V8 SUPERUTE WILL INTEREST FANS

V8 SuperUte will interest fans – Image: LAT

Last Year’s SuperUte Series runner-up Cameron Crick is confident fans will be attracted to the series, which will feature LS V8 engines in 2021.

By DAN McCARTHY

Crick has recently completed track testing of a Superute featuring the 6.0-litre LS V8, which replaces the unpopular and much-maligned turbo-diesel powerplants used by the category since its inception in 2018.

Category management is aiming for 15-Superutes for next year’s series, a spectacle Crick believes will improve the show and win over fans.

“It was cool, it is different,” Crick stressed to Auto Action. “I think 15 to 20 dual cabs with V8s hooning through a street circuit, that is more like what the fans want to see, but it was cool to drive for sure.

“The feedback I’m getting personally from sponsors and what people are saying to me, it’s definitely better than what was said last year.

“If the category is done properly, and hopefully they do it right, it’ll be a good thing, I think the fans will like it, I really do.”

Handling characteristics largely remain unchanged in the new-generation SuperUte, but the increased poke in a straight line is the key notable difference.

“It still felt like the ute last year, like they still feel a lot higher off the ground,” he said.

“The downlow power with an LS V8, it just comes off the corner so much faster, you can really feel the power!

“Last year they (the utes) had a few issues with the diff because you’d have to wait for the turbo lag. Now there’s enough power now to avoid no man’s land, so the diff doesn’t feel as weird because there is so much power there.”

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