Holden to keep V8s in Supercars

Holden is putting its twin-turbo V6 Supercars engine project on the back burner for now.

A statement from Holden Motorsport reveals that Holden will continue to run its 5.0-litre naturally aspirated V8s until it decides to revive development of the V6.

The statement cites Holden’s “five wins from the opening six races” of this season as one reason it’s going to focus on the V8-powered ZB Commodore.

"At Holden we are always assessing the motorsport landscape,” says Holden executive director of marketing Mark Harland.

“After working closely with all Holden teams we have decided to put a hold on the development of the V6 Supercars engine.

“We are 100 per cent committed to motorsport and our sponsorship of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team and supporting all Holden teams in both the Supercars and SuperUte paddock.

“This is thanks to the monumental effort Holden and Triple Eight have put into engineering and developing the Holden Supercar and we remain committed to that advancement of motorsport engineering in what is one of the most technically advanced motorsport categories in the world.

“We’re excited to see how the all-new Commodore supercar is performing on the track and the interest the road car is getting in our showrooms.

“It’s a great car and we’re proud of it.”

The V6 engine was derived from the 3.6-litre powerplant from Cadillac’s ATS-V.R GT3 racer, though it was tuned by GM Racing in Michigan to meet Supercars’ Gen2 standards.

Roland Dane, Triple Eight Racing team owner, says he’s still confident the twin-turbo V6 will be a winner, but that the project needs to be shelved for now.

“We’re very confident that the package would have been fully competitive and know that we have an extremely valuable bank of knowledge to refer to as and when a different engine platform is explored again in the future.”

Dane wanted to introduce the V6 as early as this year as a wildcard entry to compete with the V8 cars, though that’s no longer the case given this change of plans.