Gowans Eagle One Motorsport Toyota TRD Aurion Aussie racing Car

[Adamsy]

Hey Guys,

Thought i would share this with you. Thought it might interest a couple of you.

As a few of you may know the owners of Gowans Motor Group Bruce and Son and current Dealer Principal Adam have a rich motorsport history with Bruce winning multiple Tasmanian championships and Australian wide races and Adam competing in several endurance races including the Bathurst 12 hour race but his main claim to fame is as the 2009 champion in the ultra-competitive Aussie Racing Car series. Adam also almost clinched the 2010 series as well after many race and round wins all he needed to do was to win the last race of the last round... he was leading said race until half way through the last lap the engine gave up the ghost pushing him down the order too second overall in the championship for the year. 2011 saw Adam concentrate his efforts even more on the Dealerships with VW joining our Motor Group early on in the year. But the racing bug is back and in preparation for his home race at Symons plaines the Race Team hooked the trailer up to the new VW Twin-Turbo Amarok tow vehicle and headed to Phillip Island where Adam would drive the car properly in "anger" for the first time in 6 months!! He qualified the Blue and Silver Eagle1, NWC, Toyota & VW TRD Aurion on the first row of the grid but found some oil left by the V8 Supercars on the race line into turn one and had an off track excursion across the kitty litter and long infield before re-joining at the back of the pack (Over 45 cars in the field) he fought back and finished race 1 in 18th position. Over the next few races he fought back to claim second spot in the last race.

Off to Symons plains!

The Aurion's once again put on a dominant display! Adam had another fantastic home round. Finished 10th in race one due to drama's after Jack Perkins ran into the back of Gowans tearing the rear diffuser and bumper apart. If you’re familiar with how the F duct works on a F1 car then the remains of the diffusers was working in the entire opposite way making the No.11 Aurion a relative easy picking in a straight line. However Gowans fought back to claim the win in race 2 which of course seen him get the “success penalty” for the reverse grid race three but he managed an easy third place. After a quick points tally he started the final race from grid position 5 and after a super close race he took the lead in the hairpin on the final lap but after going veryyyy deep into the hairpin to secure pos 1 he crossed the Toyota up mid corner so he did not get a stellar run out of the corner leaving him very open to second placed car in this ultra competitive slip streaming series but somehow he held on for finger nail biting photo finish which was easily the best race of the day!

Anyway here is a few up close pictures of the Aussie racing Aurion. Notice the attention to detail with the GSV40 Aurion in comparison to the AU Falcon and VY Commodore. Also notice the high down force splitter and rear wing Aero Package fitted to the car for the high speed tracks such the Phillip island circuit & Bathurst.

My link

Technical Specifications

Engine

Yamaha Sourced 1.3 litre twin-cam

4 Valves per cylinder

HP??? The old 1.2 made 125hp so it's more than that, 11500rpm

Gearbox Integral 5-speed dog engagement

Sequential gear change

Chassis Tubular space-frame and cockpit with integral driver roll-cage

Momo race seat with 5 point harness

Momo quick-release steering wheel

Suspension

Front – Coil over shocks fully adjustable rose jointed wishbones

Ultra fast rack and pinion

Rear – Live axle, optional long and short track ratios

Coil over shocks, parallel trailing arms, panhard rod

Brakes Ventilated 4 wheel discs 4 piston callipers with - Full bias adjustment with balance bar,

braided lines

Wheels and Tyres

13 x 5.5 various styles available

Yokahama A048R treaded race spec tyres

Body Styles

Classic FJ Holden

Classic 40 Ford

Ford AU Falcon

Holden VY Commodore

Toyota GSV40R Aurion

Dimensions

Length: 3.0m

Width: 1.35m

Height: 1.05m

Weight: 450kg

Performance

Top speed 235+KPH

Standing quarter 11.5 secs

0 to 100 KPH 4.5 secs

[jeffy]

ohh my gosshh !~! it looks soo cute :3 ! its like a little toy car.. cos you know the rims.. :D hehehe.. but i like it ! :toast: :yahoo:

edit: this shot especially.. looks like a moddel scale car

[Steven]

Whilst that's a very interesting car, it has about as much in common as an Aurion as my left nut (include poor performance joke here)

[Adamsy]

haha yes they are quite a cute car however the drivers get very defensive about the cute comments and are very quick to tell you these things are serious RACE CARS lol

True steven other than the badge and design they share nothing with our Aurion's but then to be fair a HRT, Team Vodafone Commodore shares nothing with the SS you buy from Holden either.

[jeffy]

haha yes they are quite a cute car however the drivers get very defensive about the cute comments and are very quick to tell you these things are serious RACE CARS lol

dont tell them i told them its cute then ;) :P !

[ben yip]

It is a proper race car, rather than modifying a street car directly

and prove you dun need a very powerful engine to race, just a light weight car

how much per car to build?

I like the Individual throttle body

Do you have any racing videos and more information about this motorsport?

[Foss]

Whilst that's a very interesting car, it has about as much in common as an Aurion as my left nut (include poor performance joke here)

Your left nut bears a passing resemblance to an Aurion? You should maybe see a doctor about that.

[Adamsy]

Absolutely there a proper purpose built race car made in a state of the art race factory. They seem to have the power to weight ratio down pretty sweet with these cars now and Supercar drivers love them. They all say the Aussie racer is far better balanced and turns in and stops much better. There closer to open wheeler formula cars in characteristics then a tin top.

don’t quote me on this but i believe its around 40k to buy a car then of course you need spares although the engines are good for an entire season and of course a trailer to transport it in. costs around 7-8k per round to race also.

Here is the promo video for the series. It’s quite old now though so you won’t see the Aurion in it only the TRD factory backed one used as promo. I’ll find some other good ones for you though.

[.gorgz]

How can I not like this!!

Change one letter in Gowan and it becomes my first name :lol:

[Pah]

I love watching these cars race on Bigpond sport V8 channel, they put so much into it and always go hard its always exciting racing

[Adamsy]

haha yeah they race for sheep stations allright! but it really a catergory where driving skill shines

[Cee-Lo]

Looks like it's a fun car to race :)

Should park it up next to a real Aurion, would put things in perspective.

[ben yip]

More pictures here http://www.aussieracingcars.com.au/about/toyota-aurion.html

Do you think it is making sense if I buy this car just for casual club racing? if 40K can buy this car, it is not expensive at all..

How much mainteinance work need to do per race? how about the reliability of the engine, and the gearbox?

How often do you rebuild those things

The reason I am asking is my next track car is not going to be a street car, but a proper race car that is not expensive to maintain. so far, go kart is in my list,

Where can I buy this car? That web site said car for sale, but there is nothing..

If this car can be my daily as well, that will be great... 1.2L saves petrol, and I can race anytime

Edited November 15, 2011 by ben yip

[Adamsy]

Lol i actually have a few pictures of the race car next to mine and also next to an Aurion that is ran in the speedway series. Ill dig them out and post them up.

For a race car there not massively expensive especially for the smile they put on your face. not sure if you can run them in any categories other than the national series though? but if you planned on just doing club days then you shouldn't have any dramas.

The gearboxes are pretty tough units i cant recall us ever blowing one or a diff either but the engines do cop quite a canning they can last a season without any massive repairs but it depends on the track. Of course even though they are sourced from Yamaha they are essentially a motorbike engine and are designed to run with air flowing all around them which they dont get when stuck inside a body shell so engine trauma can happen in very hot climates and enclosed circuits. id expect a bit of engine damage to occur at the next round in Sydney at the closed in street circuit but as far as an engine in a race car goes they hold up pretty well.

if you keep on an eye on both the Aussie Racing website and in several Motorsport magaziness the Cars and trailers pop up every couple of months.

[Defyant]

LOL Crompo goes! "you think buy now i'd be cured of all this"! hahahahaha NEVER!!! a revhed is a revhed :) What a bloody awsome class of racing lots a fun to watch too. Cheers for postin it up Adamsy

[Adamsy]

Haha yes i laughed when i heard that bit too. There just a laughable car to be in just goes where you want it! & to watch there is just no other motorsport on the planet that is as enjoyable to watch. I believe Phil Ward the category founder is working on a 2 seater so people can go for rides like you can with the Supercars so that will be awesome once it happens.

[playwme]

I like the Individual throttle body

That's carbies. Engines in these are out of large capacity motorbikes. FZR1000 engines are pretty common. I'm guessing this one is an XJ1300 or something, judging by the air cooling and 1.3L capacity.

Very cool little car. A guy in my street used to test his out every now and again. Fast little bugger it was. Good to see one based on a Toyota.

[Adamsy]

I like the Individual throttle body

That's carbies. Engines in these are out of large capacity motorbikes. FZR1000 engines are pretty common. I'm guessing this one is an XJ1300 or something, judging by the air cooling and 1.3L capacity.

Very cool little car. A guy in my street used to test his out every now and again. Fast little bugger it was. Good to see one based on a Toyota.

Yeah there out of big Yammie Cruiser bikes, a lot of the teams actually used to buy the bikes just for the engines so back when we ran the 1.2 they were rarely new engines but the 1.3 is off the shelf though brand spankers! Not sure which bike they are used in though.

They spend a very long time designing the Aurion version they actually took photos of a real TRD from every single angle, put them in their CAD software and pulled and pushed, tweaked till it fitted over the rolling chassis.

[Adamsy]

Here's some incar footage from last weekends Tassie Round. :)

Incar Footage

[Defyant]

I recon as a driver the class would be a sheer buzz to drive in , as a passenger ya'd be sh!ttin ya pants the whole ride!