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There has been “good progress” on a new Ford Supercars engine map which is likely to be introduced at Hidden Valley, according to the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Ben Croke.
Amid ongoing suggestions that the Gen3 Mustang is or is likely to be at an acceleration disparity compared to the Chevrolet Camaro, the 11 Fords collectively ran with three different engine maps during practice in the most recent event of the season, at Symmons Plains.
One was the old Wanneroo map, another was that which was already locked in for the Tasmania event, and the third was an experimental map not approved for competitive sessions (qualifying, races) at the time.
The latter, understood to be known is the ‘V3 Test’ calibration, showed promising results, it being the calibration installed for the three fastest Mustangs of Practice 1.
It has been further tweaked since the trip down to the Apple Isle, and Ford teams were tasked with trying out new mapping during private testing in the past fortnight.
Croke, Team Principal at Ford homologation squad Dick Johnson Racing, is encouraged by what they found.
“We, in conjunction with Supercars, ran through it – us and some other Ford teams down in Winton, despite the limited running they did,” he told Speedcafe.
“We’ve all been trying some different versions of different engine maps, and we’ll run what Supercars allows us to run.
“But there’s been some good progress made there as well, we feel.”
DJR happens to be the only Sunshine State-based Ford team and, between that and its homologation duties, was always going to be given the responsibility of engine map testing at Queensland Raceway.
However, even after the teams which fronted at Winton for testing abandoned their programmes due to wet weather, Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters was sent for several validation runs under the supervision of Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess and category engine expert Craig Hasted, as well as representatives of Ford.
Croke confirmed it is his “expectation” that some evolution of the V3 Test map will be approved for Hidden Valley, where the Darwin Triple Crown takes place next week.
Still, the calibration changes are “more on the interim containment plan” rather than a longer term solution, said Ford Performance Motorsports Global Chief Mark Rushbrook recently to selected media, including Speedcafe.
Hidden Valley’s 1.1km main straight is likely to provide a stern test for whichever version is selected for the next event of the season.
“A lot of that three-kilometre race track is straight line, so we’d be lying if we’d say that we’re not a little concerned,” remarked Croke.
“But, we think, with the work that HPE [Herrod Performance Engines, Ford supplier] and Supercars and DJR – and the other Ford teams as well – have all put into it, all we can do is go there with that, hopefully, and do the job.”
There has also been work on the Camaro engine’s map, including validations at Winton last week, although that is understood to be largely related to idle and low-rev running.
Practice in Darwin takes place on Friday, June 16.
