be imported rather than built here. It is slightly smaller
than the current car but not significantly so. Triple Eight
Race Engineering has been tasked with getting the new
racer right.
THE ENGINE
Right from the start it was clear the engine develop-
ment program wasn’t going to be about power. Power
and torque targets from the early builds revealed it was
more about pulling the engine back to the V8 and even
the sound was pretty easy to get right.
Controversially, Holden announced it would run a
lease program for the engines... and then backed away
from further comment. Roland Dane says this is to make
the transition more affordable and cede to Supercars’
desire to simplify control of engines via a single supplier.
Holden, or more specifically General Motors, owns
the IP over the engines and it can restrict access to the
engines, which are expected to fully replace the V8 in
2019.
“I don’t want to paint ourselves into a corner over
something which, at the moment, we’ve got a very flex-
ible approach to,” says Dane.
“The idea is to come up with a program that reflects
the durability of this engine, which hopefully will be con-
siderably more durable than the current engine we’re
using.
“Our engines today in racing terms are fairly mainte-
nance intensive. Anyone who looks at the engine logs,
which are published regularly internally by Supercars,
can see that.
“So the idea is that we want the engine to last longer