Holden virtual racer officially 'unveiled'

Holden has officially ‘unveiled’ its Bathurst time-attack virtual race car.

The debut of the ‘ghost racer’ corresponds with the 50th anniversary of Holden’s first win at Bathurst in 1968, and appears two weeks short of the anniversary of the company’s closure of its manufacturing operations in Australia in 2017.

motoring.com.au broke the news of the plans for the virtual race car last month. Now, Holden has published its performance claims for the computer-generated racer.

“GM Holden’s Design Team has explored the technological potential of the future through the stunning virtual ‘Time Attack Concept’ racer – conceived and executed entirely in-house at GM Holden,” the company said in a release this morning.

“Unlike the conventional format of the current endurance race cars, the Holden Time Attack Concept racer is envisioned as a single-lap tearaway, pitted against the clock,” it stated.

Holden says the 900kg, 1000kW electric racer could lap Mount Panorama in 1:29.30. By way of comparison, the current Supercars lap record is 2:06.28, set by David Reynolds in VF Commodore during the 2016 Bathurst 1000.

The fastest unofficial Supercars times recorded at Bathurst outside of a race are in the low 2:04 range, while Shane van Gisbergen holds the outright record of 2:01.5670, set during the 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour in a McLaren 650S GT3.

But the fastest known Mount Panorama lap time of 1:48.8 was set in 2011 by 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button in a 2008 McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 Formula 1 racer, which is still almost 20 seconds slower than the time Holden has claimed for its virtual racer.

Holden says its ghost racer has a projected 0-100km/h time of 1.25sec and at top speed of 480km/h. Holden claims it would generate more than 6g in both lateral and braking force.

The Holden Time Attack Concept was developed entirely virtually, using sophisticated simulation technology and driven by the world-class expertise within the GM Design Australia studio in Melbourne.

“The technology we employ today has transformed the way we design cars,” said GM Holden design director, Richard Ferlazzo.

“A large part of our work is advanced design and we use this technology to develop concept designs for our parent company, General Motors. This concept is a digital advertisement for the advanced skills, capability and technology of the GM Holden team.”

The Bathurst concept was developed with “technical input from GM Holden’s Engineering team and the final design was validated with a digitally-printed 3D model,” Holden stated.

An animation of the car’s lap will be aired as part of the Supercheap Bathurst 1000 telecast on Sunday (October 7).

Alas Holden’s Time Attack Concept racer surfaces at the same time the company is posting some of the worst sales in its history.

According to official VFACTS figures, Holden sales were down more than 32 per cent in September and remain more than 27 per cent behind so far this year.