It is a race against time at Garry Rogers Motorsport as it targets a rollout for its new Peugeot 308 TCR at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in November.
Announced earlier this year at AWC Race Tasmania, Garry Rogers Motorsport was awarded the construction and manufacturing rights to Peugeot’s TCR racer with the first body shells arriving last week alongside multiple containers of parts.
Led by Team Manager Stefan Millard, GRM has completed design work throughout this year in anticipation of receiving its parts haul last week.
The Supercheap Auto Bathurst International has been earmarked as the perfect event to launch the new model due to key members of TCR promoter WSC, including President Marcello Lotti, being in attendance.
“The body shells arrived the other day and in the background we’ve been doing a lot of work,” said Rogers.
“We’ve got the roll cage all cut and that is coming in this week, so we’ll put the body shell in the fabrication shop on the spit so it’ll be ready to put the cage into it to be ready to go.
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“We never planned to race one at Bathurst, we just planned on having one ready to go. It is going to be a push to get one ready for then, but we’ll just wait and see.”
“The design work is done on it, then we’re getting some moulds for the bodywork before we start producing some parts and we’ll just keep working at it.
“Engine-wise isn’t going to take too much time as we’ll be running the same current engine, but maybe there are some little improvements or changes we’ll make though I think we’re on top of that.”
GRM is used to building and developing its own race cars having done so in Supercars since the late-1990s through initially Holden before transitioning to Volvo for the 2014 season. It was also the squad behind Holden’s two Bathurst 24 Hour successes with the Monaro 427.
Recently, it has worked with Vukovic Motorsport to aid in the development of the Renault Megane RS TCR, but transitions to Peugeot, which will be available to teams across the world.
Being the designer, manufacturer and homologation agent for the Peugeot requires GRM to develop the 308 TCR with the new hybrid system due to debut next year. GRM has already tested the system twice at Winton and Calder Park where James Moffat completed the duties.
“We had a couple of issues at one of the days where we had to get some software from overseas across, but that’s still ongoing,” Rogers stated.
“We’re progressing, but it’s probably been a lot more challenging than what we first anticipated.
“We really want to get it in and going, but it’s got to be reliable as well as do what it’s supposed to do. It’s a push-to-pass type system, which is meant to add 15kW of power.
“As long as it all works it will add another dimension to the race as well.”
It is believed the Volkswagen Audi Group and Hyundai have both tested successfully with the hybrid system, while Romeo Ferraris has worked with TCR promoter WSC to develop it.
The Peugeot will be the first TCR model solely built and manufactured in Australia.
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