Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook has the “utmost confidence” that the Mustang’s engine can be competitive, pending Supercars’ parity processes.
Engines have come sharply into focus given that a second round of VCAT was completed just before the start of the season, and a centre of gravity tweak made to the Camaros ahead of Event 3.
Despite those initiatives, two Chevrolet teams continue to rack up race wins and pole positions in the early events of the Gen3 era, namely Erebus Motorsport and Triple Eight Race Engineering.
The Camaros are powered by a 5.7-litre pushrod engine, developed by KRE Race Engines, which is somewhat more bespoke than the 5.4-litre ‘Coyote-derived’ quad cam unit which is found under the bonnet of the Mustangs.
Nevertheless, Rushbrook declared his confidence in the Ford Supercars engine.
“I have utmost confidence in what the hardware is capable of with a Coyote engine, and the software that controls it, and the people that are working on it,” he told selected media, including Speedcafe.
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“We’ve got great partners in Australia/Supercars, with our homologation team [Dick Johnson Racing] and our engine partner with Herrod [Performance Engines], just like we have great partners around the world.
“We are able to race Coyote-based engines competitively in other series and do great things with it, so I’ve got confidence in that.
“Ultimately, though, it’s the technical parity process that determines whether that engine hardware and those great people are capable of delivering.”
The Ford chief has expressed his support for more robust engine parity processes in Supercars, with the category looking into use of a transient dynamometer, and ordering torque sensors.
Of late though, there have been suggestions again that the Mustang may be on the wrong end of an aerodynamic disparity, notwithstanding that it was seen fit after the second round of VCAT to give a small increase in front downforce to the Camaro.
On that, Rushbrook refused to confirm or deny he had any suspicions, instead reiterating his call for data transparency.
“I think that comes back to the data transparency,” he remarked.
“In every racing series, outside of Supercars, we have full transparency into the data, and we know what we are doing relative to our competitors on track.
“So we know where we, as a manufacturer, may be falling short, or succeeding – or our partners, whether it’s an engine partner or a team – we have that as a dashboard in front of us.
“We don’t in Supercars so, to be honest, we can make observations based upon what we see on-track and what data is available from our teams, but until there is data transparency, we can’t draw clear conclusions of engine parity or anything else.”
New engine maps for both the Camaro and Mustang were put through a validation exercise at Winton this week, notwithstanding that the day’s testing was washed out.
It is likely that the Mustangs will run in the next event of the season at Hidden Valley with an evolution of a test map which was trialled in practice at Symmons Plains last month.
The Betr Darwin Triple Crown takes place on June 16-18.
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