WALKINSHAW Andretti United will make a maiden public outing as a Ford squad when its Mustangs tackle the official pre-season test in Sydney on Wednesday.
While the sight of the once factory Holden team fielding Fords may take time to adjust to, a look inside the two Mustangs reveals a neat throwback to the team’s glory days.
Complementing the finish of the external bodywork of the Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert driven machines, the two cars are completely white inside.
The Holden Racing Team ran white chassis through until mid-2010, citing the difficulty of keeping the stunning look clean as the reason for a move to grey for its then new builds.
By that point most of the field had done likewise and every Car of the Future/Gen2 chassis was built in a shade of grey, ranging from dark metallic to silver and light grey.
Walkinshaw Andretti United team principal Bruce Stewart says the team has opted for a return to white as part of its overall emphasis on presentation.
“Presentation for our team and our partners is super important,” Stewart told V8 Sleuth.
“There is a little bit of a throwback to the past in that but equally it’s a really important way for us to start our Gen3 journey as WAU, so it’s a nice tradition to kick off.
“It’s a really clean, clinical look. I like it.”
MORE: Ford shift no extra hurdle for WAU, says team boss
Grove Racing has also opted for a brighter chassis colour this year (light grey), while Dick Johnson Racing uses a particular light grey it has run since its time as DJR Team Penske.
DJR’s shade is understood to have been introduced by Penske to match that compulsory in NASCAR, which long ago banned darker chassis paint to ease the task of scrutineering.
In the early days of Australian touring car racing’s V8 era, the leading teams tended to match their chassis colour to their sponsor, resulting in a variety of bright colours.
That included the yellow of Dick Johnson Racing (Shell), the blue of Glenn Seton Racing (Peter Jackson) and red of Gibson Motorsport (Winfield).
The colourful approach eventually died out due to the need to repaint the chassis when sponsorship commitments changed or a car was sold.
Many chassis were subsequently built in white before Perkins Engineering led a trend towards silver/grey in the early 2000s for ease of maintenance.
PODCAST: Castrol Motorsport News
