Asian Motor Sports

V8 SUPERCARS‘ Kiwi king Greg Murphy will debut a radical Holden Commodore this weekend at the Hamilton 400 street race in New Zealand.

Murphy’s Tasman Motorsport team has invested more than $1 million in infrastructure to build the state-of-the-art Commodore.

“We’re not just talking about a completely different body shell. We’re talking about everything that goes on to the body shell also,” team manager Jeff Grech said. “It’s not been an evolution, it’s been a revolution. This is a revolutionary car as far as Tasman Motorsport is concerned. It couldn’t be more different.

“It includes a lot of input from a lot of our personnel that have background with many championship-winning car builds, combined with some fresh thinking.”

Grech valued the new car at more than $400,000, and Murphy is hoping it turns the team into a winner.

“Expectations are high,” Murphy said. “We’re not doing this to play around outside the top 10 or the top five. We’re doing it to play inside the top one. That’s what it’s all about.”

“I’m not doing this for any other reason.”

Murphy has struggled to find consistency since leaving the HSV Dealer Team at the end of 2004. He is confident Tasman Motorsport has the right tools to return him to the winner’s podium.

“It’s imperative that we move forward,” he said. “We haven’t done a good enough job. As far as results go, I haven’t had one at Tasman; that’s very annoying. I’m here to have success, and this is certainly a very big part of making sure we move into that arena.”

The team’s $1 million investment was largely in an engineering factory in Dandenong VIC, Australia.

Grech, who led the Holden Racing Team in its period of championship domination, was responsible for getting the factory operational.

“It’s a big shift for the team,” Murphy said. “I’m rapt with the way the car’s come up, it’s quality.”

Murphy tested the car last week at Winton Raceway and was pleased with its initial performance, despite a mechanical failure that hampered the day.

After three difficult seasons without results, Murphy is hesitant to predict a result ahead of this weekend’s race.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “We didn’t get enough laps in testing. The laps we did get felt really positive, I was enjoying driving the car. It had a lot of feel in it of what I have been searching for in the other car.

“It’s just positive. We came away from doing a small amount of laps feeling positive. And the car was still far from right. There are plenty of areas to improve.”

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