January 19, 2018 Charles Côté 0

Red Bull Holden Supercar at the gate for 2018 season

Take a trip on Sydney Harbour with us to see the Red Bull Holden Supercar reveal.

And you thought you’d never see a V8-powered version of Holden’s new European Commodore ZB.

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team (aka Triple Eight) has revealed its 2018 Supercar contender, which will hit the track at Adelaide on the first weekend of March.

The new machine has the body shape from Holden’s latest Euro-sourced Commodore five-door, although underneath it’s still based on the “Next Gen” (2013) architecture shared by all current Supercar racers and powered by a V8 engine.

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New Commodore Supercar was unveiled by Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup on Sydney Harbour.

Not for long, though. “Gen2” rule changes to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship now allow different body styles (as long as they are from four-seat cars sold in Australia) and new engines.

Rhys Vandersyde

Biggest change is the new aerodynamics package developed for the liftback body shape.

There’s a new V6 turbo engine on the way for the Commodore Supercar, which will make it more identifiable with the production car; expect to see it as a “wild card” entry at some events this year (including Bathurst) and powering all ZB-generation racers for 2019.

The 2018 model was unveiled by drivers Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen on Sydney Harbour.

Literally on the harbour, as the launch event and photo-call took place on a barge on the water at Farm Cove, with the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as a backdrop.

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New machine is still a V8. But ZB-era Commodore Supercars will shift to a turbo-V6 next year.

A production ZB Commodore VXR was displayed alongside the Red Bull racer.

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The Supercar has a new livery designed by Holden’s Peter Hughes, with a dark blue front fading to white at the rear. Given that the 2018 car hasn’t changed fundamentally underneath, the biggest news is really the aerodynamic package that’s been developed for the new shape, using computational fluid dynamics.

“We had a great year last year,” said Whincup.

“But a few things got away from us and there’s plenty of motivation to grab back that teams championship and of course the biggest race of the year, Bathurst.”

Whincup holds a record seven titles and has just extended his contract until the end of the 2019 season. Van Gisbergen won the championship in 2016.

Source :Stuff.co.nz

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Charles Côté Motorsports are the ultimate connection between man and machine. My passion has become my job. As chief editor of RNW, I look forwards to sharing my love of racing with you.