VZ Commodore

The Holden VZ Commodore (2005–2006) carried Holden through the middle of the Project Blueprint era — a refinement of the VY Commodore on the same parity package. (HRT ran the VY through 2004 and introduced the VZ for 2005.)

Project Blueprint — the shared package

Like every Blueprint car the VZ was a parity build, not a control-chassis one: teams still built their own chassis while working to a standardised set of geometry and hardware. It shared the marque-common double-wishbone front (adjustable camber, cockpit-adjustable anti-roll bar), a live rear axle located by four parallel links and a Watts linkage, a front-mounted Holinger six-speed (running the control gearbox casing mandated from 2004), the Dunlop control tyre, the mandated control ECU and a 1355 kg minimum. The common control chassis did not arrive until Car of the Future in 2013.

Body & aero

The VZ ran the road car's silhouette worked to Blueprint's parity-controlled envelope — a front splitter and undertray and a boot-mounted rear wing. Because the point of Blueprint was to hold the two marques' downforce and drag close together, the aero was a controlled package set by the technical rules rather than freely developed or published as per-car figures.

Engine & driveline

Power came from the Holden Motorsport 5.0-litre fuel-injected V8 — a 90-degree pushrod unit on the control ECU (media guides name MoTeC), quoted around 635+ bhp by the mid-Blueprint years, limited to 7500 rpm at a 10:1 compression ceiling. Drive ran through the Holinger six-speed and a "Motive 9-inch" differential on the control 3.25 / 3.5 / 3.7 final-drive set (with the longer 3.15 for Bathurst from 2005), via an AP Racing triple-plate carbon clutch.

Brakes, wheels & tyres

The works VZ ran AP Racing six-piston front monobloc calipers on 375 mm discs and AP Racing four-piston rears on 340 mm discs, with O.Z 17×11 wheels — but neither was universal: brake make and wheel supplier varied by team (the 2006 control-brake list approved AP Racing, Brembo, Alcon, PFC and Harrop, and Division C also fixed a control damper list from 2006). The tyre was the single-make Dunlop control.

Evolution

The VZ raced 2005–2006 before the VE Commodore took over for 2007 — the last Holden built on its own body-and-chassis before Car of the Future.

For the VZ's championship record, see the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Sources: harvested V8 Supercar media-guide spec sheets (HRT VZ) + Division C technical rules — Grade B; Project Blueprint standardisation — Grade B/D.