As revealed by Speedcafe, the Camaros underwent engine mapping tweaks ahead of the Townsville 500 aimed at improving fuel efficiency.
Supercars has put fuel economy under the microscope in recent rounds, utilising new flow meters and requiring teams to report the weight of fuel transferred to cars during stops.
According to Team 18 principal Adrian Burgess, Supercars’ numbers have shown the Camaros are at a small deficit, said to be in the region of 1.5 percent.
That means more time spent in pit lane during races – an issue the Chevrolet camp is determined to resolve ahead of the endurance events.
Fuel consumption is among the six key pillars of Supercars’ technical parity rules, alongside aerodynamic downforce, balance and drag, centre of gravity and engine power.
The Townsville mapping changes were implemented following evaluations during a Matt Stone Racing rookie test in the lead-up to the event.
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Team 18 will have Anton De Pasquale and its #18 Dewalt Camaro dedicated to engine testing on Wednesday.
Burgess said in Townsville that improving the economy of the 5.7-litre pushrod Chevrolet isn’t as easy as it sounds.
“It’s not the work of a moment,” said Burgess, whose Melbourne-based team also visited QR for engine parity testing in February and aerodynamic evaluations in May.
“You’ve got to make sure you don’t compromise your driveability and crack throttle [response] and all the things that the driver needs.
“It’s easy to lean an engine out, but you’ve still got to have some driveability.”
Driver feedback will therefore be a key part of Wednesday’s track running.
De Pasquale also weighed into the topic on Sunday, noting the economy issue started to become apparent last year.
“I don’t really know the ins and outs of it and it obviously changes track to track as well,” he said on the Cool Down Lap.
“But in general in the fuel churn races we seem to need a bit more fuel than the other guys.
“It’s a trend we’ve seen even last year, we saw it a lot when there was a few of those big fuel saving races and a lot of us couldn’t make it and others could.
“It’s not something new, [but] it’s obviously something that’s on the top of our mind and the sport is looking at obviously for Bathurst and enduros.
“They’ve got these new fuel flow sensors which they’ve had in the cars recently, so the data’s real now, it’s not just a guess.”
Fellow Chevrolet team PremiAir Racing has also confirmed it will be at Ipswich on Wednesday, running a rookie day for Declan Fraser.
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