The first day of Supercars’ historic wind tunnel testing has shown that the Gen3 Camaro and Mustang are “very close” aerodynamically, according to category General Manager of Motorsport Tim Edwards.
Before the first of at least three days of testing had commenced, Edwards identified understanding the traits of the two models as a key goal of that opening day.
That has been accomplished, based on his comments after Friday’s (local time) running on Windshear’s rolling road in North Carolina.
“Interestingly, the cars are very close,” he told Supercars’ official website as an early observation.
“Some of the traits that people have talked about during the year, we’ve identified it.
“So, that’s a big tick of the box to start with. It’s just been a huge learning day today.
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“Obviously this is the first time for us as a category, first time putting our cars in the air, but it’s been a really good day.
“It was a bit of a goosebump moment.”
Edwards’ comments regarding whichever traits he has observed are particularly notable considering he is only weeks removed from a team environment, with the Vailo Adelaide 500 being his last event as Tickford Racing boss after 19 years at Campbellfield.
The first season of Gen3 was marred by almost constant controversy over parity, with Chevrolet Camaros winning 22 races out of 24 until the Ford Mustang was given a second, late-year bodywork tweak.
Supercars CEO Shane Howard, members of its Motorsport department, representatives of homologation teams Triple Eight Race Engineering (Chevrolet) and Dick Johnson Racing (Ford), and aerodynamic experts are all part of the project unfolding in the United States.
Already, a mammoth amount of work has been undertaken to ready a Camaro and Mustang race car for the exercise, and each day in the wind tunnel itself is 12 hours long.
Recounting Day 1, Edwards said, “It’s been a big day, the boys pushed the car in the tunnel at six o’clock this morning and we literally haven’t stopped all day.
“We had the Camaro in for about five-and-a-half hours this morning, switched it over to the Mustang, tried a few different versions.
“We tried a few things on the Camaro as well this morning, so we’ve learnt a huge amount today.”
Now, however, a programme for Day 2 must be devised, based on what was observed on Day 1.
“The big work will start tonight where effectively the two homologation teams and Dynamic will have to digest everything they’ve learnt today and come up with a road map of what we step through tomorrow,” added Edwards.
The Camaro and Mustang were simulated at speeds in excess of 280km/h on Windshear’s state-of-the-art rolling road, which is in high demand with IndyCar and NASCAR teams.
“I stood with Shane [Howard] as we watched the car roll on there the first time,” recounted Edwards.
“We stood in the control room as it turned the wheels for the first time and then you see the thing, you know, at one point I saw the thing up at 283km/h. So that’s the wind, that’s the road underneath it.
“It’s pretty cool to watch and it was a bit of a ‘pinch yourself’ moment.”
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