First published in the June 2004 issue of Street Machine

What could you do in 1000 hours? Run 277,000 quarter mile passes in a new GT? Watch 180 Bathursts? Crush every Gemini in the country? Or you could build a BA V8 Supercar bodyshell.

The Stone Brothers Racing BA Pirtek Falcon represents that amount of time in TIG-welded perfection for its full cage and bodyshell; another 1000 hours turns that skeleton into the fire-breathing weapon that won the 2003 championship in the hands of Marcos Ambrose.

This particular car, perved at exclusively by Street Machine, was built over three months at the start of 2003 and has notched up more wins than the rest of the Falcons out there combined. Last year it equalled Allan Moffatt’s record of five consecutive round victories.

Barring any major carnage, she’ll be Marcos’s ride for his 2004 title defence, aiming for another trophy in 2005, before finding her way into the Konica series. If Plan B is required, a spare BA is waiting at the SBR Gold Coast facility.

“Three years is as long as we could run one before something changes to make us build it differently,” indicates the Jimmy half of the famous Stone brothers. “Within that period, if things are going well, we probably wouldn’t bring the spare car in — it’s on a needs basis.”

Each model represents a move forward to some degree, but you don’t need a packed lunch and a compass as advances tend to be incremental rather than off the edge of the map. The BA compared with the AU, according to Ross (the other brother), is a better balanced car, with a more aerodynamic bodyshell, improved forward chassis area and slightly different rear suspension geometry.

V8 Supercars are a mix of ‘get what you’re given’, ‘limited choice’, and ‘go your hardest’. The regulations provide specific restrictions in areas such as the block, heads, brake size, suspension pick-ups on the chassis and gearbox ratios. Other areas — like suspension uprights, clutch, front and rear anti-roll bars, springs and shocks, and a choice of three rear-axle ratios — allow more freedom.

So do they just bolt in the best off-the-shelf components? To a degree, though SBR manufactures as much as it can in-house, as Jimmy points out: “We do all our own fabrication and all our own machining. We buy very little from outside suppliers.”

The attention to detail in this car is mind-blowing, although we’ll just have to assume the form continues under the bonnet as the motor is a closely-guarded secret. Limited to 7500rpm, the 5.0-litre mill will sing all day, even allowing the occasional over-run to 9500rpm on a botched downchange.

As with the rest of the car, it’s a mix of in-house and external parts, as James Noonan, SBR’s 27-year-old engine shop manager explains.

“We try and make as much stuff as we can — that’s probably where you get your edge. But if not, we get it custom made. We buy blocks and cylinder head castings from Ford Racing (USA) — it’s a spec we have to run — but cranks, conrods, pistons are all custom-made for us.

“Everything is the best money can buy. You can buy a $2000 set of conrods or an $8000 set, for example.”

The SBR engine shop does around 32 rebuilds on eight motors from the two team cars over the course of the year. The specification is pretty similar whether it’s for Bathurst or Winton. A brand new donk takes around a month in man-hours, but a spruce-up usually means new pistons, rods and springs with a turnaround under a week, no probs. At a race meeting, the boys usually pull the rocker covers off, do a ‘leakdown’, check the tappets, do a bolt check, and crack-test the pistons between races. One fill of Caltex synthetic is good enough not to require a change.

Irrespective of how the car finishes a race meeting, it gets stripped back on the Gold Coast with the motor coming out and every suspension, gearbox, clutch, driveshaft and rear axle part checked. Everything’s logged on a parts-life system so they know how many hours each part has done.

Planning for each race needs to be spot on, using previous years’ track data to provide a starting point for the set-up, especially given the lack of testing time available. SBR uses Willowbank for its six allocated days.

They’ll try and cram as much into each test session as possible, including running co-drivers, and the pressure is on the engineers to perform so that few risks are taken in race time.

Jimmy explains: “You don’t often take a big risk, and it’s calculated if you do take one. We’ve got data from previous races and you can make a calculated guess, but if you miss it you’ll struggle with only two practice sessions before qualifying.”

Each of the 38 full-time SBR staff has a specific role, with 22 lobbing to races, and all the personnel are a big part of the SBR success story.

“It’s taken a long time to get all our people in place, and to keep those people and keep them motivated,” Jimmy says. “I think we’ve got the best guys in the pit road. We’ve hand-picked them all. We look after them better than other teams, and we work very hard.”

So is it just personnel? Is it the driver? Is it the car? To go well in V8 Supercar racing these days you need to have every ingredient to win. It’s not just a case of the BA being the better tool over the VY — it’s this BA that’s got the results, surrounded by a lot of VYs.

In fact, the feeling down pitlane is the VY is slightly better. But Ambrose’s car is basically identical to Russell Ingall’s SBR Havoline BA, which has been competitive but hasn’t had the winning form. So is it Marcos?

“We got Marcos before he’d actually driven a V8 Supercar as we were impressed with what he’d done overseas — he’s got a very bright future,” says Jimmy. “Russell has a lot of experience which the team needed to become successful — he played a big part in our championship last year with his input.”

It can be a short ride from a peak to a trough, but Blue Oval fans will continue to hang their hopes on this car and this team, and based on the expertise within the SBR outfit, it’ll continue to deliver for a while yet.

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

It ain’t cheap running a V8 Supercar, any dummy knows that. But get this: SBR performs 32 rebuilds per year, using a total of eight motors between its two cars. The bonnets and bumpers are re-painted for every meeting and the sign-writing is done every time. While the AP carbon clutch plates last an entire season, the bronze centre lasts only one meeting. The team used 16 tyres at Clipsal. You’d expect the cars to chew a set of brake pads each meeting (at $1000 for a front set!), but the rotors are replaced each time too, for another $700 each.

Cabin in detail:

A. These levers control the anti-roll bars. This allows them to be trimmed as tyres go off, fuel load changes and the balance of the car changes throughout race.
B. MoTeC M48 ECU.
C. Capacitor Discharge Ignition.
D. TEGA monitoring box — big brother in a box used by the rule makers to monitor performance.
E. Roll cage in 4130 chromoly steel, TIG welded, surrounds everything.

SPECS