The Holden VF Commodore that will go racing in the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship has been unveiled, following the VF Commodore reveal by only a day and beating the debut of the Holden Commodore SS production car, on which the racecar is based, by four days.
Three teams have shown off their new car for the season, the first-ever of which will include both Mercedes-Benz and Nissan as contenders – the latter not having raced since the demise of the Australian Touring Car Championship in the 1990s. All VF Commodore racers are built around the same Car of the Future (COTF) chassis, with changes between teams centering largely around the powertrain.
For fans of what’s being tagged as the ‘sports-luxury’ version of the VF Commodore, the front end of the V8 Supercar shows clear distinction to the Commodore SS and near-twin US-based Chevrolet SS sedans that will debut later this week – 12am Friday for the Holden SS, and 4pm Saturday for the Chevrolet SS.
With a wider front grille and larger lower air intake, the V8 Supercar models ramp up the aggression compared with the production Holden VF Commodore Calais V-Series shown yesterday.
The two Garry Rogers Motorsport cars were the first to be revealed, with Fujitsu/Valvoline livery, to be driven by Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Premat in the 2013 series.
Team BOC followed with their car, the Albury-based team continuing with Jason Bright behind the wheel for the fourth year running. BOC says it has an unchanged engineering and race crew, and is hoping to achieve the championship-winning success it garnered in the 2011 season.
Holden Racing Team (HRT) were next to unveil their 2013 championship contender, with the white-and-red team changing to predominantly white livery, and continuing with sponsors Toll and Coates Hire.
Drivers Garth Tander and James Courtney remain behind the wheel, with HRT also naming Greg Murphy as a driver for the V8 Supercars endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst.
The 2013 V8 Supercars Championship launch day and testing debut is next Saturday at Sydney Motorsport Park, ahead of the first round of the championship at the Clipsal 500 on March 2.
Both V8 Supercars management and HRT each put out a video teaser showing the 2013 VF Commodores set for the racing season.
