Supercars vs GT3: Which is faster at Hidden Valley?

Josh Buchan walked away from the weekend with the official lap record at Hidden Valley Raceway for a GT3 car in the Zagame Autosport Ferrari 296 with a 1:04.8293s to his name.

The lap record for Supercars in the Gen3 era is a 1:07.2133s set by Kai Allen in 2025 driving his Grove Racing Ford Mustang.

So where are GT3 cars quicker than Supercars?

Supercars are faster in the first sector, which features half of the one-kilometre straight and the chute before Turn 5.

The top speed difference is about 15 to 20 km/h between the Supercars and GT3 cars in favour of the Aussie V8s.

The pair are similarly matched in the second sector, with half a second separating the lap records.

However, it’s the high-speed esses in the third sector where the GT3 car makes the most ground to the tune of three-and-a-half seconds, turning a 1.2-second deficit into a 2.4-second advantage.

Ferrari 296 vs Ford Mustang

Speaking with Speedcafe, Melbourne Performance Centre driver Broc Feeney detailed where the cars feel different from the driver’s point of view.

“You feel it in sector three, but also the braking,” Feeney explained.

“It’s actually quite hard to change muscle memory. I’m braking at 100 metres here, so I’m 50 metres later [than a Supercar] at Turn 1 and then it’s probably another 30 metres later at Turn 5 there. It’s quite big in braking, but the last sector’s where you actually feel the speed.

“I really like this track in a Supercar, but the feeling that you get in these GT3 cars – last sector is super committed. It’s so much fun. I think everyone up and down pit lane that I’ve spoken to is absolutely loving driving these things around.

“Obviously we’re probably losing a fair bit of time down the straight, but we’re braking and then that last sector’s where we really make it up.”

Between the Pro drivers, passing was at a premium.

Feeney said that’s down to a few factors, namely the nature of the tighter tracks in Australia, shorter braking zones, turbulent air and a lack of tyre degradation.

“They’re not the most fun to race, to be honest,” said Feeney.

“If you look at the pros racing probably all year you could probably nearly count on a hand the amount of passes that have been done, which is tough.

“It’s a combination of a few things like the tracks in Australia versus Europe are quite tight, which makes it hard to sort of get out of position or do anything different.

“I was catching Davo (Will Davison) at three or four tenths of a second a lap and got to him and didn’t even come close to making a pass.

“You need to have a second a lap or someone making a mistake to make a pass.

“I’d much rather be able to just drive up on someone and try and make some moves, but that’s just this type of racing.”

GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS continues its season at Sydney Motorsport Park on September 18-20.

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