Super5000 Packs V8 Muscle Between Open Wheels Down Under

Do you like open-wheel racing, but can’t get on board with today’s fussy hybrid F1 cars? Then you’ll want to head Down Under, where the Australians apparently still know how to do things right, with good old fashioned V8 muscle.

The new Super5000 car was unveiled over the weekend as something of “a modern take on the popular Formula 5000s of the 1970s,” when F1 cars looked more like this and packed more raw muscle.

Instead of a small-displacement turbocharged and electrified V6 powertrain, the new carbon monocoque chassis is built by Supashock Racing around a big 5.0-liter V8 engine, mated to an Albins transaxle and producing upwards of 600 horsepower. That’s about the same as what a modern Formula 2 racer produces, only this engine is bigger and produces substantially more torque, put down to the tarmac with what look like fatter tires, too.

It’s the same type of engine you’ll find in the Holden Commodores, Ford Falcons, and Nissan Altimas competing in the (V8) Supercars series, and that’s no coincidence. The new Super5000 series is being launched as a support category for the popular Australian touring-car championship, along with the second-tier Dunlop Super2 touring series and the new Superutes truck series.

The expansion broadens the Australian framework to a similar scope as NASCAR. Now just imagine the stock-car racing organizers launched their own version of Indy cars, but with a big ol’ pushrod V8 out of a Cup racer instead of today’s 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6s.

Sounds pretty compelling, doesn’t it? Well not everyone is so happy about the idea. Speedcafe and Automobile remind us that a similar initiative to revive the F5000 recipe was in the works under the Formula Thunder 5000 banner, and this new initiative (with its considerable backing) would ostensibly take the wind out of those independent sails. For its part, the Supercars organizers say the project has been in the works for over two years now.

The Super5000 series is set to launch next year, after which it’ll be up to fans and sponsors to determine through the open market whether it’ll succeed as a permanent fixture on the Aussie racing calendar, and potentially give the next Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber, Jack Brabham, or Alan Jones their start.