The brand new Supra is currently under development at WAU, with a special programme led by team principal Carl Faux.
It has been carefully kept behind closed doors, with nothing substantial being made public about the car since the clay model was unveiled during the Bathurst 1000 weekend last October.
But despite the lack of outward facing information, WAU CEO Bruce Stewart says the project is ‘in control’ and plans to have track testing start early in Q3 of this year remain in place.
“Look, all I’ll say is we’ve got a very firm timeline, we’ve got an amazingly large Gantt chart and we’re ticking off all of the key areas,” said Stewart.
“Do we expect there to be challenges along the way? Yes, there always will be.
“But are we in control of the program? Yes, we are. All I’ll say is at the start of the second half of the year, you’ll see one of the cars and it will look fantastic.”
The development of the Supra includes both the body shape and a new quad cam V8 engine that will be new to the category.
While wind tunnel testing has helped greatly with achieving aero parity between models, balancing the quad cam Ford Coyote with the pushrod Chevrolet V8 has proven tricky, with more changes being made ahead of Tasmania last week.
Having been on the coal face of Ford’s parity fight, Stewart admitted that ‘bumps in the road’ are possible. However he is confident in the development plan, particularly with new Toyota partner team Brad Jones Racing involved.
“We would expect when we start the engine running that you’ll come across that on-track, you’ll come across those challenges, or you may not,” said Stewart.
“All I can say its there is a solid testing program planned and will go in place.
“We won’t kid ourselves to think that this will be seamless. There will always be bumps in the road.
“But we have got a really strong team and now it’s been extended, and we have got a strong partner [in BJR] that can also help collaborate.”
As for whether the expectation is that the Supra will be a winner out of the box, Stewart said: “If I said that you’d have to be looking at me with… you don’t know what you don’t know.
“All I know is with great partners, more cars and transparency, you’re more likely to hit the ground running early, and that is strength.”
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