Reflecting back to just 10 years ago rather than 30 for the start of what grew into V8 Supercars, this latest Repco Garage rewind turns back to the opening round of the 2013 season and the transition to Car of The Future.
Hailed as a ‘watershed day for V8 Supercars’ by then-Chairman Tony Cochrane, Car of The Future was launched at the final round of the 2012 season at Homebush with the main goal to involve more manufacturers in the category.
Car of The Future was designed to be cheaper, safer, lighter and provide great racing, which it did so for much of its life lasting until the 2018 season.
Much like what teams are experiencing now to get Gen3 up and going, it was the same for CoTF as there was a massive workload to ensure the cars appeared at the Adelaide 500.
Add into the equation Kelly Racing transitioning into a factory Nissan team fielding four Altimas and the entrance of Erebus Motorsport, which effectively took over Stone Brothers Racing with three new Mercedes E63s.
All entries made it to Adelaide where it was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen taking pole after previously announcing his retirement in Homebush the last season, then making a surprise return with Tekno Autosports.
Although there was a change in regulations, it failed to prevent the all conquering Triple Eight Race Engineering taking the first win of the CoTF era as Craig Lowndes in the newly liveried Red Bull VF Commodore took victory.
Van Gisbergen took pole in the second leg following a retirement in the opening race and duly converted this into race victory ensuring Holden took a clean-sweep.
It wasn’t until Round 3 at Pukekohe when Ford achieved its first victory of the CoTF courtesy of Will Davison in the Ford Performance Racing FG Falcon.
Of course, just one other manufacturer was added to the roster as Volvo linked up with Garry Rogers Motorsport to produce a title contending S60 with the aid of Cyan Racing.
Gen2 followed in 2017 introducing coupes and different engine types leading to Ford’s Mustang being entered for 2019.