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Triple Eight team owner Roland Dane is convinced the sound of the new V6 turbo engine will win over skeptical Supercars fans.
Drivers Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and his Pirtek Enduro Cup driver Steven Richards conducted a successful test of the engine in the squad’s Supercars based Holden Sandman.
Since the confirmation that V6 turbo engines will enter the sport as part of Gen2 regulations, the topic has sparked a heated debate amongst fans, with concerns surrounding how the noise will compare to the current V8s.
In an interview with Fox Sports, Dane believes fans won’t miss the sound of the V8 when fans hear the new General Motors engine, which has been used in the Cadillac GT3.
The team is likely to release a sound clip at some point next week.
“We’ve actually done 400km running on the new engine, it’s run – so far – almost faultlessly,” said Dane.
“We spent a lot of time working on making it into a Supercar engine, if you like, in our environment, without driver aids, the power that we need in this championship, etc.
“There’s plenty of work to do around it, but it’s very exciting to be doing something so different.
“I think next week or so the plan is to release a bit of noise from it, because it sounds great.
“Let me tell you, if you had 26 of those on the grid – not necessarily all Holden engines, but a mixture of V6 turbos – you won’t miss a V8 for a second, I promise you.
“And the hissing and wheezing and banging in the corners is great.”
While the results of the first test have been positive, Dane admits developing the new engine for Supercars is sizeable challenge for his squad
The task has be made even more challenging with the squad embroiled in an intense title fight with DJR Team Penske this year.
Shane van Gisbergen’s race engineer Grant McPherson has been charged to head up the development of the new engine.
This is going on while Whincup’s engineer David Cauchi is developing the new Gen2 Commodore body which will be launched next year.
“It’s a big ask on the team,” an emotional Dane added, as the team emerges from the shadow of former technical guru Ludo Lacroix, who joined DJRTP this year.
“You’ve had half the engineering team really working on the engineering side, and half working on the body development and the aero package for next year as well. They’ve taken that in their stride.
“Shippy, Grant McPherson has been overseeing the engine side and working with a number of different people, and David Cauchi has been working on the aero side, again with a number of different people.
“It’s been great to watch them getting on with it, rising to the challenge, going and seeking help inside and outside when they need it, and really, I suppose – in the nicest possible way – coming out of the shadow of Ludo.
“From a team point of view, seeing the guys emerge from somebody as competent and technically able as Ludo, to be able to see them then spreading their wings is probably one of the most satisfying things I’ve seen.”
