FIRST ON TRACK TEST FOR NEW HOLDEN V6 SUPERCARS ENGINE

On track testing commenced for Holden’s new V6 Turbo Supercars Engine

Triple Eight Race Engineering, have taken to the track for the the first time with the new Holden V6 Turbo Supercars engine.

The Holden backed team, took to Norwell Motorplex in Queensland on Monday and Wednesday using it’s Sandman ride car chassis to complete the test of the new engine, expected to make its Supercars competition debut next year in a Wildcard entry.

Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards were all on hand to test the 3.6 litre V6 Twin Turbo engine, completing 256km of on track testing.

The engine is based off the same unit used by General Motors in its Cadillac GT3 cars, was initially re-developed for Supercars use at GM’s Racing headquarters in Pontiac, Michigan before being sent to Triple Eight’s engine partner KRE.

Triple Eight’s Roland Dane reported that the test was a success.

“We’re very pleased with the initial running.”

“A huge amount of work has been done already, both at GM Racing in Pontiac, Michigan and also here in Queensland,”

“There’s still plenty more to do, but we’re now going to crack on with the development behind closed doors.”

“It’s not far away from being competitive, but Supercars is a very competitive category, so we can’t leave anything on the table.”

Triple Eight modified their Sandman ride car to complete the testing

Dane meanwhile enthused over the sound of the engine that will become the first non-V8 in the category since 1993.

“Awesome,” he said of the noise. “We’ll let people in on it soon.”

While the new engine is only expected to make select “Wildcard” appearances in the 2018 Supercars championship, development will continue as Holden switches over the the new model Commodore in 2018, before implementing the Turbo power plant in 2019.

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