The champ’s new ride

This is the car that Shane van Gisbergen will use to defend his Supercars Championship.

The Red Bull-backed Triple Eight Race Engineering squad unveiled its racing Camaros - having previously been responsible for building the test prototype - ahead of testing at Queensland Raceway today (February 9). The Chevrolet is wrapped in a unique testing livery, with a matte blue base and silver signage for the team’s sponsors.

More: New Coke-back Camaro unveiled

Triple Eight Team Principal, Jamie Whincup, was understandably proud of his team’s effort to get two new Gen3 cars ready in time to do some meaningful testing ahead of the season opening race in Newcastle after a long development process.

“I can’t emphasise enough the enormous dedication our Triple Eight Race Engineering team has put into this Gen3 project,” Whincup said.

The first Triple Eight Camaro is finished in a unique testing livery.

“For three years our design team led by our Technical Director, Jeromy Moore have delivered Supercars, their partners and the millions of fans around the world an extremely high-quality racing product suited to our Australian conditions.

More: First Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro hits the track

“More recently our manufacturing and car preparation teams have been working around the clock to make our first official test day this week.

“This project is no doubt Triple Eight Race Engineering’s biggest achievement.

“To see two fully built, fully operational Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaros having their first run at Queensland Raceway will be beyond exciting for all of us.”

Tickford and Grove Racing turns laps at Winton

Tickford Racing's first Mustang was run without a livery but logged plenty of laps.

Meanwhile, at Winton Raceway yesterday (February 8) Tickford Racing and Grove Racing hit the track in their first Gen3 builds. The teams had one Ford Mustang each for running, with Cameron Waters solely responsible for Tickford’s running while Grove put David Reynolds, Matt Payne and Garth Tander behind the wheel.

Gallery: Gen3 testing at Queensland Raceway

Waters reportedly ran more than 100 laps in his all-black, unliveried Mustang with no major problems. However, Reynolds ran off the track when his Penrite-liveried Mustang lost a wheel; fortunately no major damage was done to the car.