Tony D’Alberto and Karl Reindler will complete tomorrow’s practice sessions for the Tasmania Challenge with Car of the Future specification windscreens fitted to their cars.
Next year will see the category move from glass to polycarbonate front and rear screens largely in the name of safety.
The Tony D’Alberto Racing Ford and Kelly Racing Holden will run the new screens during practice, after which point V8 Supercars will decide whether they will remain in the cars for the entire weekend.
According to V8 Supercars category technical manager Frank Adamson, the screens will be seen on various cars throughout the year.
The assessment of a new anti-fog coating, which removes the need for heater elements, is a key reason for the trial period.
“It’s got a demisting coating that we’ve tried on side windows before,” Adamson told Speedcafe.com.
“We’re very, very confident it will be ok, but obviously we’re going to try and run it on Fridays this year as much as we can to monitor it.”
Run in a number of categories around the world, including NASCAR, the United States-sourced polycarbonate screens are said to have 250 times the impact protection of glass.
The extra strength has allowed the COTF’s control roll-cage to be designed without the ‘Larry bar’ that runs diagonally across the inside of the screens on the current cars.
Although more expensive than the glass units, V8 Supercars says that the polycarbonate screens should last an entire season, saving teams money in the long run.
The new screens are also said to be half the weight of the current units, and are compatible with the plastic tear-offs that have been run in recent seasons.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s previous story on the COTF’s new brake package
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s previous story on the recent COTF tyre testing
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Symmons Plains Race Guide