A bold new chapter in the history of Australian motorsport begins this month, with the unveiling of the very first Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the Supercars Racing Championship.
It also marks the arrival of Chevrolet Racing as the new heart for those fans who have followed and celebrated more than 50 years of Holden success in Touring Car Racing.
Chevrolet is the future motorsports brand for General Motors Australia and New Zealand, Chevrolet Racing will sit alongside the company’s other business units GM Specialty Vehicles, Holden Certified Service, GM Trade Parts and ACDelco.
The new Camaro is the boldest of the breed and has been created to carry the Chevrolet Racing flag into the next generation of Supercars from 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. Reigniting one of the oldest rivalries in Australian motorsport, Chevrolet versus Ford, and Camaro against Mustang.
The Gen3 Camaro ZL1 is the result of an incredible collaboration between Supercars, Triple Eight Race Engineering and General Motors. It signals an exciting future direction for the sport when it hits the track for the first race of the 2023 championship season.
Fresh from completing the design of the next generation Camaro ZL1 for NASCAR, the GM Design team in Detroit were also responsible for the overall appearance of the Camaro racer for Australia. Similar design cues are evident in their muscular appearance and unmistakable resemblance to their road going equivalent.
This global approach signals an exciting future for Chevrolet Racing for GMANZ, with the Gen3 Camaro for Supercars now recognised as part of the GM global racing effort.
50 years of incredible on track success for Holden has led to this moment, and the Gen3 Camaro ZL1 is certain to renew the fierce on-track rivalry between Holden and Ford that has delighted and divided Australian and New Zealand race fans for decades. A rivalry that started with Monaro versus Falcon and Holden's first triumph at Bathurst in 1968.
As a successor to that Holden legacy, the Camaro name is new to Supercars, but not new to touring car racing, and neither is its rivalry with the Mustang.
Design
The Gen3 technical regulations called for some significant changes and a fresh approach to Chevrolet’s new Supercar’s contender. One of the most important requirements made was that the Camaro Supercar accurately reflect the design aesthetics of the regular road-going Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Work on the project has been handled by Triple Eight Race Engineering, as they are working closely with the GM Design and Racing division in North America.
The result is a design for the prototype racer, which is immediately powerful and bristling with performance capability.
The striking appearance of the Gen3 Camaro is dominated by the new Chevrolet Racing livery and fans will see more of the new track-focussed bow tie graphic, the iconic badge for Chevrolet cars through many generations, as the Gen3 Camaro program gets closer to competition.
Chevrolet Racing Gen3 LTR V8 engine
Powering the Gen3 Camaro from the family of the GM aluminium small block engines, is the Chevrolet Racing 5.7-litre LTR V8 engine. GM motorsport Supercars homologation partner KRE Race Engines are tasked with the development of the engine. It is expected that the work will continue throughout 2022.
Back to the track
As one chapter in Supercars closes, another one opens, and it’s the 50th anniversary of the first Chevrolet Camaro victory in the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1971. But the Camaro has been a winning part of the Australian motorsport scene for more than those fifty years.
While the Gen3 Supercar programme is new to Australia and New Zealand, the Chevrolet Camaro has a rich and proven heritage in Australian touring car racing and it’s with much excitement and anticipation that the iconic American muscle car makes a welcome arrival in Supercars.