Why the local car industry carked it

THE car industry’s problems began when makers and importers gave their products un-Australian names.

Fiat 500 Abarth testing at Phillip Island ahead of the Bathurst 12 Hour.

AS usual, there are questions you should be asking today. Why did Megadeath cancel their Australian tour? What was wrong with the Wolf of Wall Street’s career apart from having too much fun and doing politically incorrect things with small persons and animals? Why wasn’t the Bathurst 12 Hour race broadcast on proper TV?

We may not have a car industry anymore but motor racing is in unbelievable shape. I know you’ve read a lot about why the industry carked it but the real reason is pretty simple. All the problems started when makers and importers gave their products un-Australian names. We went from Kingswood, Belmont, Monaro, Valiant and Falcon to Tiara, Fairlady, Cedric and Alfa Romeo and, hey presto, all the factories close down.

But the future of the automotive business was revealed at the Bathurst 12 Hour race. There were no mainstream Australian manufacturers represented but there were two very good local niche players, Daytona Sports Cars and MARC Cars Australia. Message to those experts who say no future for the Australian auto industry: MARC Cars are successfully exporting their cars.

Anyway, who wants to watch Holdens and Falcons when you can see Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Audis, Mercedes, Porsches and the occasional Lotus and McLaren? How quick were these supermetals? Well, in a moment of divine irony, Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen was about three seconds faster around the mountain in the McLaren than Craig Lowndes was when he set the record back in 2010 in a V8 Australian car. Of course, the same Craig went on to cross the line first in the 12-Hour race this year in a very nice red Ferrari F458 Italia owned and driven by Smorgon Group boss Peter Edwards.

Pete was helped along by John Bowe, Lowndes and Hells Angels fan and former F1 star Mika Salo. Pete’s team is called Il Bello Rosso not because its Ferrari is red but because Smorgon has a joint-venture factory in South Australia growing tomatoes. See, Australian manufacturing is alive and well. Before you get too excited about vegies or Italian cars, a plug here for Tony Palmer’s Radicals that raced on Saturday in a warm-up for Sunday. Radicals are English-built, lightweight sports cars, using superbike technology and in which your correspondent holds the Guinness world record for spinning. The race car for the masses, distributed here by Palmer, was lapping in times that were only slightly slower than the first eight cars in the real race.

Another non-professional star was Launceston car dealer Greg Crick, whose team proved that aerodynamics are just more carmaker fiction. Talking about doing politically incorrect things with small persons and animals, young Jack Le Brocq, who drove with Crick, found a flying kangaroo 15 minutes into the race and remodelled the front right-hand side of the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes.

For the nationalists, the two small-run specials performed really well. Three MARC Cars Australia Focus GTs entered and finished. Of course, former Ice Break ute champ Chris Pither was behind the wheel of one. Victoria’s Daytona Sports Car entry was very competitive but ended up with a few problems that took it out.

After 12 hours racing Pete Edward’s Ferrari was tenths of a second ahead of the HTP Motorsport Merc.

Only the last few hours were broadcast on SBS TV. Good on them for putting the race to air.

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