SUPERCARS chief motorsport officer Tim Edwards has confirmed there are ongoing discussions around an eternal debate regarding the category’s unique differential.
Supercars uses a locked spool that keeps both rear wheels turning at the same speed as opposed to the more conventional limited slip differential.
Several members of the paddock have long pushed for a move away from the spool.
While there are mixed views on whether or not it would improve the on-track racing product, a diff certainly is figured to be a means of making Supercars more driveable for international stars.
Supercars have tended to be notoriously difficult for high-profile drivers from other categories to get up to speed in, such as NASCAR’s Austin Cindric or IndyCar’s Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe. There continues to be a desire for NASCAR wildcard entries at Adelaide, with General Motors having tabbed Connor Zilisch as a possibility for this November’s season finale.
Asked if discussions are taking place on the spool versus diff, Edwards affirmed to V8 Sleuth: “Absolutely. It has been looked at multiple times and we continue to evaluate whether that’s something we should test at some point in the future.”
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There have even been suggestions that diff units are on their way to Australia to be tested.
Edwards indicated that if such a move were to get the green light, it would require fundamental changes to the cars.
“It’s a significant change to the transaxle, because unfortunately the off-the-shelf diff option that Xtrac do doesn’t fit the transaxle,” he said.
“Because the loads that we’re putting through and the way we abuse our cars, is probably the politest way to put it, we were having bearing issues in the early days so they redesigned and made the transaxle much stronger than it was.
“Unfortunately that now precludes us from using the Xtrac diff without major modifications.
“Anyway, it’s on our radar.”