Slim bid driving Falcons to meaty end of field
LIGHTER and faster Falcons could hit the track at Albert Park this week in a bid to slim down to the race weight of the pace-setting ZB Commodores.
The blue oval battlers are only waiting for an official goahead from Supercars HQ before sending their cars to Jenny Craig for a collection of lightweight composite body panels for use at the Australian Grand Prix meeting.
Holden dominated the opening weekend of the Supercars championship in Adelaide last month, with leading driver Shane van Gisbergen sweeping to a pair of pole positions and twin wins in a new red lion racer that significantly undercuts the 1410kg minimum racing weight.
The advantage of the underweight Commodore, which hits the mark with a significant contribution from composite body panels including the boot and roof, is that race teams can apply up to 40kg of ballast in the optimum spots for quick laps and racelong tyre life.
The rival Falcons are only 10kg below the minimum, a similar weight to the Nissan Altimas run by Kelly Racing.
The crafty use of composites in the Commodore has been led by Triple Eight Race Engineering, the benchmark team for more than a decade, in a homologation program which began midway through last year. Engineers found it impossible to obtain some production body panels from Germany and applied for permission to make them from lightweight composites, but also added a composite firewall at the back of the cabin of the hatchback-style Holden.