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Nick Percat says small differences between the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro are important to the Supercars racing product.
Following a season-long parity debate, Supercars is set to ramp up parity testing measures in the coming months with a number of new measures.
They includes transient dyno testing in Melbourne to better assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Ford and Chevrolet V8 engines.
A car from each brand will also be shipped to North Carolina to undergo full scale wind tunnel testing, a first for Supercars.
Percat is in a somewhat unique position right now, having spent the season in a Mustang, but is also facing an impending move from Walkinshaw Andretti United to GM team Matt Stone Racing.
Speaking about the off-season parity work, he said the ideal outcome is two cars that are equally capable of winning, but have their own strengths and weaknesses – to avoid Supercars becoming too much like the one-make Carrera Cup series.
“I was saying to the guys at WAU, and at MSR when I speak to them, we just need it to be equal, or as close to equal,” he said at the launch of the Optus Super Servo on the Gold Coast.
“You definitely need differences in the cars to make the racing exciting, because if we all have exactly the same aero and exactly the same engine package, then we’re like Cup Car, you know? We’re just follow the leader.
“So yeah, I’m definitely excited for the wind tunnel, and to at least get the cars in a spot where everyone can just be quiet about it, say it’s done, put a line in the sand and go racing. And then you’ll actually get to see the differences in the way the Ford makes its power and the GM engine, because I think there’s definitely different characteristics there, which is what we need.”
Percat added that the outcome of the wind tunnel testing will provide some fascinating insight into the non-stop parity war that has blighted the current season.
“I think if it goes one way in Ford and don’t get anything, GM will sit back and go, ‘I told you so’. And then if it goes the other way, and the Ford needs a lot of work, you know, there’ll be some very disgruntled people with how this year’s kind of rolled out,” he said.
“But it’s hard, what do you do? You look back when the Nissan came in [to Supercars] and that kept getting a little tweaks here and there and ended up being quite a good aero package come the end of it, but they didn’t have the engine side of it sorted.
“It would be nice to hopefully be able to just go about the racing [next year] and focus on the enjoyable part of the sport, not everything that kind of bashes it down.”
The Mustangs will race with a final pre-wind tunnel aero update on the Gold Coast this weekend.
