Erebus to use electric wheel guns in 2023

Erebus Motorsport has announced that it will use electric wheel guns during this year’s Repco Supercars Championship.

Supercars has switched to a new specification of wheel nut for the Gen3 era with a view to eventually switching to electric guns.

That much has not yet come to pass, with only models of pneumatic specification allowed at present, but Erebus will use its new Snap-On Tools Cordless Impact Wrenches in its garage.

Erebus CEO Barry Ryan said, “Having Snap-on tools in your garage or home workshop has always made you the envy of any other mechanic. They are truly the best tools in the world.

“Using electric wheel guns was something common in GT racing with Snap-on and now building it into the new Gen3 cars with the wheel nut change is fantastic.

“We look forward to giving Snap-on technical feedback and seeing if we can help further develop the tools.”

Wheel nuts have been a talking point during the rollout of Gen3, with the new nut’s circlip retainer proving problematic.

Said circlip, which replaces the large, machined tangs, has exhibited a tendency to pop off, leading to teams trialling a variety of possible solutions, although a complete fix is understood to have not yet been found.

Erebus’s lead car in this morning’s test session at Sydney Motorsport Park was the #9 Will Brown entry in second place on a 1:31.1405s, 1.3137s behind Brad Jones Racing’s pace-setter Andre Heimgartner.

The latter four-hour session of the day got underway minutes ago, after another shower over Eastern Creek.