SUPERCARS ALTERS CENTRE OF GRAVITY AGAIN

Supercars alter centre of gravity again – Photo: InSyde Media

Supercars has had a second stab at achieving centre of gravity parity.

By BRUCE NEWTON

The revisions to the positioning of ballast in the Ford Mustang, Holden Commodore ZB and Nissan Altima are the latest in a series of moves this year aimed at achieving technical parity.

The CoG changes will be made in time for the Ipswich SuperSprint from July 26-28.

They mean the centre of gravity of all three models will be lower but remain identical, theoretically improving handling and lap time potential.

AUTO ACTION understands a key driver for making the change was a desire to remove as much lead ballast from under the roof of the Holden and Ford as possible.

All 6.8 kg fitted to the Commodore earlier this year has gone. Meanwhile, 9 kg out of 28 kilos has been removed from the roll cage of the Mustang and lighter composite parts will be replaced by steel roof beams.

The existing engine ballast of the Nissan Altima will be lowered to the sump.

The championship-dominating Mustang prompted the introduction of a CoG parity rule earlier this year, while it has also had an aerodynamic downforce trim.

Most recently, the Commodore aero package was revised in time for the Darwin Supercars round. Those changes were never announced and only detailed publicly after the fact – and then by team owners and not Supercars.

Having copped a barrage of criticism for keeping the Commodore modifications secret, Supercars issued an embargoed media statement announcing the CoG changes at the Townsville 400 on Sunday night, shortly after the teams were notified.

The statement advised the redistribution of ballast was based on a recommendation by the Supercars technical department.

In the statement, Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess said: “The Commission approved the change following further work into the positioning of ballast through a more refined process using CAD.

“With some teams not returning to their base between Darwin and Townsville, we decided to implement the change for Ipswich after all teams have had time in their own race shops.

“The repositioning maintains the current CoG balance between all makes and has an equal effect on performance for all.”

The initial round of CoG adjustments were made based on preliminary testing at Kelly Racing’s Braeside workshop.

Second time around, there has been extra work put into developing a more comprehensive measuring system.

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