Courtney foresees another parity ‘adjustment’ for Mustang

James Courtney suspects there is “another little adjustment” coming for the Ford Mustang for Symmons Plains as questions of parity continue in Supercars.

Speedcafe understands that both a Mustang and a Chevrolet Camaro ran on a chassis dyno in recent days, pointing to the possibility of further changes to engine maps.

The Blue Ovals ran with a new engine map last time out at Wanneroo Raceway, where the Camaro raced for the first time with a ballast shift designed to achieve absolute centre of gravity parity.

Courtney praised Supercars for its ongoing efforts to achieve parity in this, the first season of Gen3, as his rivals in Camaros continue to rack up race wins.

“For us on the Ford side, the whole parity thing has been a big talking point,” said the Tickford Racing driver.

“I think Supercars are doing a really good job of managing that and sort of seeing what the problems are and listening to everyone and constantly evolving and adjusting the car.

“So, I think at Tasmania, we’ll probably have another little adjustment on the Ford side, which should be good and bring us that little bit closer.

“Hopefully we are bang on, everyone’s happy, sort out parity, and get some good results.

“But yeah, good engine, and good braking, is what we need there, and good results.”

Performance down the long, sweeping back ‘straight’ at Symmons Plains should give some indication of where the two cars stand with respect to each other on parity.

The Ford camp claims to be at an acceleration disadvantage due to the different transient response of its engine relative to the Camaro’s, with one theory being that the Mustang’s 5.4-litre quad cam unit has more inertia than its 5.7-litre pushrod counterpart.

However, it has also been argued, on the basis of lap time data from Wanneroo Raceway, that the Mustang is not particularly uncompetitive and may in fact be more than a match for the Camaro.

As revealed by Speedcafe, Supercars is investigating the use of a transient dynamometer in Melbourne which would help to answer such questions.

Meanwhile, Courtney is hoping to carry momentum from the Perth stop on the calendar into Launceston this weekend, after picking up three top 10s, including a Race 8 podium, in the West.

“I’d love to get another podium and keep the momentum that we’ve got as a team,” said the veteran.

“I think Cam [Waters] had a tough Saturday last [event], but he’s been really quite speedy throughout the year, but he hasn’t got the results that he has wanted.

“Thomas [Randle] is coming on good, he’s got a couple of top 10 qualifying positions at Perth, so, as a team, we’re sort of getting quite strong.

“Declan [Fraser] obviously, the new boy in town… It’s a bit of a shock to the system, I think, for those guys coming up from Super2, but for now, as a team, I think we’re sort of heading in the right direction.”

Practice at Symmons Plains starts on Saturday morning at 09:00 local time/AEST.