Day 1 of Supercars’ historic wind tunnel testing will be about understanding the Gen3 cars as they exist now, according to General Manager of Motorsport, Tim Edwards.
Supercars and team/manufacturer personnel have arrived at Windshear’s facility in North Carolina to put race cars, a Camaro and a Mustang, through a wind tunnel for paritisation for the very first time.
The first of a minimum three days/36 hours of work at Windshear, on Friday local time/Saturday AEDT, will involve understanding the current state of the cars so that a programme for the second day can be developed.
“Well, the first day is really going to be trying to understand the two cars, so we’ll put the Camaro in the tunnel first and it’ll probably be in there for about four hours,” explained Edwards.
“We’ll sort of do some baselines and do a couple of initial changes just to see what they do.
“But, the goal of tomorrow [Day 1] is to get both the cars in the tunnel and figure out where we’re at.
“You know, there’s many different versions of what Saturday might look like, but it’s going to depend on what Friday looks like.
“Until we actually run the two cars and actually get some data to sit at and go, ‘Okay, we’re close,’ or, ‘We’re not close,’ we don’t know at the moment; it’s a guessing game.”
READ MORE: How cars are prepared for wind tunnel testing
As is the case with a round of VCAT, the homologation teams have supplied a ‘kit’ of various aerodynamic appendages which may be added/substituted on their respective cars.
It will be a packed programme for the teams which have flown over.
“So, the boys have got a lot of parts in there, ready to go for whatever they’ve got to try and achieve and they’re pre-fitting a lot of those today,” continued Edwards.
“Because, we’ve got three, 12-hour days, and we’re going to be literally standing at the tunnel door at 6am tomorrow morning.
“So, we’ll be here at 05:00, but we’ve got to be at the door for 06:00; the door opens and we’ve literally got 12 hours in there, ‘til they kick us out at the end of the day, and then we’ll make a plan for the second day.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering has sent one of its Chevrolet Camaros while its Ford homologation team counterpart, Dick Johnson Racing, has sent a Mustang for the exercise.
An extra two days next week are available if more wind tunnel work is deemed necessary.
READ MORE: Inside the Windshear wind tunnel
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