Supercars: CoG change ‘not a major adjustment’

Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess says the Chevrolet Camaro’s newly mandated centre of gravity (CoG) change is “not a major adjustment”.

Chevrolet teams will be forced to shift 4.97kg of ballast to a bar near the top of the fuel cell after a disparity was detected in CoG analysis conducted following Event 2 of the Gen3 era.

The discrepancy was measured at just 2.3mm and hence the weight of the ballast which is being moved around the car is relatively small, but should bring the Camaro’s CoG up and into parity with the Ford Mustang’s.

According to Burgess, the change will have less effect than a relatively small variation in fuel load.

“To be clear, this isn’t adding a new 4.97kg — this is redistributing existing ballast in the car,” he told Supercars’ official website.

“It’s not a major adjustment by any means, it’s a small number — but this is a parity series.

“In comparison, 10 litres of fuel is far more powerful than the adjustment we’ve just made for the CoG.”

The Camaros were already running a significant amount of ballast under the bonnet to make up for the relative heft of the Mustang’s powerplant, following engine CoG testing conducted during pre-season.

CoG was also a controversial topic in 2019, when the Gen2 Mustang was introduced, with 28kg of ballast moved to the roof of its chassis early in the season (although all three vehicles of the day subsequently had an equal lowering of CoG).

The equivalent weight this time, if the present CoG change was to be achieved by shifting ballast to a similar location as in 2019, is said to be just 1.8kg.

“Coming into this, we knew the cars were already very close,” said Burgess.

“We did the test at Tickford, and there was 2.3mm difference in CoG.

“In 2019, we needed to put 28kg of weight as high as we could get it on the roof bar of the Mustang.

“On this occasion, if we needed to put weight in the same place, it would only be 1.8kg.

“It’s better for the teams to put the weight further back, because that will bring the front axle weights closer together.”

“We can draw a line on it now and move on and look ahead to the next race.”

Supercars does, of course, mandate a minimum front axle weight, which was reduced to 725kg for the first season of Gen3.

Burgess’ comments are consistent with those from the boss of championship-leading squad Erebus Motorsport, with Barry Ryan telling Speedcafe that the change would make no practical difference and that he is thus “not concerned at all”.

The changes must be implemented ahead of the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint, practice for which takes place on Friday week (April 28).