As revealed by Speedcafe this morning, a number of aerodynamic configurations are to be tested amid a review of the changes made to the Camaros at Christchurch.
The Christchurch changes consisted of a reduction to the leading edge of the front splitter, a relocation of the rear wing rearward and upwards, and a reduction of the rear wing angle.
The car being used for the QR test is Team 18’s spare chassis, which will be run as the Supercheap Auto wildcard at Ipswich, The Bend and Bathurst later this year.
It was raced by Mark Winterbottom in 2023 and ’24 and sat as a spare last year before being pressed into service for off-season wind tunnel testing in the United States.
Team 18 has the car in the Craig Lowndes/Bayley Hall wildcard livery that was revealed last month.
The squad has Anton De Pasquale behind the wheel for the test.
De Pasquale won with the Camaro package at the Sydney season opener and currently sits as the lead GM driver in seventh in the championship.
The test is being run at the direction of Supercars, with its motorsport manager Tim Edwards (right) and engine chief Craig Hasted (obscured) among those in attendance.
Team 18 is led by Adrian Burgess (background, right), who held Edwards’ current role through the introduction of the Gen3 rules before moving to Team 18 ahead of 2024.
Supercars is tight-lipped on what exactly is being tested, apart from declaring the intention is to reduce front downforce.
Here Supercars technical director Perry Kapper measures the car’s rear wing angle.
The angle of the Camaro’s rear wing was reduced as part of the Christchurch changes that were aimed at moving the car’s overall aero balance rearward.
Team 18 and GM are believed to have proposed a lesser reduction than what Supercars ultimately granted.
The car’s roof can be seen sporting a pitot tube, which is a device used to measure air speed.
Supercars has run these on selected cars during various track sessions during its Gen3 parity pursuit.
Melbourne-based Team 18 made the trek to Ipswich with its new wildcard transporter, which was purchased from Kelly Racing late last year.
Team 18’s two race cars only arrived back at its headquarters on Monday following the sea freight journey from New Zealand.
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