V8 Supercars insists it is yet to determine when it will drop the V8 prefix from its name after unveiling an interim logo, set to take effect on January 1.

The new branding was released alongside an outline of the 2017 Gen2 rule package, which will see the class opened up to a variety of engine configurations.

The rebranding is the most dramatic since the V8 Supercars name was established in late 1996, featuring an oval-shaped logo that gradually evolved over the following 18 years.

Amid suggestions that the V8 tag could be dropped as soon as 2016, Warburton insists that the timing of the next move has not been locked in.

“The logo has clearly been designed on the basis of dropping the V8 prefix, but there’s no time scale attached to it,” he told Speedcafe.com.

“There will come a day when it is dropped, but there’s no time scale.”

The existing V8 engines will continue to be eligible into the Gen2 era and will likely to be carried by the majority of the field initially.

“For the record, I can never see this category existing without a V8 engine in the field,” declared Warburton during his speech introducing Gen2 to media in Sydney.

Designed by Australian brand and design agency, Hulsbosch, the new company logo is gloriously described by V8 Supercars as “a simple, contemporary, and unambiguously tier-one identity consistent with elite sporting brands.”

VIDEO: V8 Supercars logo unveil promotion