FURTHER Ford parity tweaks remain on the cards for race week of the Repco Bathurst 1000 despite some stiff opposition.
Sandown proved a return to the Chevrolet domination seen throughout the 2023 Supercars season, relegating the Blue Oval’s relative success at the previous round at The Bend to a mere blip on the radar.
Thus, parity has returned to the spotlight in the lead-up to the biggest race of the year, with Ford and its teams desperate to at least be in with a shot.
But with the results-based parity trigger having not been hit enough times for another official review as yet, a political fight looms given General Motors homologation team Triple Eight has already made its stance crystal clear regarding pre-Bathurst aero changes.
However, Supercars does have the power at board level to make data-driven changes when it sees the need to, regardless of the parity trigger.
It is now a formality that lightweight doors and panels will be introduced to the Mustangs before Bathurst.
That comes with a minor Centre of Gravity change, while Supercars has removed the CoG ballast adjustment heaped on the Camaros after Albert Park.
Critically, a series of aerodynamic tweaks have been presented for approval.
V8 Sleuth understands these might not be applied until Wednesday of race week – the day before opening practice – assuming they do get the green light.
Those tweaks are believed to be more adjustments than wholesale changes, and have been borne out of renewed CFD (computational fluid dynamics) work after Ford finally got its data-sharing wish granted.
As reported on the Castrol Motorsport News Podcast, comprehensive wind tunnel testing is in the works for the 2023/24 off-season.
At Bathurst, gearshift cuts will also be under the microscope, including the potential to further lengthen the Camaro’s from 105 milliseconds to 125ms.
Updated wheel nuts will be rolled out as well, following the problem which forced Grove Racing’s David Reynolds/Garth Tander out of the Sandown 500.
