The Gen3 Supercars project has completed its latest phase with both the General Motors and Ford engines “paritised”.
Ahead of an introduction into the Repco Supercars Championship next year, the development of the powerplants is nearing completion.
Testing on the 5.7-litre GM and 5.4-litre Ford examples got underway well before any prototype cars hit the track.
Supercars’ Head of Motorsport, Adrian Burgess, explained the project is now at the point where both engines have reached parity.
Durability testing will now take place in the next six weeks in the United States utilising advanced dyno technology.
It means a race simulation can be programmed, as opposed to simply running the engines flat out.
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“For us, the project is trucking along quite nicely,” Burgess told Speedcafe.com.
“Both engines are in a good space; they are sort of paritised and everything there is under control.
“Both will be running in the US on AVL dynos in the next sort of six weeks doing some endurance testing. So [the] engine programme is looking good.”
Test mules of the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang cut laps at Queensland Raceway on Thursday as part of the programme’s latest shakedown.
The prototypes being used for testing and on-track demonstrations at events are early versions of the car, with the chassis having recently gone through a redesign.
Burgess said Supercars’ Gen3 development team were still able to make tweaks to the cars, despite inclement weather.
“We’ve changed a little bit of the aero on the Ford,” he explained of the proceedings.
“[Thursday] was just really reconfirming where we’re at, everything’s been trucking along, cars were nice and reliable.
“We’ve tried some different power steering things, we’ve tried some driver cooling parts.
“Just giving the drivers mileage and just keep [on] accruing the mileage on the car and engine and everything.
“So it’s just sort of a routine test for us. There’s lots of little stuff we’re trying. It’s been a good solid day.”
The test mules ran at the NTI Townsville 500 earlier this month, with data gathered on how the Gen3 cars handle the bumps and kerbs of a street circuit.
Burgess was pleased with the results from North Queensland.
“Townsville is a classic street circuit to test the car over the kerbs,” he commented.
“[The] kerbs there are quite aggressive, so that’s one of the bonuses of going there.
“And the car handled perfectly; the dampers are good. The drivers reported that the feedback over those kerbs was good and felt similar to the current car.
“So we’re just continuing to try different things at different circuits.”
Next up is the fast, flowing corners of The Bend Motorsport Park as part of the OTR SuperSprint (July 29-31).
The South Australian circuit will provide a test for Gen3’s oil system in the long radius corners.
“We’ll sign off the oil system after the running we do at Tailem Bend,” added Burgess.
“Everywhere we go it gives you a different opportunity to validate a different part of the car.
“So that’s part of what this year is all about; just continuing to show the car to the fans and the public and continuing to get good kilometres on them.”
Gen3 has been allocated a full hour of running on Friday of next weekend’s event at The Bend, which forms Round 8 of the Supercars Championship.
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