INTERVIEW

The hardware, including the yet to be completed shell of Brock's new super car, is impressive enough - but it is Brock, about to begin the 25th year of motor racing, that the sponsors have come to see. It is in Peter Brock that they've invested their money, not just in the racing machinery.

Over the past 25 years in motor sport (of which 21 years have been spent largely in touring cars) Peter Brock has dominated the Australian motoring scene like no other driver. Nine Bathurst wins, 49 pole positions, 34 wins make him the most successful Australian Touring Car driver and one of the greatest drivers to ever come out of Australia. Each year brings with it new challenges, so with new CAMS regulations, how does Brock see the '93 season panning out?

Brock: "It's certainly good for the sport, and I think for the spectators. The emphasis will be on the teams rather than who has the greater funding overall."

CC: Do you see it as being a strictly Commodore versus Falcons battle throughout the season?

Brock: "Certainly that should be the main stay of the competition, but I still think that even with their weight penalty (100kg) the BMWs will be very competitive on the tighter tracks."

CC: How do you think the Falcons will go in the touring Car Championship this year?

Brock: "They'll go extremely well…they're done a very good deal with CAMS and negotiated well, they're got a very aerodynamic package…done a lot of work with suspension pick-up points, with things like right cylinder heads…they're done it well and they're here, they're not an English based operation, the development was done here by the boy's on the track and its starting to pay dividends."

CC: Can your new car beat them?

Brock: "I think it can…it might not beat them everywhere but it will certainly beat them here and there. In fact I think our old car can give them a bit of a shake because we're done a fair bit of work on that. But our new car is certainly the most advanced Commodore around and given the development between now and the next month or so…yeah we can beat them."

CC: Putting racing aside for a moment, what do you think of the current crop of aftermarket cars coming out of Australian factories - especially the Falcon GT and the GTS?

Brock: "As far as the Ford package is concerned, I think it's quite good, but the same can be said for the GTS. I drove a Falcon at Bathurst quite recently and I was pleasantly surprised by the chassis particularly…engine no, it was very much a quitting engine and the Holden engine was a bit of a rocket compared to the Ford, there's no doubt about that. The thing is that I don't go in for all the computer printouts that tell me that what I felt is what I felt. I think that the average driver wants to know subjectively what the damn car is like to drive…has it got any grunt, does it jump across the road when it hits a set of tramlines…that's what's important."

CC: What do you think of the current crop of HSV products as aftermarket performance cars?

Brock: "Well they're very predictable…it's a matter of tried and proven formulas, this works, these are the expectations of the market. I guess we…started off doing that based upon logic and demand. Some people came along and said they wanted some luxury items and others of course didn't, they wanted the tin taxi with the horsepower - and I suppose you could say that that formula has been adhered to."

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Brock: "Quite differently…probably by applying my personality to it, but then that happens naturally in any business. The cars, under no stretch of the imagination are they Brock cars, they are HSV cars. So all that means that I'd go for more subtlety in ride and handling…I think they'd probably have my mark on them as far as styling is concerned. I'm not saying that what they are doing is wrong, I'm just saying that I would do it differently."

CC: This year marks the 25th year in motor racing and you're spent pretty much the bulk of that in Touring Cars. Have you ever had the urge in significantly different racecars?

Brock: "Never, I always wanted to drive touring cars. Never wanted to drive an open wheeler."

CC: Why not open wheel cars?

Brock: "No mudguards or headlights, no windscreen wipers, no flashers…they just aren't real cars. They do everything too well; go round corners so exactly and if they're not good enough they're reengineer them. Now the touring car, you've got this vehicle that…really has a lot of limitations, idiosyncrasies, faults, so as a driver you've got to drive around these things and make the damn thing do what you want it to do."

"I always found that the greatest challenge a race driver could have was to take this motor car, get it around the top of the mountain at Bathurst and say 'righto car', I know you'd rather be back at the supermarket picking up groceries, but today we're going around this track and we're going through this corner - and this car doesn't want to do it. So you take it by the scruff of the neck and you hurl it around and make it do what you want it to do - which is totally different to an open wheeler where you're exploring the limitations of what that car will do."

CC: How well do you think the race experience of making a "shopping car" into a racer flow on to general production?

Brock: "The first car I ever fiddled around with was the Torana GTR and I turned t into an XU1. Same with those Commodores, I mean we really had very little money to turn them into homologation specials, the next thing you know you're got the big valve heads on it and the fancy inlet manifold and you're selling them to the public, you're selling them to the Police even."

CC: Is there any one car that stands out?

Brock: "Well I like that A9-X I've got out there, that's a lovely car. It was a lovely car to drive in its era…but if you compared it to today's motor cars or say the Commodore, you'd have to say that the Commodore is a much more refined vehicle. But I drove that (A9-X) at Eastern Creek the other day, and sure it didn't have much horsepower but it was just blitzing them handling wise…and I thought this thing's bloody good to drive. It's a car you're got to master - you're got to try and trick it into floating into a corner to take the weight off your arms and that sort of thing. But the simple answer to your question is that as time ticks by, you tend to be in love with your current car."

CC: You've had a very long association with the local vehicle production - how do you see the future of the 'Australian' car."

Brock: " Looking into the future, I've always had a great level of concern over the Australian motor vehicle industry. I think that they have let their manufacturing expertise slip until now they are more prone to assembly. And then you look at how the Japanese product has improved and the Australian manufacturing skills have not increased at the same rate. So when you look at the future of the Australian motor vehicle industry, my feeling is that it's going to be a very different picture in three or four years time to what it is now"

CC: In what way?

Brock: "Well I think there are going to be some changes of face, there might still be the same products but maybe with different badges. I mean GM as a corporation are having problems overseas as are Ford, infact most of the manufacturers have troubles of some sort…lets just say I think it will be very different in the future."

CC: Thanks very much for your time, best of luck this season.

Brock: I think we could actually cop a couple of chequered flags this year.

Article Courtesy of Commodore Crazy - FPC Magazines. Sean Walker Author: James McRory Photographer: John Vitone If this article breaches any copyright laws please email us, as we have been given permission to reproduce it as long as no offence is caused to the freelance jouno and photographer