V8 Supercars organisation to test engine centre of gravity

The V8 Supercars organisation has examined all engines from Holden, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo after the Winton 400 weekend to compare its centre of gravity.
“When we change it you probably won’t see any changing of the guard,” said V8 Supercars Category Technical Manager Frank Adamson to the official championship site.

The newer engines of Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo are about 30 kilos lighter compared to the engines from Ford and Holden. A first move was made ahead of Tasmania when the Volvo Polestar Racing team had to move 20 kilos of ballast from a low position to a high position in the engine bay.

“There were two incumbent engines, which were a Ford and Holden engine that were basically the same configuration of engine – iron block, aluminium head, pushrod engine,” said Adamson.

“But the new engines are a different architecture with an aluminium block and aluminium heads – fundamentally a much lighter engine.

“With the arrival of these engines with Car of the Future a minimum total engine weight of 200kg was established, which is around where the Holden and Ford are.”

The Nissan and Mercedes engines made their debut in the championship last year but no modifications to the weight were made in 2013.

“There was always an intention to put a centre of gravity height in as well. But we couldn’t really do that until all five engines came along. So over the last year we have allowed them to run as they were,” said Adamson.

“To ballast up to the weight they could put the ballast on the engine, so they could build a heavy sump for instance and so have the opportunity to get the weight a bit lower than the Holden and Ford.

“We are not sure how much advantage that delivered; we are talking about a 200kg mass fixed within a 1500kg mass. Pure physics law would dictate the lower of centre the better, but out there on the track going over bumps, braking and shifting mass, who knows how big an advantage it is.”

The V8 Supercars organisation is aiming to make changes ahead of the coming race in New Zealand.