THE GEN3 CARS S

ince the introduction of the Australian-produced five-litre V8-engined Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore regulations from 1993, the foundation of Supercars has been four-door sedans. Now, with the Chevrolet Camaro joining the Ford Mustang under the Gen3 rules, the shift to two-door coupes marks the biggest technical overhaul in Australian touring cars in 30 years.

When Australian manufacturing ended and the Falcon and Commodore were discontinued, the Mustang and Camaro were the inevitable replacements. And four years after the Mustang replaced the Falcon, the Camaro replaces the Commodore for a new generation of Supercars.

The new cars have been designed with an eye on increased road relevance, with a greater likeness to their roadgoing counterparts. And that’s the most visible change with Gen3; they are lower and more akin to the Mustang and Camaro road cars.

The control chassis is 100 millimetres shorter than the Gen2 Supercars, not only to allow for a better fit for the Mustang and Camaro but also to make it easier for other manufacturers to potentially go racing with their own coupe-style body shapes.

The Camaro and Mustang share the same wheelbases and dimensions, helping the category achieve parity between the two cars.

The difference in body shape is very noticeable when comparing the Gen2 Mustang Supercar to the Gen3 version, with the latter clearly a closer link to the road-going version. With the centre of gravity lowered, the Gen3 cars are also 100 millimetres wider for a more muscle-car look.

There’s a significant reduction in weight, estimated to be around 100 kilograms. There’s also a big decrease in downforce, more than 50 percent down from the previous cars, with the rear-wing size noticeably smaller, the front undertray removed and the rear-wing mainplane common between the two cars.

With less weight, less downforce and more mechanical grip, expect a harder to tame car that moves around more and, therefore, should produce better racing with cars able to follow one another more closely.

Drivers report a car more like an old-school Supercar; needing to hustle the car to extract speed from it with more noticeable understeer and oversteer and a greater dependence on mechanical grip versus aerodynamic push.

There are a few carryover parts from the Gen2 cars. They include the transaxle, rear suspension wishbones and rear uprights. After initial talk of a move to a paddle-shift gearbox, Supercars opted to retain the stick-shift gear system.

In order to cut costs, more standard body parts appear on the Gen3 cars, helping the Supercars look more like their road-going versions. More standardised parts also help cut developmental options for teams, keeping the grid on a more level playing field.

There’s also been a focus on cutting repair bills. The design of the cars allows for sections to be more easily bolted off and replaced. Even the new wheel design is so there’s less of a chance that the spindles damage wheels and tyres when drivers run into each other.

Along with the lower profile and aerodynamic reduction, the big change comes under the bonnet with a move to production-based engines.

After three decades, the engine capacity moves away from five litres to 5.7 litres for the Camaro and 5.4 litres for the Mustang.

The Camaro LTR engine is a pushrod design single camshaft with two valves per cylinder, developed by KRE Race Engines in association with Chevrolet homologation team Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Ford’s quad overhead-cam Coyote engine will have four valves per cylinder, developed by Herrod Performance in association with Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing.

Parity has been at the foundation of Supercars for most of the V8 era. Introducing different engine configurations and capacities complicates matters, but Supercars is confident parity will be achieved with the added benefit of more mileage from cheaper engines.

The Gen3 cars certainly look the part. Now all eyes will be on how they perform on track.