Success at our 2018 Next-Gen testing day

The highly-anticipated 2018 Next-Gen Commodore Supercar underwent its first serious bout of testing yesterday with successful results.

The closed Accredited Manufacturer (ACM) test on Wednesday saw Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes undergo a full day of aerodynamic testing at Queensland Raceway.

It was the first time the Next-Gen Commodore has experienced the twists and turns of a race track with testing up until now only taking place in a straight line.

It was all about ensuring that the aerodynamic package is working as planned and there are no issues with the body work and the new installation.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Head Designer and car #88 Race Engineer David Cauchi has been in the thick of it throughout its development and sat down to discuss how the day played out.

“In a whole, the day was quite successful,” Cauchi said.

“We managed to get all three drivers in the car at different stages, testing different items. Everything went really well.

“The feedback from drivers was quite positive. We managed to play around with the balance a little bit to find a place where all the drivers were happy.

“Each car has different characteristics, that’s just the nature of the shapes of production cars, so you always have to adjust each individual car.”

during the Wilson Security Sandown 500, in Melbourne, Australia, September 21, 2017.

Development of the Next-Gen Commodore has been a massive project for the team who are currently in the midst of a Championship battle, and are looking to have everything on track to roll out with the car in 2018.

“We just chipped away at finding a place that we thought would be a competitive package.”

WATCH: The Next-Gen Commodore in action

Next up is the Supercars aerodynamic homologation testing in December where the Next-Gen model will be evaluated for downforce and drag.

“We still have plenty of work to do, there’s still a lot of data to analyse and we need to hone down into what configuration we want to homologate come December.

“There’s a small list of things we want to sort out, but as a whole everything was where went wanted it.”

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