Schnooblers car wish list

[J2_Schnoobler]

I think we can all agree that the 90s/early 00’s was an amazing time for motorsport, and that era produced some of the most iconic racing cars in history.

Since Forza Motorsport 5 we have been missing a lot of race cars from this era and the era itself is heavily ignored. The most annoying bit is that we get given the road versions of these race cars, yet it’s is a motorsport game.

I decided I’d have a go at piecing together various race cars from this era, looking across multiple categories from around the world. FIA GT, British Touring Cars, V8 Supercars, DTM, and Japanese GT500 are the categories I’ve focused on for this post. Hopefully we can see some of these stunning vehicles make their way in to the new FM next year!

FIA GT1/Prototype Sports Cars

British Touring Car Championship

V8 Supercars/Australian Touring Car Championship

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Japanese Grand Touring Championship/Japanese Touring Car Championship

FIA GT2/FIA N-GT

[J2_Schnoobler]

today i stumbled across a very exciting little “what if” car, and i think it’d be an amazing addition to forza motorsport’s classic GT class.

the holden commodore V5M, a prototype race car designed for le mans, and developed by holden dealer team in the late 70s/early 80s. also known as “project carra-carra”.

this thing was destined to race in group 5, putting it up against legendary cars such as the BMW M1, porsche 935, the ferrari 512 BB LM, and even the nissan skyline ‘super silhouette’.

and as if the idea of a 5.0 holden commodore V8 racing at le mans wasn’t cool enough, the car made use of ground effect aerodynamics, as seen on the famous lotus F1 cars of the late 70s.

the idea was likely canned due to GM’s global ban on factory backed race cars across their portfolio, and lacked the funding for further development from GMH.

while the car may have never made it to fruition, i think that’s what makes it such a perfect car for forza motorsport. being able to race in race cars that never came to be would be such a thrilling and unique experience for the game.

and just a cheeky bit of fun i had in photoshop, applying the HDT touring car livery to the render

more information: The obscure Holden Le Mans race car we never got - YouTube

[J2_Schnoobler]

in early 2000s GT racing, if you wanted to race you had to build a road version of your race car. this meant cars such as the ferrari 360 N-GT, porsche 911 GT3-R, and BMW M3 GTR all had a hotted up homologation special road car version.

ferrari 360 challenge stradale / ferrari 360 N-GT

porsche 911 GT3 / porsche 911 GT3-R

BMW M3 GTR strassenversion / BMW M3 GTR

these three cars were raced across the world. ferrari and porsche dominated the FIA GT championship, while the M3 GTR showed the american’s how it’s done in the american le mans series, taking the championship before going on to conquer the nurburgring 24 hour.

these three cars also raced here in australia, in our nations cup championship. they faced stiff competition from viper GTS-Rs, mosler MT900s, and lamborghini diablo GTRs, but their toughest foe was one the world hadn’t yet seen, one that hadn’t left the confines of the island it was born upon - the holden monaro 427C.

holden monaro HRT427 / holden monaro 427C

this monster was powered by a massive 7.0 litre, 427ci, V8. taken directly out of the corvette C5.R race car and producing upwards of 550hp. it was developed by a small group of people at garry rogers motorsport, a team who was competing in the V8 supercars series at the time.

it was a force to be reckoned with in the nations cup championship, but it’s biggest successes were at the bathurst 24 hour races in 2002 and 2003. it dominated both races, beating the worlds best GT cars with simple ease. ferrari, porsche, BMW, lamborghini, and mosler didn’t stand a chance against australias weapon of choice.

the problem was, the road-going version, the monaro HRT427, never made it to showroom floors. they planned to build 50 cars, and they were able to fill out 80 orders, but it became apparent that ensuring the car was legal for australian road rules was far too expensive of a job for holden.

despite the car being rigorously tested, and the project in it’s latter stages, the plug was pulled and only two road cars were ever made. one was kept by holden, and the other was sold to a private collector. had these cars been made and sold, the monaro would have become eligible to race worldwide, like it’s compatriots.

the vision of the 427C racing down the mulsanne straight at le mans is one that will never leave an aussie motorsport fans head, and that’s why australia needs this car in the new forza motorsport.