The Camaros have proven thirstier than their rivals this year and a contributing factor behind Supercars trimming laps out of the 200km races.
Fuel economy is currently a big talking point in the category, with minimising pit lane time increasingly crucial amid the ultra-tight competition.
Team 18 played that game on Saturday in Townsville – short-filling spearhead Anton De Pasquale to gain track position and then forcing the driver to save at the end.
Supercars has been carefully measuring the economy of the cars during recent races and worked with Chevrolet supplier KRE on an engine mapping update for Townsville.
That included track testing during Matt Stone Racing’s pre-event wildcard test, with more evaluation running expected in the coming weeks.
“There is a discrepancy and it’s something we are working on,” Team 18 principal Adrian Burgess told Speedcafe .
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“[Supercars] are saying it’s only a small amount, it’s probably one and a half percent, maybe, over the others.
“We have made a change for this weekend and we will be doing some more work between here and Perth to try and close the gap down.
“It’s not the work of a moment, they take a bit of time to do.
“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.”
Asked if it’s crucial the engines are equal ahead of the Bathurst 1000 in October, Burgess said: “100 percent. Of course it is.
“You’re stopping six or whatever times at that event and the least amount of time you spend in the pit line is the way to go.
“At the moment, we’re having to put a tiny bit more in.
“We’re not jumping up and down, we’re just quietly getting on and doing the work.”
De Pasquale’s second place on Saturday came from 11th on the grid.
Both numbers were improvements from Friday, where the DeWalt Camaro started and finished 14th.
“I think we’ve shown countless times now that we can improve the car over the course of the weekend if it doesn’t roll out shiny,” said Burgess.
“Not getting a green tyre run in practice [due to a red flag for Jack Le Brocq’s crash] really screwed us [on Friday]
“We didn’t realise that we had a basket case of a green tyre car until we got to quali and then we were nowhere.
“The race car’s been reasonably strong all weekend. The qualifying car was a little bit better in 11th, but still not good enough.”
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