Holden has confirmed its Colorado SuperUte has been homologated and is ready to take to the track in 2018 to support Supercars race series.
WITH MORE THAN 20% of all vehicles sold in Australia being utes, Supercars organisers have pushed hard to craft a support series that reflects the buying habits of Australians. It’s especially important given the lack of make rivalry in Supercars; SuperUtes will allow the Holden Colorado to go head to head with the Ford Ranger, Mazda BT-50, Mitsubishi Triton, and Isuzu D-max. There’s room for one more model in the six-make series, but it hasn’t been announced what that sixth vehicle will be… Volkswagen Amarok?
All six makes and models began official testing last week. The first Colorado SuperUte is currently under construction at Ross Stone Racing on behalf of Holden.
“SuperUtes is an exciting new racing series and supporting Australian motorsport has been an important part of Holden’s heritage, so we are delighted to homologate Colorado for the series,” GM Holden General Manager – Brand, Media and Sponsorship, Emma Pinwill said.
“Colorado has been engineered to handle anything thrown at it by our customers, from inner city and suburban roads to rural highways, dirt roads, and off-road.
“The race track is no different and we are confident Colorado will carry on Holden’s winning tradition.”
The SuperUtes category is open to dual or twin-cab utes with rear-wheel drive and turbo-diesel engines; it replaces the current Holden Vs Ford ute series. With six makes to choose from, there will be 32 vehicles on the grid.
To ensure parity and cost containment, Supercars has mandated range of control components including a CAMS-approved control roll-cage, pedal box, ECU, gearbox and ratios, rear axle assembly with control diff and ratio, brakes, tyres, wheels, springs and dampers. The SuperUtes series will see a strict power, torque and weight restriction apply, with vehicles limited to 1800kg minimum and around 250kW and 670Nm of torque.
Supercars has announced an eight-round provisional calendar which lists the SuperUtes appearing at the Adelaide 500, CrownBet Darwin Triple Crown, Townsville 400, Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint, Red Rooster Sydney SuperSprint, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Gold Coast 600 and Coates Hire Newcastle 500.
Track testing began late last week with the Mitsubishi Triton set to be raced by Craig Dontas underwent approximately 50km of track running in a behind-closed-doors session at the Gold Coast’s Norwell Motorplex last Friday.
Supercars sporting and technical director David Stuart said the Norwell shakedown was the start of an extensive track testing program ahead of the dual-cab diesel category’s debut next year.
“We’d had the Mitsubishi engine on the dyno and have done some basic tuning so the shakedown was an extension of that, working closely with Motec,” Stuart told Supercars.com.
“It was also a good shakedown for everything that had been designed and manufactured for the car, including the rear axle housing, the braking system, front wheel hubs and internals.
“That all worked as it should but the engine is completely stock at the moment so it was the very first part of engine tuning, which there is some work to go on.
“The tyre that we have it on (Yokohama high-performance street tyre) may not be the tyre they end up racing with but even that hung in well for the period we were on track.”
The Ross Stone Racing prepared Ford Ranger is also expected to undergo a shakedown following the Red Rooster Sydney SuperSprint before taking part in the first phase of the full testing program.
“We’ve got a couple of small issues that we’re working with on the Ford at the moment but it’s not far away,” said Stuart.
“The first Mazda BT-50 is currently at Pace Innovations and just about finished and after that the build of the build of the Toyota Hilux will start.
“We aim to have the first Isuzu D-Max and Holden Colorado shortly after that, which make up the six vehicles we committed to homologating ahead of next season.
“If someone is to bring a Nissan Navara or VW Amarok or something else, we’ll deal with those as they come, but we can’t guarantee any outside of those first six models will be available as a kit to race at the first round next year.”
