Supercars completes first-ever wind tunnel test in North Carolina

The Supercars Championship organisation has completed its first-ever wind tunnel test in North Carolina, USA, as part of its push to further improve parity between the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang models.

Two Gen3 specification cars were present for three days of testing at the Windshear Full Scale Rolling Road Automotive Wind Tunnel in Concord, North Carolina.

A total of 4000 kilometres of running was completed, leaving the Australian organisation happy with the results.

“We had three days here, we prepped the cars, scanned the cars, got the cars in here, there’s a lot of tweaking and sometimes, you’re chasing your tail,” said Supercars CEO Shane Howard to supercars.com.

“But it was refreshing to come here this morning and around 11 o’clock, we got the nod that both cars were in the box.

“It’s been a really good exercise, good people, everyone worked really well together, the HTs [homologation teams] worked well together. We obviously had Chris [Popiela] from NASCAR here and had his experience and heard some of his advice.

“Dynamic, very good, and obviously the people from Windshear that run this facility, are well-polished and professional at what they do. Lot of information, lot of data, good result.”

The collected data from the tests will be used for the 2024 Supercars Championship season.

“We got ourselves to a point where we settled on the Camaro yesterday, so then it was up to the Mustang and DJR,” said Supercars General Manager of Motorsport Tim Edwards.

“You can only run one car at a time, so somebody had to go first. And because the Mustang has had quite a few changes this year, they had more toys to play with, more parts in their cabinet.

“We got a bit off an inkling of where we were at last night, so gave the guys the opportunity to go home, have a sleep, and come back refreshed this morning with a plan.

“It was probably about 11 o’clock we got close to the box, and then they spent the rest of the day trying to refine that and optimise things.”

Next up is further engine testing in Australia, with torque sensors having arrived to the Supercars organisation.

“Going from here, we’ll still be looking at the engines, we’re looking at a program on an AVL dyno,” said Howard.

“We’re using better tools to get better information to make better decisions, to ensure we get equitable racing situations. The focus will go on that, and we’re not far from the start of the season.

“You take the Christmas break out of that, and we’re back into it. So we’re looking forward to that.”