Ahead of its competitive debut at the 2018 Adelaide 500, the new Holden Commodore Supercar has received its public unveiling, giving fans an early look at the car that’ll be replacing the beloved VF on the track. Coincidentally, the road-going Commodore and sedan and Sportwagon will also be introduced in the same timeframe.
These first pictures of this ZB Commodore Supercar prototype, built by Triple Eight Racing Engineering in Brisbane, show it tearing around the Norwell Motorplex, with 60km of the official shakedown driven by Red Bull Racing Australia’s Jamie Whincup.
Of course, the big story with the new Commodore is the adoption of a twin-turbo V6 powerplant in accordance to the new Supercars regulations. However, it’ll only be in 2019 when the V8 engine will be phased out entirely, with 2018 being fielding cars with mixture of both engines.
Supposedly there still some tweaks to be made to the forced induction V6, which could be why Red Bull Holden retained the naturally aspirated 485kW V8 for shakedown late last week in the 2018 Commodore supercar.
Prior to next’s year season opener race, the 2018 Commodore supercar is schedule to be running laps at Ipswich Raceway in Queensland this week, followed by an October demonstration event at Mount Panorama where the V6-powered prototype will be surely be under scrutiny.
“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,” said J-Dub, the first man to jump behind the wheel.
“So far it feels fantastic. The work that they’ve done behind the scenes to this point, in my opinion we’re 99 per cent 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 fully unleash the full version in 2018.”
For more on Holden cars, check out our Showroom.
