The all-new Australian-built Peugeot 308 P51 TCR car has been seen testing at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, following a build and development programme by Garry Rogers Motorsport.
The car marks the first-ever Australian-built TCR car, with GRM having been given the task of designing and producing the second-generation Peugeot TCR racer, the first generation of which was developed by Peugeot Sport in France.
The initial build run is believed to be for four cars, to be run by GRM in TCR Australia. Regular racer Ben Bargwanna took the car through a shakedown test at Sandown Raceway.
“Coming into the day we obviously knew that we had a lot to learn,” said Bargwanna. “So far from the small sample of the new P51 we’ve quickly learnt that it is very different to the old generation 308, but we ran through plenty of programs and collected plenty of data to do some homework on it.
“GRM have put in countless hours of work on this project and to even get it to the track was special, I think everyone felt a massive sense of pride as the car rolled out of pitlane for the first time that’s for sure.
“By no means are we there yet, but I most definitely had a huge smile on my face all day.”
One of the new engines has already been sent to Modena in Italy where it will undergo further testing and official certification from TCR rights holder WSC Group.
A representative of WSC Group will also spend time at the GRM workshop as part of the certification process for the car. It is not known if a completed car will be shipped all the way to Italy for TCR homologation, as is usually the case. Previously, TCR cars, including the relatively new Argentina-developed Toyota Corolla, have undergone wind tunnel testing at Pininfarina in Italy.
“To see not just a new car but one in particular that we have designed and developed in house roll out was an extremely proud moment for all of the crew here at GRM,” added Barry Rogers, Director of GRM.
“The day went well and we achieved what we wanted to, just making sure it went through all the process how we expected it would.
“There is a lot of new equipment going into this car and the focus for us whenever we build new cars is utilising not just Australian but Victorian manufacturing, which is no different to when we built the S5000’s.
“The Transmission was a big thing with this car; the global TCR cars all utilise transmissions from two or three main suppliers.
“We trusted our local company in Holinger Engineering and the feedback from the day was really positive.
“We test again at Winton in ten days, so looking forward to that.”
