Supercars announcement leaves open prospect of ‘additional updates’ on Gen3 parity

Supercars’ Gen3 homologation announcement has left open the prospect of “additional updates” on race cars throughout the season.

Supercars announced this evening, less than 48 hours out from opening practice at the first even of the season, that the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang have been “formally homologate[ed]”.

Intriguingly, the comment attributed to Perry Kapper, from Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing, indicated that further parity changes are far from beyond the realms of possibility.

“Our thanks go to Supercars and everyone involved for their commitment and effort in the Gen3 development process,” said Kapper, Chief Engineer at DJR, in the statement issued by Supercars in which he is identified as the ‘Ford Mustang Gen3 Chief Designer’.

“We will continue to work with Supercars throughout the year for any additional updates.

“The aerodynamic testing last week, and the adjustments made, give us confidence that we can go to the first event in Newcastle with our Ford Mustangs ready to fight, to see the cars grid up and hear the revs rise, before the lights go out on this new chapter in Supercars’ history.”

Kapper’s counterpart at Triple Eight Race Engineering, Technical Director Jeromy Moore, said, “During the entire VCAT validation at Temora, the two Homologation Teams and Supercars staff worked very well together, in an open and collaborative manner, to achieve the common goal.

“With over 70 runs and throughout the four days we have confidence we have come away with cars equal in measured downforce and drag.

“Now it’s time to go racing and may the best team win.”

Supercars has not confirmed any changes arising since five days of parity testing at Temora Aerodrome last week, which included work on both aerodynamics and engines/powertrains, as revealed by Speedcafe.com.

However, the Camaro is known to have been given an aerodynamic tweak which is understood to have given it a small increase in front downforce.

While that raises a question mark about aerodynamic parity, engines/powertrains are also still conceivably an issue.

The Mustangs from Walkinshaw Andretti United, Tickford Racing, and Grove Racing ran with a new engine map in a test at Winton last week, while the Camaros have had their shift cut elongated.

That came after dissatisfaction from the Ford camp about a disparity in how cars changed gears.

It is therefore hardly impossible that both aerodynamics and powertrains could be tweaked throughout the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship season.

Practice 1 for the Thrifty Newcastle 500 starts on Friday.