What cars will race at Bathurst in 2023?

The Ford versus Holden battle is poised to become Ford versus Chevrolet in Australia, with the 2023 V8 Supercars racing machines unveiled ahead of the Bathurst 1000 this weekend.

The 2023 Ford Mustang and 2023 Chevrolet Camaro race cars – designed to revive Australia's V8 Supercars championship following the end of the Ford-versus-Holden era – have been unveiled ahead of this weekend’s Bathurst 1000.

The Bathurst 1000 has been postponed from October to December this year due to COVID lockdowns across Australia, and both new race cars won't go racing until the 2023 V8 Supercars season.

However, they will hit the track next year for pre-season testing.

The arrival of the new-generation Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro racing machines marks a long overdue update to the series, and will bring the cars closer to their showroom versions.

The Ford Mustang currently on the grid had to morph its body into the roughly the same silhouette as the previous Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore sedan race cars, to meet local regulations.

The result was a Ford Mustang race car with a much taller roof than the road car.

Pit-lane chatter described the current Ford Mustang race car as looking like “an ice cream truck” because of its more upright proportions.

Ford wasn’t allowed to use the showroom Mustang’s sleek roof line, as that would have delivered an aerodynamic advantage at high speeds.

The new rules have been formulated to enable sleek, coupe-like vehicles to compete on a level playing field in the revamped V8 Supercars series.

It means the “Gen 3” vehicles (the third generation of V8 Supercars design rules) will more closely resemble their showroom equivalents, at least on the outside.

Under the skin, they are still purpose-built race cars will little in common with their road-car cousins.

In a bitter irony, the new-generation Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro V8 Supercars are due to debut in the 2023 racing season – about the same time these models disappear from showrooms.

The Chevrolet Camaro was converted locally from left- to right-hand-drive and sold by Holden Special Vehicles from 2018 to 2020, but the model was withdrawn from sale with the demise of HSV and amid weaker than expected sales.

The Ford Mustang in showrooms today is due to be replaced by a new model – and will continue to be sold in Australia – but reports out of the US claim Chevrolet plans to pause the Camaro amid weak muscle car sales in North America.

It is unclear if the V8 Supercars series will continue to run these outdated vehicles beyond 2023, or whether Ford will reskin its race cars to resemble the next Mustang – leaving Chevrolet to continue with the soon-to-be-discontinued shape.

The V8 Supercars series is pitching the new Ford-versus-Chevrolet series as a return to its historical roots – before the Ford-versus-Holden era.

“Fifty years ago, in 1971, tyre magnate Bob Jane used an imported Camaro to claim the Australian Touring Car Championship in an epic shootout with the Ford Mustang of Allan Moffat at the Oran Park circuit in Sydney,” said General Motors.

“(Bob) Jane and the Camaro, also wearing the classic ZL1 badge, did the job again in 1972 as touring car fans were treated to some of the most intense and exciting racing in the history of Australian motorsport.”

Organisers of the series claim the new regulations will “reignite that classic battle with the same brands and badges, but with a new generation of star drivers at the wheel.”

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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