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Multiple car makers are looking to take lap records this weekend at the famous race track, although not all of them will admit it yet.
The 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour takes place this Sunday at the Mount Panorama circuit where several manufacturers are gunning for glory with lap record attempts in the lead-up – including a tweaked race car and a wild electric van from Ford.
Mercedes-Benz admits it is openly gunning for a lap record for a GT3-spec car to celebrate the German car maker’s 130 years in motorsport, with 2023 12-hour winner Jules Gounon driving a specially-prepped Mercedes-AMG GT race car.
It will run with several features – including an adjustable rear wing with a Formula One-inspired Drag Reduction System (DRS) for better straight-line speed, revised front-end aerodynamics, and stronger carbon brakes.
It has also had a minor power bump applied to its 6.3-litre V8 petrol engine, which will deliver 485kW.
The outright – though unofficial – fastest time around Mount Panorama was achieved by Formula One driver Jenson Button at the wheel of the McLaren Formula One car in 2011, posting a time of 1:48.8.
Gounon will be looking to beat the time of 1:58.68s set by Supercars driver Luke Youlden in a Brabham BT-62 sports car in 2019.
Yet the German car maker’s record attempt could be upstaged by another unusual contender that almost couldn’t be more opposite – and will be on the circuit at the same time.
The Ford Performance SuperVan 4.2 – the latest iteration of more than five decades of high-powered Transit van-based promotional vehicles – is a 1491kW all-wheel-drive electric van based loosely on the Ford Transit Custom.
Built for the 2023 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado – where it stormed to second overall last June – the SuperVan has been specially prepared for Bathurst, a completely different challenge.
Driver Romain Dumas – a two-time Le Mans winner – was at the wheel for Pikes Peak and the Frenchman has been chosen to lap Mount Panorama in
the electric van.
The Pikes Peak event is held on a 19.98km public road up a mountain to 114,115 feet. Mount Panorama is also a public road up a mountain but is 6.213km long but is a mere 862m (2828 feet) above sea level.
That enabled Ford engineers to go ‘crazy’ in setting up the SuperVan for its Mount Panorama assault.
The most obvious is the switch from a three-motor 1044kW set-up to a four-motor arrangement making 1491kW.
“It was still running 1400 horsepower (1044kW) at Pikes Peak, so it was nothing to sneeze at, but then here at Bathurst, we can go completely crazy because it’s a shorter lap,” Sriram Pakkam, Ford’s senior manager F1 and EV (electric vehicle) demonstrator programs, told Drive.
“So why wouldn’t we do it? You know, we’ve got good traction so let’s use the full horsepower.”
The fact that Mount Panorama is not high altitude also sees a smaller rear wing – with an element removed – with another element taken from
the front bumper.
Pakkam says the downforce – the air pushing the vehicle to the ground – has been reduced by around one-third.
This will reduce aerodynamic drag leading to higher speeds down Bathurst’s 1.1km-long Conrod Straight, something Dumas is sure of ahead of his first laps at the track in the vehicle.
“This track has something special; you’re one section very, very fast. And on the mountain very slow, very narrow,” Dumas told Drive.
“So definitely in the first section, I think we’d be a lot faster than we were at Pikes Peak. You know, Pikes Peak speed was 230km/h, so here for sure it will be a lot faster,” he told Drive.
It will also help across the twisty section on top of Mount Panorama, as well as the steep drop at The Esses part of the circuit which works the suspension and brakes hard.
A number of days have been spent setting the vehicle up for Bathurst including in a racing simulator, yet Ford won’t speak of a target lap time – just as it didn’t ahead of SuperVan 4.2’s running at Pikes Peak.
At 1730kg, the SuperVan is heavier than the circa 1340kg Supercars Bathurst is known for, but its 1491kW outmuscles a Supercar’s approximate 447kW.
That gives SuperVan a staggering 876kW/tonne to a Supercars’ 333kW/tonne – but Dumas has the challenge of tackling Bathurst’s undulating layout in a supremely fast yet commercial-sized van.
“I don’t know where we’re going to end up – nobody does,” says Pakkam.
“It’s dependent on a lot of variables including track weather, how the vehicle responds on some of these, even the track surface itself has these variabilities that it throws up.”
Yet with Ford’s motorsport-addicted global CEO Jim Farley opening the chequebook for an expensive mission to bring the SuperVan Down Under, Ford Performance will not want to miss the opportunity to make history.
The first track run for the unique Mercedes-AMG and Ford SuperVan is scheduled for 10:40am AEDT on Friday 16 February 2024.
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