Mustang leads Camaro into The Chase. Image: InSyde Media
Engine parity was the talk of the weekend at Mount Panorama after a Supercars study into the impact of altitude on the two V8s found the Ford endured a 10bhp deficit at high revs.
Upgrades to the Ford proposed by Supercars were blocked by GM teams, which were able to veto the changes under the terms of the Teams Racing Charter.
Dick Johnson Racing star Brodie Kostecki was adamant the Fords would have no chance in the race despite topping Friday qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout.
While wet weather ultimately intervened, Kostecki’s prediction of a disparity on Conrod Straight appeared to be proven true – particularly as the two Triple Eight Camaros made early ground.
However, speaking on their respective podcasts this week, Triple Eight drivers Will Brown and Scott Pye have floated an alternate theory as to the reason for the apparent disparity.
Kostecki claims Supercars TV ‘treating fans like idiots’
“I find being in a Camaro, there’s something with the wake the aero [of the Mustang] creates that sucks us along,” said Brown on Lucky Dogs.
“If you’re in the side draft or you’re next to them and you just do a drag race, you don’t just pass them easily down the straight.
“But if you get behind them and tow, you get a massive tow on them.
“Like it’s ridiculous, you get a really good tow. It’s not motor. You get next to them, and you don’t have that.”
Kostecki argued the speed differences on Conrod Straight directly correlated with what was projected in the Supercars engine testing report.
Brown’s comments align with those made by Triple Eight manager Mark Dutton at The Bend that the team’s studies into the Ford package suggest the engine isn’t the Mustang’s issue.
Ford teams received a revised aerodynamic package and a shiftcut offset ahead of The Bend, both signed off in the name of helping close a verified top speed deficiency.
It’s understood Ford had knocked back a suggested low-drag aero package in favour of changes that shifted the car’s aero balance reward and provided a lesser drag reduction.
The Mustang wing moved up and backwards, with a reduction in the maximum angle of attack. Image: InSyde Media
GM teams argued the Ford runners should have had to hand back that package if they wanted the last-minute engine upgrade at Bathurst.
“Our team doesn’t believe it’s an engine deficiency,” affirmed Brown on the podcast he co-hosts with Kostecki.
“That’s the problem you guys have. GM teams have to sign off, and GM teams believe with being able to change your aero and all of that, you guys have got more aero somewhere and that creates more drag usually, and then there’s the argument the engine’s worse.
“There’s a lot of arguments going on but… obviously every team in Supercars tries to get the most they can, the most aero, the most engine, all of that sort of stuff.”
Pye echoed Brown’s comments about the slipstream effect on Conrod Straight.
“It has to be something to do with drag surely because the aero effect behind them is what was sucking us up. It was crazy how quickly you could catch the Ford,” Pye said on Apex Hunters United.
“The hole they were punching was much greater than what the Chev was because the slipstream advantage was not a lot on the Chev.”
Pye also doubled down on Dutton’s comments from Thursday at Bathurst arguing the barometric pressure testing was “in its infancy” and not complete.
The Supercars report featured various disclaimers including the fact only the inlet side was tested, with the exhaust side still to be done.
Pye said the argument that the Ford was worse off in the race than in qualifying – where Mustangs locked out the first two rows – was never fully explained.
“If we did go and give them 10 horsepower, there’s a likelihood they might also have heaps of downforce, heaps of drag because they’ve got heaps of downforce, and then just have shitloads of straightline,” he said.
“Then we can’t follow them across the top, because they were fast across the top, and then they’re P1 down the bottom too.”
Supercars will return to the Windshear wind tunnel in the US in December for another round of aerodynamic testing that will homologate the new-for-2026 Toyota Supra.
It will be tested alongside a Team 18 Camaro and a Triple Eight Mustang as the Red Bull Ampol team takes over Blue Oval homologation duties from DJR.