Group ND Survey #1

What the data showed:

80% of the respondents told us something about the vehicle they have ready to race, or will have ready to race very soon.

The vehicle makes and models were far broader that what we had considered. The list included the following: 

• Alfa Romeo Giulia
• Alfa Romeo GTV
• Alfa Romeo Alfetta
• BWM E30
• Datsun Stanza
• Datsun 180B
• Fiat 131
• Ford Falcon
• Ford Mustang
• Ford Escort
• Ford Laser
• Holden Commodore
• Holden Torana
• Holden Gemini 
• Honda Civic
• Jaguar XJC
• Jaguar XJS

• Leyland Mini
• Leyland Marina
• Leyland P76
• Mazda RX2
• Mazda RX3
• Mazda RX7
• Mercedes Benz 450SLC
• Mitsubishi Scorpion
• Nissan Bluebird
• Nissan Skyline
• Rover 3500SE
• Subaru Leone
• Toyota Sprinter
• Toyota Celica
• Triumph Dolomite Sprint
• Volvo 740
• Volvo 240
• Volvo 242
• Volvo 164
• VW Golf

The biggest quantity of any given vehicle were:
8 x  Mazda RX7, 8 x Ford Escort, 7 x Holden Commodore and 6 x Triumph Dolomite Sprint.

Something that was often hinted at by people outside of Group ND, was a fear that the field of vehicles would congregate at the far end of the time line in the early 80s. The data has shown that the vehicle makes and models are spread out pretty evenly across the entire time frame of Group ND, i.e. from 1973 to 1984.

90% of the vehicles are normally aspirated and the majority of the turbo charged vehicles are Volvo 240 series.

Summary:

The importance of this data shows that, provided the rules stay pretty much as currently proposed to keep costs as low as reasonably possible without degrading safety, Group ND will have a wide diversity of vehicles spread across the era and won't be just high powered Turbo cars from the early 80's nor V8 Muscle cars. It also confirms there are vehicles ready to race today and in the foreseeable future. 

What the data showed:

Age group

84% of the respondents are over the age of 40 which in most ways aligns with the assumption that most ND era enthusiasts would have a connection with vehicles that were relatively new or raced during their youth.

Licences 

• 74% of the respondents already have a competition licence of some sort.
• 20% of the respondents have more than one competition licence. (just a point of interest)
• 31% of the respondents already have a Motorsport Australia Race Licence that is required to go racing
• 47% of respondents have held a competition licence for over 20 years which shows a high level of commitment to motorsport in general.
• 32% of respondents have held a competition licence for under 10 years so there's a good number of new comers as well.

Whilst the vast majority of respondents want to compete in motorsport events which is understandable. 38% of respondents indicated they were also interested in spectating at an ND event which tells there is a general interest level for this era of racing rather than just competing.

Summary:

A deeper analysis of the respondents with a licence under 10 years revels that nearly all of them are over the age of 40. 

The new cohort of competitors that currently hold a licence is evenly split between long term licence holders (>20 years) and relative new comers (<10 years)

The majority of respondents are over 40 which aligns with the interest in vehicles from their younger years.

Note: The term competition licence has been used to cover all variants of race and speed licences across Motorsport Australia, AASA, Racers and other.

What the data showed:

Looking at the numbers for where people want to race there is a loose corelation to individual state population figures aside from Tasmania which shows a very keen interest,

Note: This was a multiple select question and respondents could select multiple states and tracks. This allowed for scenarios such as people from Northern NSW who would compete at both NSW and QLD tracks.

The most popular race tracks for respondents per state are as follows:

Cars ready to race:

Looking at the numbers of respondents that have a car ready to race now or within the next 12 months compared to where they want race we can see that we have sufficient support to have a Group ND only race easily in QLD and NSW. VIC and TAS may be a bit tight depending upon the event organisers and the actual entry levels from the slightly smaller numbers in those 2 states.

Summary:

The data shows we are not a "local" group but have a national reach. We are not naive enough to think every respondent will make the grid, but the responses prove the level of interest and that the group has a solid probability of being successful if the package of proposals can quickly be accepted. The data will also help guide us as to what events we should first focus on where we have the highest probability of being able to get a good number of entrants.