Holden's 2018 Supercars machine makes public on-track debut
Holden's next-generation 2018 Australian Supercars contender has broken cover following its first on-track shakedown
Six-time champion Jamie Whincup completed 60 kilometres at the Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast on Thursday, the first outing for the new Commodore that has been developed in conjunction with the Triple Eight squad over a 10-month development programme.
"The team's been burning the midnight oil behind the scenes for this moment when we finally get to bring the brand new Commodore to the track and test it for the first time," Whincup said.
"So far it feels fantastic. The work that they've done behind the scenes to this point, in my opinion we're 99% there.
"There's just some fine-tuning that's got to go on in the next few weeks and the next few months until we unleash the full version in 2018."
Triple Eight managing director Roland Dane said it has been a challenge for the team to continue to race the existing VF model while developing the next-generation car.
"We are very privileged to have been given the responsibility for developing and producing the new Commodore as a race car," he said.
"We're excited to see the results of the work that we've been carrying out.
"The overall look of the car is quite different from anything we've had before, so it's been a big but exciting task, and we're relishing the opportunity to get on track to see how we've done.
"The team's had to work incredibly hard this year in order to compete on track with the current VF Commodore, but also work flat out on the new car.
"By the time we get to the end of this year, the development process will have taken up about 20,000 hours.
Triple Eight will conduct three full test days before the new car's aero package is finalised and it is homologated for the 2018 season, with development set to continue through the rest of this year.
Testing of the new car will take place with the traditional V8 engine, while a parallel development programme for the twin-turbo V6 engine continues.
The hardware will be staggered in its introduction to the series, with the new ZB body to debut at the start of the next season, before being paired to the V6 engine for several wildcard rounds ahead of a full roll-out of the new powerplant in 2019.
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