Perhaps we're moving to a time when race teams will talk about some aspects of racing technology, realising that it is of interest to the fans, and that there is little risk of giving away some magic tweak, if they are reasonable about it.

In this article, Larry Perkins is talking about their development program since the end of the '99 season, where he felt they were 3/4 sec off front running pace, to end of 2000, where the Castrol Team were winning front row starting positions, races and setting fastest laps again.

There was mention of engine improvements and brake hardware, but mostly Larry spoke about chassis and suspension development.

Here is a list of the areas he touched on:

Chassis stiffness.  It seems a given in touring car racing world wide, that this is a major focus.

Stiffness of suspension componentry.  Especially the front strut.  It was a problem.  He now says in relation to the strut, flex is a thing of the past.

Reduction of friction in the sliding componentry of the front strut.  This area of improvement has also received a lot of attention in Super Tourers (front, and rear strut, if applicable).

Front suspension geometry, especially movement of the front roll centre in roll.   Larry discusses the camber compromises that must be addressed with the strut front end, the range of caster settings they use, and the extra adjustabiity that would be available if they went to a fully manufactured strut, as opposed to the strut built on the early Commodore knuckle, that they use now.

Ohlins T44 shocks, developed with there own componentry.  "We were lost for a year and a half in this area, as we were not using a sound testing methodology, but a change of personnel half way through the year, corrected this problem, and we now have shock absorbers with known and reliable values.
"The consistency now, as a result of that change, has done wonders for our speed, which has been quite evident."

One major aim of all the changes was to be able to run very much softer springs, front and rear.  They accept more roll in doing this, but the important thing to consider is the overall dynamic situation - if you've got the stiff chassis and suspension components, the suspension that is free to move without friction, carefull optimisation of the suspension geometry, and shocks that can control the chassis platform, it does work better.