Pony Thunder Down Under: Mustangs and Camaros to Finally Do Battle at the Bathurst 1000
America isn’t the only place where Ford and Chevy go wheel to wheel on the racetrack. But for how much longer?
Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro? We'll find out who is King of the Mountain after the 60th running of the Bathurst 1000 on October 8 at the fabled Mount Panorama circuit 125 miles west of Sydney. For six decades now, the annual touring car enduro has captivated Aussie race fans and shaped the cars they drive. And this year will mark the first time ever that America's iconic pony cars have gone wheel to wheel in Australia's Great Race.
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Ironically, the showdown will happen just months before the last Camaro is due to come off the production line in Lansing, Michigan, in early 2024. Which begs the question: How much longer will Australian GM fans have a car to root for? And it's not just the Australians, as the demise of the Camaro has big implications for NASCAR, too. Will the Mustang, its future seemingly secure for a few more years yet, be the last American muscle car standing?
Bathurst Race Cars: "Bullets" Then, Gen 3 Now
Bathurst was originally a 500-mile race for production cars, a formula that led to the creation of unique Australian muscle cars such as the Ford Falcon GTHO, the Holden Monaro GTS, and the Valiant Charger R/T in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But it pivoted to pure race cars based on the road cars fans drove to the track after a front-page newspaper story suggesting the Bathurst-bred muscle cars being developed by the Big Three for the 1973 race would be capable of 160 mph. The news prompted a politician at the time to label them "bullets on wheels."
Although today's Australian Mustang (the Mustang has been competing at Bathurst and other Aussie tracks for years) and Camaro Supercars (prior to the Camaro contemporary GM-based entries have been Holden Commodores) look a lot closer to their road car cousins than their NASCAR counterparts, under the skin they're just as specialized as the American machines.
Under the new Gen 3 regulations that came into force at the beginning of this year, they share a common chassis, with identical multilink suspension, brakes, and transmissions, underneath their composite bodies. The Mustangs are powered by a race version of Ford's 5.4-liter Coyote V-8, while the Camaros use an LS-based V-8 that displaces 5.7 liters. Air restrictors keep the output of both engines to about 620 horsepower, which in cars weighing 2,950 pounds gives them a similar power-to-weight ratio as a Gen 7 NASCAR Cup car in road course trim.
But while the Gen 7 Cup cars put the power to the ground through a five-speed sequential shift transaxle transmission, the Gen 3 Supercars have a six-speed sequential shift transaxle transmission. Compared with the previous-generation 5.0-liter V-8-powered Supercars, the Gen 3 racers have 30 hp less, are 110 to 130 pounds lighter, and, crucially, have just 35 percent of the downforce.
Reducing downforce from 882 pounds at 124 mph to 308 pounds was designed to improve the racing by increasing braking distances and reducing the wear and tear on expensive carbon-fiber floors and front splitters. According to Roland Dane, former owner of Triple Eight Race Engineering (under his leadership Triple Eight won nine of the 20 Bathurst 1000 races it contested), the move was made to help slow cars that were hitting very high speeds on the narrow and often rough-and-tumble Australian tracks.
Shaking Down the Gen 3 Cars
Still in the early stages of their development, the Gen 3 cars have been getting mixed reviews from both teams and drivers. Though the regulations were carefully drafted to try to ensure parity, the Mustangs proved slower than expected out of the gate, prompting mid-season balance of performance updates.
The trick to nailing a good lap time in a Gen 3 car is not to overdrive it, said five-time Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander, who this year will be driving the Penrite Racing Mustang at the Mountain. "The muscle memory from the previous-generation car tells you that you can carry more corner speed, you can brake later, you can pick the throttle up earlier," he said. "In the Gen 3 car you can't do any of those things to the same level because of the lower downforce. So being accurate and keeping smooth—effectively running a filter over all your driving inputs—seems to be the secret to getting a fast lap."
Adding to the angst, two-time Bathurst champ Shane van Gisbergen, the gifted New Zealander who in July stunned NASCAR series regulars with a win in his Cup debut at the Grant Park 220 in Chicago, says he enjoyed the American Camaro more than the Australian Camaro he'll drive at Bathurst for Red Bull Ampol Racing.
"It's just a pure, raw race car," van Gisbergen said of the NASCAR Camaro, which has about 50 hp more than the Supercar one he'll be racing at Bathurst but is also about 250 pounds heavier. "You can feel the extra weight, but the power difference just about makes up for that. You can drive it hard, drive it flat out, hustle it. In the Supercar you have to manage the tires a bit more," he said.
Camaro Is Nearing the End.What Next?
But both the NASCAR and Supercar Camaros are race cars running on borrowed time. Though American stock car and Australian touring car racing have long moved on from being simple marketing tools in the old "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" sense, they still build brand loyalty that turns into revenue when race fans are looking to buy their next truck or SUV. And no matter how tenuous the technical link between race and road car, that whole premise is based on the fact the cars on the track—be it at Bristol or Bathurst—sorta, kinda look like cars fans see on dealer lots.
For that reason, the Camaro's value as a GM brand halo for Australian race fans is already questionable. The latest-generation Mustangs are available in Australia, and Ford has committed to an ambitious program to build Mustang GT3 race cars for international racing, including Le Mans. But the Camaro is no longer sold in Australia, and GM's market presence is a fraction of what it was when it made Holdens there. Only the personal intervention of GM president Mark Reuss, who ran Holden in 2008 and 2009, enabled Holden Supercar teams to switch to the Camaro after the Australian brand was shut down in 2021.
GM has reportedly told both NASCAR and Supercar teams they will have a GM car to race after Camaro ends production. The NASCAR Camaro replacement will apparently arrive in 2025; its Supercar counterpart should be gridding up for the 2026 Bathurst 1000. What's not clear, though, is what that car will be.
When Camaro goes, GM's roster of V-8-powered performance cars will number precisely two, the Chevy Corvette and the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. You can count the Corvette out in terms of providing the right DNA for a NASCAR or Supercar racer as it's a mid-engine sports car. GM rightly wants it to be seen racing in the GT3 category against Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes-AMGs, Lamborghinis. and… ahem… that pesky new GT3 Mustang.
A Future of Racing EVs and Cadillacs?
A Cadillac in NASCAR? It's never happened, and it's not likely to happen, not the least because… well… it's a Cadillac, not a Chevy. Which leaves only one option at the moment: GM simply makes its NASCAR Camaro replacement look like one of its forthcoming performance electric vehicles, such as the Corvette SUV the company teased in 2021 or the rumored four-door Camaro EV. A car that looks like an EV racing with an internal combustion engine? It's no more outlandish than a V-8-powered, rear-drive Toyota Camry winning the Daytona 500.
But when it comes to the future of Supercars, the potent CT5-V Blackwing is a potentially viable option, that is, if its production life is extended to the end of the decade.
GM is reportedly looking to bring Cadillac back to Australia, having recently trademarked the Lyriq, Optiq, and Escalade IQ nameplates there, and having a CT5-V Blackwing compete in the country's highest-profile race series would garner plenty of publicity for the brand. And the on-track action could have the credibility of a real road car behind it: GM Specialty Vehicles, based in Melbourne, already engineers right-hand drive Silverados for Australia and New Zealand. A limited-volume right-hand-drive CT5-V Blackwing road car could be built in the same facility.
Chevy's Corvette used to be King of the Hill. Could we see a Cadillac become King of the Mountain? We'll know in 2026.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More