Supercars confirmed this week it will run all three cars – the Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and new Toyota Supra – at the Windshear wind tunnel in the US at the end of the year.
It had initially planned to only take the Supra, before opting to add the Camaro as a baseline, and then ultimately deciding not to leave the Ford out.
Triple Eight will represent Ford Performance for the tunnel testing ahead of taking over homologation team duties for the marque next year.
According to Whincup, the need to supply its first Mustang for the test – for which the cars will be sea-freighted over – has impacted plans for putting it on track.
“That just got heavily delayed,” said Whincup of when the team will shake down its first Mustang.
“We were well and truly on track but then a curveball has been thrown, we may have to prepare a car and put it in a container to go wind tunnel testing.
“A brand new $750,000 race car, I say investment, will go into a container and disappear for three or four months.
“We’re frantically trying to build a second car at the moment to get on the track to dig into a bit of data and learn what the Mustang is all about.
“I think we’re probably three months away from getting on track.”
Whincup’s reaction is somewhat surprising given ongoing complains about parity from Ford and its teams, and the potential for the tunnel testing to iron out any remaining aerodynamic issues.
Asked if he’s in favour of the Mustang going to the States, he said: “I’m not a huge fan of having a $750,000 asset tied up on a boat for three or four months, but that’s the joy of being a HT.
“It’s a thankless job, the homologation team responsibility. Of course we pushed hard to get it, so I’m not complaining, it is what it is.
“From a performance point of view, we’d rather have the car in the country and be able to shake it down and learnt and understand it more, but that’s all part of the fun of being the HT.”
Like the Camaro, the Mustang will essentially take part in the tunnel tests as a baseline.
However, Triple Eight is thought likely to bring some aero options to ensure the cars are balanced if the testing shows any discrepancies with the numbers produced by the Camaro.
Whincup all but ruled out a move from the GT to Dark Horse model Mustang, which had been mooted as a way for Triple Eight to undertake a complete overhaul of the package.
“The decision hasn’t been made but it’s very unlikely because there seems to be relatively good parity between the GM and the Ford at the moment,” he said of moving to the Dark Horse.
“I think the majority of the work will be aligning the Supra to those two.
“We have found over the last couple of years there are some small discrepancies, so we’re making the investment to go to the wind tunnel and AVL [engine testing] to clean up some areas because we’ve got the opportunity.
“I’m not saying we don’t have parity now, but can we always improve given the opportunity? 100 percent we can. So to clean up a few areas at the same time would be great.”
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