Driven: Murph, what's happening with your big adventure back here in New Zealand with your new V8 SuperTourer team? Are you going to take the new approach you have to racing in Australia and implement it on home soil?
Murphy: Hopefully it'll complement both sides [V8 Supercars and V8 SuperTourers] and doing more laps in New Zealand in these cars that are in all respects a lot more like the Australian cars than the old New Zealand V8s were. The NZV8s served an incredible purpose and there's no denying how successful they've been.
But for someone like me it was not a bonus to be involved in that category. Being 9-2011 20:16:44involved in the V8 SuperTourer is a bonus as the transition to the V8 Supercars will be a lot easier.
D: You'll just about be racing 12 months of the year now, won't you?
M: We're back on full stream in V8 Supercars from February having just finished at the beginning of December. The V8 SuperTourer thing fits in quite nicely with the weekends in between. I'm in New Zealand that much hopefully it's not going to add too much time away from Australia.
Seven race meetings is a lot of work but hopefully with the partners we're going to have involved with the SuperTourer and the partners I already have like the MTA, Big Ben pies, Bridgestone and the likes it'll all complement each other.
D: When you guys in Australia get your car of the future, is the new SuperTourer going to be even more similar in a couple of years' time?
M: The Australian car will be similar but there will also be some quite big differences. Things like the transmission, the suspension, the drive train and other stuff. The engines will be different but the basis will be similar to what the SuperTourer will be.
A more controlled-based chassis will be used but the technology inside the car will be quite different. And rightly so as the V8 Supercars championship is probably the best touring car series in the world. The difference in the cars is looking about right.
D: I suppose the new car will make it more attractive to other Aussie drivers, and Australian-based Kiwi drivers, to come back and have a bit of a play?
M: I think you'll see there will be V8 Supercars teams who see the value in the new series to give potential young talent, co-drivers or whoever, miles in a big race car with lots of grunt. And get them ready for endurance drives or main game drives at a much cheaper cost.
D: It looks like the next couple of years are going to be a big adventure and that must be exciting for you after so many years in V8s?
M: Adventures are good. I've had a few big adventures over the last few years and they've turned out to be horrendous and ones you want to forget.
I'm really enjoying myself now and it was a seamless transition with the Kelly guys.
I love going to the workshop and talking about what we're doing and where we're going, and I've got a good relationship with my engineer.
The New Zealand thing is an added bit of work but it's stuff I enjoy and it's nice to be involved at the ground zero of the new V8 SuperTourer championship, which I think will grow and hopefully become a mini version of the V8 Supercars.
2012 V8 SuperTourer Calendar
Sprint Championship
* Round 1*: February 17-19 -
Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato
* Round 2: March 30-April 1 -
Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Christchurch
* Round 3*: April 27-29 -
Manfeild, Feilding
* Round 4*: May 18-20 -
Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato
Endurance Championship
* Round 5*: August 10-12 -
Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupo
* Round 6*: September 21-23 -
Hampton Downs, Waikato
* Round 7: October 26-28 -
Final, Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Christchurch
Note: All dates subject to change.
*Events that feature the 2012 V8 Challenge Cup
