The Australian Motorsport Innovation Precinct
@Sydney Motorsport Park // Powered by ARDC
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Founded in 2013 following a motorcycle accident involving Cofounder and CEO Alfred Boyadgis, Forcite aims to provide a safer, more dynamic riding experience with the Forcite MK1S tech-enabled motorcycle helmet.
After a decade of successful product sales and development, Forcite Helmet Systems was acquired by GoPro, Inc. in early 2024.
GoPro plans to leverage its global market presence – particularly in motorsports – and technical capabilities, in combination with Forcite’s expertise in tech-enabled helmets to bring enhanced performance and safety to various types of helmets, starting with motorcycle helmets. GoPro also intends to partner with leading helmet brands as an OEM supplier to help them tech-enable their own premium helmet lines.
GoPro’s involvement in the Australian Motorsport Innovation Precinct at Sydney Motorsport Park provides an exciting location to test new technologies.
CONTACT:
Alfred Boyadgis aboyadgis@gopro.com
GoPro
AMIP Building
SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK
Gate 1, Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek NSW 2176
Sydney, 11th April, 2024 – The owners of Australia’s historic vehicles spend some $9.9 billion each year on their passion, according to a new survey.
The Economic Value Study (EVS) of well over 6,000 Australian respondents, distributed to over 800 motoring clubs nationally, was conducted for the Australian Motor Heritage Foundation (AMHF) by The Mercurius Group (TMG). The Foundation is champions of Australia’s motor heritage, and an organisation dedicated to promoting and preserving Australia’s motoring history.
The enthusiast owners of an estimated 970,000 historic vehicles in Australia spend on average $10,240 per vehicle annually, around 12.5% more than people who own daily driven cars. The historic vehicle fleet represents 4.4% of Australia’s 21 million total vehicle fleet. Around 50% of the survey respondents own only one historic vehicle, the other 50% owning two or more vehicles. “Historic” vehicles are in two categories: those 15 to 30 years old defined as “classic” vehicles and those over 30 years old defined as “heritage” vehicles.
Such a survey has never been comprehensively undertaken on so wide a scope or on a national basis in Australia. Following publication of the similar landmark 2020 HERO-ERA study in the UK, the AMHF decided to find out what is the real figure for the economic contribution of historic vehicles for Australia.
“The findings of this report have certainly highlighted the significance of the historic vehicle sector to both the community at large and the economic sector,” says Hugh King, Chairman of the AMHF.
“The response from Australia’s motoring club members has been unprecedented: the economic modellers at TMG have never had so large a data pool to work with, proving motoring enthusiasts care as passionately about their historic vehicles as they do having their voices heard. In carrying out this study, we have shown that the historic vehicle movement is a large and vibrant part of Australia’s society and economy.”
The survey also reveals the total annual economic impact, including both direct and indirect expenditure, is $25.2 billion: with the sector creating almost 79,000 jobs – 42,000 direct and 37,000 indirect. These jobs generate $6.2 billion in wages and salaries annually. These are very large numbers by any standard.
Stavros Yallouridis, CEO of the Motor Traders’ Association of NSW (MTA NSW), said the AMHF’s survey gave yet more irrefutable evidence of the significant contribution of the automotive sector in the broader Australian economy.
“Despite the end of local vehicle manufacturing, Australia maintains a rich and diverse automotive industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of people across a range of roles,” Mr Yallouridis said.
“The automotive sector is one of the backbones of our economy and is also at the heart of our communities. This survey, and the enthusiastic response, highlights the necessity for Australia to back its automotive sector with world-class training, local skills development and career pathways,” he continued.
Copies of the full report can be downloaded from the AMHF website (www.motorheritage.org.au)
Contact: | Tom Wheelwright Position: Director AMHF Mobile No: 0487 535 873 |  |
About the Australian Motor Heritage Foundation
The Australian Motor Heritage Foundation (AMHF) is dedicated to the preservation of Australia’s collective motor knowledge, particularly with the historical knowledge that exists in the thousands of motor clubs across Australia. The Foundation is equally concerned to preserve the history of motor racing, of motor cycling, of aviation in all its forms and of road haulage by truck or bus, with a research library for this express purpose. Through the library, the Foundation aims to make its information available in digital form as widely as possible.
The AMHF’s book and magazine collection has tens of thousands of volumes, along with a substantial and growing collection of audio-visual items that includes photos, brochures, prints, film and videos. The AMHF seeks to foster social cohesion through public seminars, lectures and informal gatherings which share its passion for motoring.
About The Mercurius Group
The Mercurius Group (TMG) provides consultancy services on the commercialisation of infrastructure. It helps infrastructure businesses – defined as businesses where large volumes of people congregate in the one location – such as airports, railway stations, cruise ship terminals, universities, hospitals, stadiums, museums and casinos generate untapped commercial revenues from activities such as retailing, food & beverage, car parking and advertising. The team at TMG has carried out similar economic evaluations of the Olympic Games, Ashes Test Cricket and the Rugby World Cup.
A familiar site on-track, and now too at the AMIP complex at SMSP, is legendary race team operator, Adam Gotch, and his crew from AGI Sport. On top of competing at the highest level in several race categories, AGI Sport also mentors and develops the next generation of Australia’s racing talent, including F4 wunderkind, Jack Beeton.
In recent competitions, AGI Sport and Jack have dominated the field, picking up wins in the first and third races of the South East Asian F4 Championship in Sepang, as well as challenging academy drivers from the likes of Red Bull and Prema Racing at the Macau F4 Grand Prix.
To give an indication of the depth of talent Jack and AGI Sport are taking the fight to, to quote Adam himself, “Prema Racing from Italy is considered the most successful junior single seater team in the world and regularly win championships in F2, F3, and F4. They are heavily tied to Ferrari F1 but also run most of the F1 Academy drivers for Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and of course Ferrari.”
In the Feature Race at Macau, Jack was only cruelled a spot on the podium by a safety car in the final laps; still coming in fourth and much to the delight of his team. This, just mere hours before AGI Sport race engineers worked through the night to thanks to a broken chassis in practise.
Adam summed things up perfectly:
“Considering where we were on Saturday morning with a broken chassis, we were excited to be P4 in the main race. With only 3 Prema cars in front of us, we were ahead of two French cars, and well ahead of all the Asian teams,” Adam explained.
“What I was personally most excited about was that we took the fight to the biggest team in Europe, Prema Racing. A great result!”
Congratulations to Adam, Jack and the AGI Sport team, we can’t wait to see where this amazing partnership will lead to next!
UNSW Sydney’s student-built Sunswift 7 solar-powered car has been declared the winner of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in the Cruiser Class. It is the first time an Australian car has won the Cruiser Class category in the World Solar Challenge since it was first introduced back in 2015.
The team, led by former Red Bull F1 Chief of Operations and AMIP’s inaugural ambassador, Professor Richard Hopkins, was dominantly leading the points classification on day four of the 3600km race from Darwin to Adelaide, before weather conditions threw the competition into disarray.
Up until fierce winds drew the unfortunate conclusion to the on-road race, Sunswift was significantly ahead on points throughout the competition thanks largely to its high rating for ‘person kilometres travelled’, boosted by carrying three passengers as well as its driver, as well as being ahead of the other Cruiser cars in each completed stage.
Still, the team still had to wait until a final scrutineering session on Saturday when a panel of judges gave an additional score to each car based on criteria such as design innovation, environmental impact, ease of access and egress, occupant space and comfort, ease of operation (driving and charging), versatility, and style and desirability.
Following all calculations, Sunswift finished top of the rankings with a total score of 91.1 points to claim the trophy, lightyears ahead of the University of Minnesota in second place on 22.4, with Team Solaride from Estonia finishing third with 14.7.
Sunswift 7 already holds a Guinness World Record after completing 1000km on a single charge in under 12 hours in December 2022.
Sunswift Racing team principal, Professor of Practice Richard Hopkins, said: “I could not be more proud of this team for what they have achieved.
“The work the students have done is simply amazing and I can only say positive things because they have been so focused and committed and professional.
In a recent cover story profile for MTA Magazine, Richard shared his unique perspective on working with budding engineers.
“The beautiful thing about working with students is that nobody tells them they can’t do it. They wake up in the morning with an idea, and all they need is a bit of support and guidance to get them to where they want to go; and I’m someone who never says no to a great,” he told MTA.
While speaking on the AMIP facility and his ambassador role, Richard described it as the ‘Tinder of motorsport’ – and does see a common thread between his work with students, race teams and the ARDC:
“I think [in Australia] there is the passion, there just isn’t necessarily the opportunities –it’s about joining the dots. It’s there –we just need to stoke the fire a little bit.”
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