One-year countdown to Gen3 begins

The arrival of 2022 also marks the one-year countdown of the new-for-2023 Gen3 regulations.

As teams prepare for the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship, they will also have one eye on Gen3 and 2023.

The new Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 prototypes were unveiled at the Repco Bathurst 1000 last month.

It marked a key full circle moment of sorts for the Gen3 project, which was revealed at Mount Panorama in 2020.

The Gen3 prototypes take centre stage on the January edition over of MOTOR, which goes under the skin to bring readers the technical details of the new cars.

Critically, both manufacturers have committed to Supercars, General Motors also replacing Holden Motorsport with Chevrolet Racing.

The introduction of the Gen3 regulations for the 2023 season will see the Mustang and Camaro compete with more road-relevant cars.

The prototype Mustang and Camaro bare a closer visual connection between race and road vehicles than the current model race cars.

The new cars will also feature a signature Gen3 V8 engine sound.

As such, both manufacturers have taken a renewed interest in the championship.

Dick Johnson Racing was charged with the development of the Mustang, and Triple Eight Race Engineering the Camaro.

The Mustang will remain Ford’s flagship model in Supercars, with Ford Australia president Andrew Birkic delighted with the outcome in Bathurst: "We love the car.

“It’s important [to be road car relevant] to the fans, to our dealers and our employees... I think the [homologation] team has delivered on the brief.”

It was a sentiment echoed by General Motors Australia managing director Marc Ebolo, who was excited for greater alignment with GM globally.

"I think it’s important that we’ve got alignment with the US, they’ve just launched their Camaro in NASCAR,” Ebolo explained.

"We start to see this alignment between our brands and our markets.

"As a motorsport entry, a focused motorsport entry, we believe the look, the feel, the passion of this car is going to generate unbelievable excitement for all of our brands.”

The two cars hit the track for the first time in Bathurst, with Shane van Gisbergen and Anton De Pasquale the lucky drivers to show fans around Mount Panorama the future.

"It's pretty cool; what a privilege to be the first one," van Gisbergen said.

"Credit to the Supercars team and all the teams who have put this together.

"It felt awesome; it's a big car. It's super cool and sounds cool."

De Pasquale added: "It's cool, it definitely moves around a bit more than what we've got.

"It feels like we've got a thousand horsepower.

"The car sounds amazing. The guys have done an awesome job prepping the car."

The Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro will begin racing in Supercars come 2023.

The prototypes will feature at events this year, offering fans at every turn a chance to view the new cars.

The 13-event 2022 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle in March. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

The 13-round draft calendar was released during the Repco Bathurst 1000 weekend.