time. Coal is now, in the UK, the most expensive solution. The best mix today is nuclear, wind, solar – unless you are on a geological fault line or in a place susceptible to terrorism or war.

   And, as I am sure you are aware, the volume of CO2 and other gases has nothing whatsoever to do with who can breathe what and has everything to do with the catalyst effect on the global temperature. While this may in some or large part be natural, the elements which are man-made and can be controlled should be controlled.

   I would urge readers of this site NOT to visit highly politicised partisan sites and instead to pay attention to what genuine scientists produce, independent of political view; to look at the significant cost reductions in renewables over the last decade; to see the not inconsiderable developments in battery technology in the last 10 to 20 years or even the last 5; and to remember once upon a time this was a sport based around innovation.

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3. I’m just now catching up on a month long backlog of blog posts that I haven’t read yet, but just had to say that your point is extremely well put, Pat. I was about to post a similar (though probably not as well worded) comment, until I scrolled down and saw that you’d beaten me to it by four full weeks.

   Keep up the great work.

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