GRM begins aero evaluation for new Volvos

Garry Rogers Motorsport today ran a new generation Volvo for initial aerodynamic evaluation.

With Greg Ritter behind the wheel for a few hours, the preliminary run was conducted at the Royal Australian Air Force base at East Sale.

“It went well – it was nothing flash, but nothing fell off so it appears to be ok,” Rogers told v8supercars.com.au. “It was very windy for the initial test.”

Rogers was not present for the test with team manager Dean Cowling and engineer Richard Hollway running the day.

While Volvo Polestar unveiled an engine at the final event of the V8 Supercars 2013 season in Sydney, it was just a mock-up. It is believed a Walkinshaw Racing engine is currently powering the S60, with the Volvo double overhead camshaft B8444S to planned to run in the car in mid to late January.

Volvo Car Corporation motorsport technical director Martin Persson told v8supercars.com.au at Sydney he was pleased with the results from the test rigs so far and believed the B8444S would be excellent for Australian V8 Supercars racing.

The car ran in plain colours with no new sponsor exposed.

Rogers described the S60 as visually magnificent.

“But the visual won’t be any good if the adaptation doesn’t work,” he said.

Rogers confirmed the S60 would run the end-mounted rear wing, the same as Ford, Holden and the Mercedes-Benz AMG E63s. Nissan has homologated a centre-mount rear wing.

GRM announced mid-season it would make the switch from Holdens to Volvos and has confirmed current driver Scott McLaughlin as one of two pilots for next season. The driver for the second seat is yet to be confirmed.