Triple Eight's Dutton open to developing future Supercars Camaro

Thanks to Ford's confirmation that a Mustang will be developed and homologated for the 2019 season, two-door bodyshapes are a hot topic in the Supercars paddock.

The news has already sparked discussions regarding other two-door models, such as the Chevy Camaro and the Nissan GT-R, being introduced alongside the Mustang in the near future.

Should General Motors decide to go down the path of a Camaro, a whole new development and homologation programme would be required due to the Supercars regulations.

As it stands, Triple Eight is GM's Supercars homologator through its status as Holden's factory team, and spent last season developing the new-for-2018 ZB Commodore alongside its racing programme.

While it is not quite ready to jump back into a parallel development and racing programmes just yet, T8 team manager Dutton says once his crew has briefly paused he'd be more than open to developing a Camaro Supercar.

"I reckon it'd be great," he told Autosport. "Not [with] the workload right now - we need a bit of a sleep, we haven't had that yet.

"But I've always liked Camaros and Corvettes and things like that, I reckon they look fantastic.

"We like having fun. I reckon [with] the Mustang on track, next year will be pretty exciting, it'll look cool. I've always liked two-door cars myself.

"I reckon bring it on."

One major sticking point over a short development of the Camaro is that the ZB is just four race weekends into its life-span.

In Supercars, a four-to-five year life cycle is common - the VF was first introduced in 2013 before being replaced by the ZB for '18.

The Nissan Altima also debuted in 2013 and is still in service, while the Ford Falcon FG-X will have completed four seasons by the time it is retired at the end of '18.

That would mean any short-term arrival of a Camaro would mean either cutting the lifespan of the ZB short, or running two GM products simultaneously.

"What would be cool is if you could run different models of the same manufacturer," said Dutton.

"There's 14 ZBs on the track - imagine if there was seven ZBs and seven Camaros - that'd be cool."

More globally-recognised models racing in Supercars could be a significant benefit to the series as it looks to expand beyond Australia.

According to series CEO Sean Seamer, even just the Mustang's entrance has helped with discussions regarding overseas races.

"It's garnered a lot of traction and attention here locally," Seamer said.

"Because it is a cultural icon, not just in Australia but globally, it's raised eyebrows in a positive way and has already had an impact on the discussions we're having internationally."

Seamer has already said he'd love to see GT-Rs in the category, but the likelihood of that is complicated by ongoing questions over the brand's post-2018 Supercars future.