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Bruce Newton19 Jan 2018
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: New Holden Commodore Supercar revealed

First-ever imported Holden factory racer shows off its wings and warpaint as Red Bull HRT reveals Whincup's 2018 ZB Commodore

The first Holden factory touring car based on an imported model has been revealed in its 2018 Supercars championship warpaint and homologated aerodynamic package in Sydney this morning.

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore was floated on Sydney Harbour to Farm Cove this morning, where 2017 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and his teammate Shane van Gisbergen whipped off the covers.

The car will race for the first time at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide over March 1-4.

The new Supercar is based on the shape of the five-door Opel Insignia liftback that is being imported from Germany and goes on sale next month as Holden’s 2018 Commodore.

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The ZB Commodore next month replaces the locally-developed and manufactured VF Commodore killed off last October when Holden shut its Elizabeth assembly plant.

All previous factory Holden touring cars and Supercars have been locally-manufactured.

That heritage can be traced as far back as the 1963 EH Holden ‘red motor’ S4, which was developed for the Bathurst 500-mile production car race.

Since 1968 when it debuted the Monaro GTS at Bathurst and scored its first outright Mount Panorama win, Holden has been continuously involved in local touring car/Supercars racing, even when it has had to cloak its involvement behind dealer teams.

Since Monaro there have been two distinct generations of Torana and four generations of local Commodore sedans that have been raced without pause.

During the global Group A touring car era of the 1980s and early 1990s, Holden was the only local manufacturer to go through the expense and cost of homologating a homegrown car to take on the world’s best.

Big deal
“In my world, I consider today a very big deal,” said Whincup, who has won a record seven drivers’ championships.

“We’re not only showing our supporters our 2018 livery, we’re unveiling the new-look, next-generation Commodore Supercar. It’s pretty special to be able to do that,” he said.

The ZB has been developed for Supercars racing by Triple Eight Race Engineering, the parent of RBHRT.

It’s the first ground-up new vehicle development T8 has conducted since the Falcon FG in 2008 when it was a Ford team.

While all Supercars based on the NextGen technical rules – be they Commodores, Ford FG X Falcons or Nissan Altimas – use an identical spaceframe chassis, the complication comes in massaging the different bodies to fit the standard 2822mm wheelbase and develop the all-important aerodynamic package to go racing.

Aerodynamics are subject to parity testing against the rival racers, but that testing covers only selected criteria, which means there are significant performance advantages to be made by developing a better aero package.

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T8 hired an aerodynamicist from German racing operation HWA and invested heavily in Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling software to develop its package. CFD simulation was required to test the ZB’s aero pack because wind tunnel testing is banned under Supercars rules.

T8 is believed to have invested more than $1 million developing the ZB for Supercars racing, but it will make money back on that because it is the exclusive supplier of body panels and aero parts to Holden Supercars team.

Based on its small frontal area and huge rear wing with endplate mounting that will catch plenty of grip-generating wind mid-corner, the ZB is expected to be a very competitive Supercar.

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Some Holden teams initially said they would stick with the VF for 2016, but the ZB’s expected aerodynamic advantages have clearly convinced them to make the switch, despite complaints about the cost T8 has been charging for parts.

The second part of the ZB program will be the introduction of a twin-turbocharged V6 engine to replace the V8 in 2019.

That will be another big moment in the evolution of Australian touring car racing and Holden’s involvement in it as the company has raced V8s continuously since 1974.

New deal
Whincup also announced today he had extended his T8 contract for a single year to the end of 2019, which means he will race for the Brisbane operation for at least 14 years.

Speculation about Whincup’s career plans have bubbled up at various points of his stellar Supercars career and it is unlikely a single year extension will do much to quieten current commentary.

“I’m rapt to be staying within the family for at least the next couple of seasons and massively looking forward to the challenges that the new Commodore and then the V6 engine next year will present,” he said in a press release.

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