GRM confirms Commodore build for 2017

After months of to-ing and fro-ing over the continued used of Volvo hardware, following the carmaker’s withdrawal of its factory support and request for the engines to be sent back to Sweden, GRM issued a statement today confirming that it has two brand new Commodores in the works earmarked for the Supercars series this season.

The two new cars are being built on top of the two new Commodores that were already being built for use in the Dunlop Series.

According to the statement, penned by team owner Garry Rogers, the decision was made in December to bite the bullet and build the Commodores, the reason being that Rogers didn’t feel comfortable fitting Chevrolet engines to Volvo bodywork.

“I know that there was talk of us potentially running a generic Supercar engine (Chev) in the Volvo S60, but this did not sit well with me,” wrote Rogers.

“Over the years I have competed in many different categories but the two main categories have been Touring Car Racing (Supercars) and Sports Sedans.

"Having tried extremely hard to secure the Volvo V8 engines that had been developed and built in Sweden, which had absolutely no use except in Supercar racing, we ultimately failed. The choice that I was left with was – do we run the Volvo chassis with a Chev engine?

“I like to think that as much as I am getting on in years I am also a ‘modern thinker’, but also a traditionalist. The traditionalist in me knew it was not the right thing to run a Chev engine in a Volvo chassis in a Touring Car category.

“Having exhausted all potential avenues, including offering to buy the Volvo engines I felt as though I had two choices.

"One was to say ‘well the last 50 odd years have been great, but it’s time to give it away’. This thought barely entered my mind, as I truly love what I do and I admire and respect every one of my 34 employees.

“The second option was to build two new cars. This decision was made in early December, and we have been absolutely flat out ever since.

I cannot emphasise how proud I am of all the girls and boys at GRM who changed holiday plans and other family events in an effort to complete a task that many would see as impossible.

“The normal build time for a Supercar from the first chassis bars being welded to the time it would debut is approximately 16 weeks.

"We had to build two brand new cars in less than 10 weeks, while also completing the final build stages on the two new Development Series (DVS) cars we are preparing for the 2017 Dunlop Series.

“In effect four new cars were being built inside five months, with no additions to our workforce!”