Holden’s twin-turbo V6 race engine spied testing

HOLDEN’S factory racing team, Triple Eight Race Engineering, has held its first shakedown of the twin-turbo V6 engine that will make its Supercars debut next year.

The shakedown was completed at the Norwell Motorsport Complex on the Gold Coast in Queensland, with full-time drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes attending. Enduro co-driver Steven Richards was also along for the ride.

The 3.6-litre twin-turbo V6 is a modified version of the engine used in the Cadillac ATS-V.R GT3 car in the US.

Developed by GM Racing in Pontiac, Michigan, the Supercars engine was shipped to Australia and fitted to Triple Eight’s ‘Sandman’ ride car. The Sandman chassis is built to Supercars Car of the Future and Gen II regulations, but runs a wagon-style body not permitted to race in the series.

This is the first time the engine, co-developed by Triple Eight and GM Racing in America, has run in Australia.

Triple Eight will continue to use the 5.0-litre pushrod V8 next season in an NG Commodore body that apes the Insignia-based car, but expects to use the V6 turbo donk as a wildcard at select events before a full-season debut in 2019.

The brief shakedown was well received by the factory Holden squad.

“We are very happy with the initial running, GM Racing has given us a great base to work from,” team principal Roland Dane said.

“The test has been about getting kilometres on the engine and understanding what it needs at this point to prepare it for racing in Supercars.”

In a statement, Holden said the Triple Eight team “has consulted with Supercars technical department following Wednesday’s shakedown, and will continue to work with Supercars to ensure the continuation of category parity”.

A road-going version of the twin-turbo V6 features under the bonnet of the Cadillac CTS large sedan. The next-generation Holden Commodore, due on sale next year and based on the Opel Insignia mid-size car, will use a normally aspirated V6, Holden has announced.

The lack of a turbo V6 in the bread-and-butter Commodore sedan, wagon and high-riding SUV-styled soft-roader tantalisingly leaves the door open to the possibility that HSV could one day use a fettled version of the circa-310kW road-going twin-turbo V6 for its Commodore-based spin-off.