La Sarthe will echo to the sound of a pushrod, Detroit V8 in June, as this year’s Garage 56 entry, a NASCAR Next Gen, thunders down the Hunaudières. As result of the IMSA (owned by NASCAR) and the ACO / FIA pact that has seen the LMDH and Le Mans Hypercar classes combine for the 24-hour race, a specially prepared Chevrolet Camaro Cup car will run in the exhibition slot, driven by an all-star line-up of Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Jenson Button.
The car is being prepared by a team lead by Hendrick Motorsport, under the direction of Chad Knauss, with input from GM Racing. Meanwhile, the motor powering the beast has been developed by ECR Engines, the engine building spin-off of fellow GM NASCAR team, Richard Childress Racing.
NASCAR currently uses 358ci (5.9-litre) pushrod V8s, with cast iron blocks and aluminium heads. Since 2012, these have been equipped with a fuel injection system managed by a McLaren Applied, spec ECU. Though theoretically representing ‘road car’ engines, the power units are anything but, with Ford, GM and Toyota all using bespoke blocks developed purely for racing (not to mention the fact that pushrod V8s are an endangered species, even in the US).
Historic guts
In the case of Chevy, its Cup engine (as well as Xfinity and Truck motors) is based around the RO7 architecture, introduced in 2007 as a replacement for the venerable SB2 (Small Block 2). Since then, the engine has undergone multiple iterations, and is now technically an RO7.3, though as Scott Meesters, director of special projects at ECR and responsible for the Garage 56 build,
