The Holden Racing Team believes it has uncovered the weapon which will end almost a decade of V8 Supercar misery.
HRT drivers James Courtney and Garth Tander are confident of erasing the disappointment of last season and returning as title winners with their new VF Commodore, unveiled on Monday.
The pair said there would be “no excuses” as they prepared to hunt down dominant fellow Holden driver Jamie Whincup, who has seized four of the past five championships.
A glimpse into the potential of the newly engineered ‘Car of the Future’ V8s will be shown at the first official test day at Eastern Creek in Sydney on Saturday ahead of the season-opening Clipsal 500 in Adelaide later this month.
With all-new engineering on the machines and two new entrants – Nissan and Mercedes – in the series, the capabilities of the cars are not expected to be at full performance until well into the season.
But Tander put the new VF Commodore through its paces early on Friday before its official launch.
“It’s really hard to give an impression given only 20 laps of Calder but the car felt really strong,” Tander said.
“We made a few small changes to help understand some of the package based on what we learnt last year and the car responded really nicely.
“This morning couldn’t have gone any better than what we’d hoped but the first real test will be Saturday.”
Courtney said HRT would be boosted in the race to unlock their car’s potential after a test run late last year.
“One good thing going into Saturday is that we did those three days at the end of last year so we’ve got quite a good understanding of what we’ve got to work with,” Courtney said.
Tander dismissed suggestions that the new improvements meant lap records around Australia were all in danger of being slashed.
“It’s pretty track-specific about whether the car is going to be faster or not,” Tander said.
“Sometimes the car’s been quite a bit faster than the old car and sometimes it’s been about the same.”
HRT has undergone a radical personnel change in a bid to ensure every effort goes into bouncing back from a winless 2012.
“In the past I think not everyone was as hungry as we were,” Courtney said. “It’s all about getting people as motivated as we are and definitely now we are getting that.”