Project Motor Racing turns up the volume with nine V8 monsters and scanned Road Atlanta in its September Power Pack

Project Motor Racing is preparing one of its loudest DLC releases yet. Revealed at gamescom on August 26, the V8 Power Pack launches on September 15, 2026 with nine rear-wheel-drive V8 race cars divided across three radically different eras of competition: the analogue brutality of historic American Trans-Am machinery, closely controlled modern US TA2 muscle cars and the approximately 600-horsepower Gen3 Ford-versus-Chevrolet rivalry of Australian Supercars. Straight4 Studios is tying the entire collection together with a scanned version of Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the 2.54-mile Georgia circuit whose fast esses, blind crests, severe elevation changes and heavy braking zones provide almost the perfect environment for comparing how three generations solved the same basic problem: putting a large V8 in the front and asking the rear tires to deal with the consequences.

The V8 Power Pack will be sold separately and is also included in Project Motor Racing’s Year 1 Season Pass. Straight4’s current DLC page lists a standard US price of $14.99, with a 10% promotional price of $13.49 shown through September 15; regional pricing naturally varies by platform and territory. The pack becomes the fourth major component of the Year 1 pass after Group 5 Revival, Japanese Prototypes and GT Icons, with the World Endurance Pack still scheduled to complete the first-year roadmap later in 2026.

Nine V8s, three classes and three very different interpretations of American muscle

Straight4’s concept is deliberately simple. The studio describes the formula as historic US V8, modern US V8 and Australian Gen3 heroics: different decades and engineering philosophies connected by naturally aspirated engines, rear-wheel drive and an emphasis on mechanical rather than hybrid or electronic performance.

The final official DLC roster is:

Historic USV8

• 1971 AMC Javelin TA
• 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 TA
• 1970 Plymouth Barracuda TA
• 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 TA

USV8

• 2022 Chevrolet Camaro TA2
• 2022 Dodge Challenger TA2
• 2022 Ford Mustang TA2

V8 Evo / AUS V8 EVO

• 2023 Chevrolet Camaro AU V8SC
• 2023 Ford Mustang AU

There is a small but important detail here because some early trailer descriptions circulated with different model years. Straight4’s final official DLC page lists the AMC as a 1971 Javelin TA and the Camaro as a 1969 Z/28 TA, rather than the 1970 Javelin and 1968 Camaro sometimes mentioned in earlier summaries. Those official DLC listings are the safest reference for the content players will actually receive on September 15.

What makes the package interesting is that the three classes should not feel like progressively newer versions of one car type. Historic USV8 is about body movement, mechanical grip and controlling a relatively primitive chassis. USV8 is a tightly controlled space-frame formula specifically designed to minimize performance inequality between manufacturers. Australian V8 Evo adds modern aerodynamics, substantially more sophisticated chassis engineering and the enormous braking and cornering capability associated with Gen3 Supercars. The common denominator is noise and rear-wheel-drive aggression, but the driving techniques required to extract lap time should be very different.

Historic USV8 recreates the moment American pony cars learned to race properly

The oldest part of the V8 Power Pack reaches back to the period when Trans-Am racing transformed showroom rivalries into serious road-course competition.

Straight4 describes Historic USV8 as the era when “muscle learned to turn”: four American manufacturers taking recognizable pony-car silhouettes and converting them into racing machines at a time when aerodynamic dependence was minimal, electronic assistance essentially nonexistent and chassis behavior remained extremely physical.

The game’s official DLC description emphasizes mechanical grip, body roll, throttle steering and live rear axles. That should immediately separate these cars from Project Motor Racing’s contemporary GT machinery. Braking will demand more patience, weight transfer will matter more visibly and drivers should expect to rotate the cars with throttle rather than leaning on modern aero stability. Straight4 is openly encouraging sideways driving rather than pretending these are miniature contemporary touring cars wearing old bodies.

The historical context supports that interpretation. Historic Trans-Am preservation records show exactly these manufacturers battling across the period: Boss 302 Mustangs, Plymouth Barracudas, Chevrolet Camaros and AMC Javelins all survive today as representative machines from the original big-bore Trans-Am era. Mark Donohue’s AMC Javelins are particularly strongly associated with the marque’s rise to championship prominence, while Ford’s Boss 302 remains one of the defining road-racing Mustangs of the period.

The 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 represents one of Trans-Am’s defining engineering wars

Few cars symbolize early Trans-Am more immediately than the Boss 302 Mustang.

Ford created the Boss 302 road car partly because Trans-Am regulations required a homologated production basis for the racing engine and body combination. On track, the program became central to Ford’s fight against Chevrolet and AMC, with the Mustang evolving into a much more sophisticated road-racing machine than its production-car proportions initially suggested.

Project Motor Racing’s Historic USV8 interpretation should therefore be less about raw straight-line speed than managing an old competition chassis at the edge of adhesion. Straight4 specifically highlights how these cars roll, move and slide, with several hundred horsepower reaching the rear wheels while the driver is still finishing the corner.

That creates exactly the type of physics challenge Project Motor Racing has increasingly emphasized in its post-launch development. The studio’s updates throughout 2026 have repeatedly revised throttle response, tire behavior and class-specific handling to make different racing eras feel mechanically distinct rather than merely adjusting power and grip numbers.

Historic USV8 gives that work an ideal showcase because these cars should telegraph weight movement more clearly than heavily aero-dependent modern machinery.

Plymouth’s Barracuda brings Dan Gurney-era Trans-Am brutality into the sim

The 1970 Plymouth Barracuda represents another fascinating branch of the pony-car war.

Historic Trans-Am records preserve examples associated with legendary names including Dan Gurney and Swede Savage, reflecting Plymouth’s attempt to establish the Barracuda against Ford, Chevrolet and AMC in one of American racing’s most commercially important manufacturer battles.

The Barracuda also gives the class visual diversity. Project Motor Racing is not merely offering four variants of one standardized racing chassis disguised under manufacturer bodywork. These historical cars come from a period when manufacturers and teams were wrestling with genuinely different production origins, geometries and engineering compromises.

That should make the historic class particularly appealing for sim racers interested in learning vehicles individually rather than simply changing liveries within one balance formula.

Straight4 has not yet published detailed final in-game specifications for each Historic USV8 car — power, mass, gear ratios and setup options remain to be fully documented — so comparisons between them should wait until the September release rather than assuming historical specification sheets map perfectly onto the simulation.

AMC’s 1971 Javelin gives the pack one of American racing’s most distinctive silhouettes

The 1971 AMC Javelin TA may be the least universally recognizable of the four to players outside North America, but historically it is one of the most interesting.

AMC was considerably smaller than Ford or General Motors, making its Trans-Am program an aggressive attempt to prove that the company could compete with Detroit’s giants. The Javelin eventually became closely associated with Mark Donohue and Penske, and surviving Historic Trans-Am records list a 1971 Javelin connected directly with Donohue.

Its inclusion also avoids turning Historic USV8 into the predictable Mustang-versus-Camaro story. The entire attraction of the original Trans-Am period was that multiple manufacturers were using racing to create showroom credibility.

AMC belonged in that fight, and Project Motor Racing is preserving that wider field rather than narrowing American pony-car history to the two brands that survived longest.

The 1969 Camaro Z/28 completes the old-school four-way fight

The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 TA rounds out the historic class.

Like the Boss 302, the Z/28 became inseparable from the idea that a relatively compact American coupe could be developed into a serious road racer. The Camaro’s Trans-Am identity was already firmly established by the end of the 1960s, and Straight4 describes the Historic USV8 group as the raw foundation from which modern American road-racing muscle eventually evolved.

Again, the finalized model year matters: Project Motor Racing’s current product listing specifies the 1969 Camaro Z/28 TA. That differs from the 1968 year seen in some early promotional descriptions and is worth clarifying because Trans-Am Camaros from individual years can differ meaningfully in bodywork and historical context.

For the simulation itself, the important point is that the Camaro joins Mustang, Barracuda and Javelin inside one class where Straight4 wants cars moving visibly beneath the driver rather than remaining planted by large aerodynamic surfaces.

USV8 moves 50 years forward but deliberately keeps the formula primitive

The middle category looks modern but intentionally avoids many technologies associated with contemporary GT racing.

USV8 contains 2022 Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang TA2 cars. These are purpose-built space-frame racers using modern muscle-car silhouettes, controlled naturally aspirated V8 power, rear-wheel drive and relatively limited aerodynamic dependence. Straight4’s description is explicit: the cars have closely matched performance, leaving the driver with fewer engineering advantages to hide behind.

The real TA2 formula follows exactly that philosophy. Trans Am’s official class documentation describes TA2 as a cost-controlled purpose-built platform with engines restricted to roughly 530 horsepower. Approved bodies include the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger, while carbon fiber and titanium are heavily restricted to control costs.

Other current TA2 specifications place the platform around 525 horsepower, using tubular space-frame construction and manufacturer-shaped composite bodies rather than production road-car chassis.

That distinction is crucial. These are not tuned road-going Challengers, Mustangs and Camaros. They are dedicated competition machines that use familiar body identities over a standardized racing architecture.

TA2 is built to make the driver the performance differentiator

The TA2 concept is particularly appropriate for simulation because the real formula deliberately tries to prevent budget from determining lap time.

Current TA2 documentation describes the cars as using controlled components, closely regulated engines and space-frame construction specifically to promote driver talent and close competition. Australian TA2 documentation quotes approximately 1,250 kg including the driver and 525 hp, illustrating just how serious the performance remains despite the cost-control philosophy.

That gives Project Motor Racing’s USV8 class a very different reason to exist from Historic USV8.

The old cars are interesting because of their differences and imperfections.

TA2 is interesting because of parity.

If the Mustang beside you has effectively the same opportunities, there is no major technological advantage waiting to rescue a poor braking point or weak corner exit. Straight4 summarizes the philosophy neatly: brake later, carry more speed and get back onto the throttle sooner.

For competitive multiplayer, that may make USV8 one of the pack’s strongest classes.

The Dodge Challenger gives modern USV8 something Australian Gen3 no longer has

The 2022 Dodge Challenger TA2 is particularly valuable because it prevents the modern American class from collapsing into another Ford-versus-Chevrolet championship.

Real TA2 regulations explicitly accommodate Camaro, Mustang and Challenger body styles, preserving Detroit’s traditional three-way muscle-car rivalry even as the production-market situation around those models has evolved.

That gives USV8 a fundamentally different competitive identity from the Australian class immediately above it.

V8 Evo is Bowtie against Blue Oval.

USV8 is Chevrolet against Ford against Dodge.

It also gives Project Motor Racing players a relatively modern racing Challenger, something less common in contemporary circuit-racing simulations than Mustang and Camaro competition machinery.

AUS V8 EVO brings 2023 Gen3 Supercars into Project Motor Racing

At the modern extreme sit the 2023 Ford Mustang AU and 2023 Chevrolet Camaro AU V8SC, representing Australian Supercars’ Gen3 generation.

Straight4 describes them as purpose-built racers with naturally aspirated V8 engines, reduced downforce and roughly 600 horsepower, emphasizing that the category deliberately combines modern engineering with traditional rear-wheel-drive aggression.

Real-world Supercars introduced Gen3 competition in 2023 with the Mustang and Camaro replacing the previous generation of cars. Supercars describes the architecture change as the largest in championship history, requiring new chassis, bodywork, engines, suspension, rear wings and safety systems while maintaining strict manufacturer parity.

The Mustang uses a 5.4-liter Coyote-based V8, with current Supercars specifications listing 600 hp, 1,350 kg and a maximum engine speed of 7,500 rpm.

The Camaro launched with a 5.7-liter naturally aspirated Chevrolet V8, while the Gen3 rules targeted dramatically reduced aerodynamic load compared with the preceding generation. Supercars development material described a downforce reduction in the region of 60–70%, specifically intended to improve racing and make the cars less dependent on aerodynamic grip.

That makes them perfect companions to TA2 while still offering a clear step upward in sophistication.

Less downforce is a feature, not a limitation

Modern racing development often equates progress with more aero, more electronics and higher cornering loads. Gen3 intentionally rejected part of that trajectory.

Supercars wanted cars that could race closely and move around more underneath the driver. Reducing downforce means the Mustang and Camaro place more emphasis on mechanical balance, tire management and throttle application, while still benefiting from vastly more advanced engineering than the Historic USV8 machinery.

That should create an unusually useful comparison inside one Project Motor Racing pack.

Take the 1970-era Mustang and feel what limited aero means with a live-axle historic chassis.

Move to TA2 and experience a modern space-frame car where parity and mechanical grip remain central.

Then jump into Gen3 and see what contemporary race engineering can do while still deliberately keeping aero under control.

The V8 Power Pack is therefore less about nine engines that happen to sound similar than about three stages in the evolution of high-powered front-engine, rear-wheel-drive circuit racing.

Camaro versus Mustang reaches its modern Australian form

The 2023 Australian class also carries one of motorsport’s oldest rivalries into a context with enormous cultural significance.

Australia’s touring-car identity was historically defined by Ford versus Holden. When Holden disappeared, Chevrolet effectively inherited the General Motors side of that battle through the Camaro, while Ford continued with Mustang. Supercars officially homologated both new Gen3 machines for the opening 2023 Newcastle round after extensive aerodynamic and performance validation.

Parity remains central to the championship. Supercars has continued conducting dynamometer, aerodynamic and center-of-gravity evaluations specifically to ensure that the different Ford and Chevrolet powertrains and bodies do not create unfair performance advantages.

That makes Project Motor Racing’s V8 Evo class particularly suitable for organized online racing. The visual and engine differences preserve manufacturer identity, but the entire category is engineered around making the competition itself credible.

Road Atlanta is not just a bonus circuit thrown into the pack

The ninth “vehicle” in spirit may be the track.

Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is a 2.54-mile, 12-turn natural-terrain road course in Braselton, Georgia, built in 1970 across rolling terrain. The real circuit is home to Motul Petit Le Mans and has become one of North America’s most important sports-car venues.

Straight4 is adding a scanned version to Project Motor Racing. The studio has not publicly detailed the exact scan methodology in the announcement, so it would be premature to label it with a more specific technology than Straight4 itself has confirmed. What matters is that Road Atlanta is being reproduced from track-capture data rather than created purely from maps and photographs.

The circuit is almost perfectly suited to the V8 Power Pack because it punishes every weakness these cars can have.

Fast corners punish unstable platforms.

Blind crests punish hesitation.

Heavy braking punishes poor weight control.

Elevation changes punish bad setup decisions.

And long acceleration zones provide plenty of opportunities to hear why the pack exists in the first place.

Road Atlanta’s first sector demands commitment immediately

The circuit does not ease drivers into a lap.

Turn 1 is a fast uphill right-hander leading immediately into the technical climb toward the esses, and modern IMSA qualifying demonstrates how decisive that opening sector can be. In 2025, Tom Blomqvist’s GTP pole lap gained its entire winning margin through the short first sector from the line through Turn 1, illustrating how much commitment the opening part of Road Atlanta rewards.

After the crest, the track descends into its famous esses before transitioning toward a mixture of slower and high-speed sections. The circuit’s natural topography means drivers rarely receive the perfectly flat braking references common to purpose-built modern facilities.

That should be particularly entertaining with Historic USV8.

A 1970 Mustang rolling over its suspension while descending toward the esses is an entirely different problem from placing a modern Gen3 Supercar through the same sequence.

Same road.

Same driver.

Completely different information coming through the wheel.

Petit Le Mans gives Road Atlanta genuine modern endurance prestige

Road Atlanta is more than a historic American circuit preserved for nostalgia.

It remains a major contemporary racing venue and is home to Motul Petit Le Mans, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s long-distance season finale. The circuit itself identifies Petit Le Mans as its largest annual international event, while IMSA continues to bring GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD machinery to its 2.54-mile layout.

Petit Le Mans was established in 1998, and the track later became part of the modern IMSA ecosystem after NASCAR Holdings acquired the facility in 2012. Michelin became the circuit’s naming partner in 2019.

That pedigree gives Project Motor Racing another circuit useful well beyond the new V8 classes. LMDh, GT3, GT4 and prototype players can all immediately repurpose Road Atlanta for contemporary racing, which makes the track a more valuable addition to the simulation than if it only supported the nine DLC cars.

The timing is useful because Project Motor Racing has just overhauled several core classes

The gamescom reveal arrives immediately after Version 2.2, released on August 19.

That update delivered the first major phase of Straight4’s extensive LMDh rework, touching the internal-combustion engine model, hybrid regeneration, brake-by-wire behavior, power delivery, aerodynamics, tires, suspension and chassis dynamics. VR and Triple Screen support also moved from experimental command-line activation into Beta options available directly through the PC settings interface.

The broader context matters because Project Motor Racing’s first post-launch year has been heavily focused on refinement. Straight4 has repeatedly revised AI, tire behavior, throttle response, class balance and vehicle handling rather than treating its November 2025 release physics as final.

The V8 Power Pack therefore enters a simulation that is still evolving rapidly. How successfully Straight4 differentiates the three V8 categories will matter more than simply whether the cars have accurate external models.

If Historic USV8 feels like TA2 with weaker tires, the concept loses much of its purpose.

If each class communicates its own suspension, weight-transfer, drivetrain and aero philosophy, the pack could become one of Project Motor Racing’s best demonstrations of why multi-era simulation is interesting.

The V8 Power Pack is the fourth major stop on the Year 1 roadmap

Project Motor Racing launched on November 25, 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Its Year 1 Season Pass was structured around the launch-day Group 5 Revival Pack followed by four additional content packs:

• Group 5 Revival — November 25, 2025
• Japanese Prototypes — March 31, 2026
• GT Icons — June 23, 2026
• V8 Power Pack — September 15, 2026
• World Endurance Pack — Q4 2026

The official Season Pass price remains $49.99 in the US, with local storefronts determining regional equivalents.

That makes the V8 release a substantial midpoint-to-late-year expansion rather than an isolated car bundle. Japanese Prototypes concentrated on high-speed machinery from another racing culture; GT Icons went backwards into analogue sports-car competition; V8 Power now examines three generations of large-displacement touring and road-racing machinery before World Endurance closes the schedule later in the year.

There is a clear curation strategy emerging: packs are being built around racing philosophies, not simply manufacturer catalogs.

The separate $14.99 purchase includes Road Atlanta as part of the same package

For players without the Year 1 Season Pass, Straight4’s current official page lists the V8 Power Pack at $14.99, with a temporary $13.49 promotional price displayed until September 15.

That purchase includes all nine cars and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

From a content standpoint, the track substantially changes the value proposition. Nine cars divided into three classes would already be a reasonably broad collection, but adding a full scanned circuit means the DLC immediately provides an environment designed around them and a track usable by almost every other suitable class in the game.

It also prevents a fragmentation problem where players might purchase the cars but still need a separate track pack to reproduce the reveal experience.

Straight4 is correcting one detail that matters to racing-history purists

Because the reveal has circulated through trailers, social posts and platform metadata, the historical model years deserve explicit clarification.

The official current Project Motor Racing DLC page lists:

1971 AMC Javelin TA
1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 TA

Some promotional copy has referenced a 1970 Javelin and 1968 Camaro. The product page is newer and more specific, so those 1971/1969 entries should be considered the finalized roster unless Straight4 changes them again before launch.

That may sound minor, but in historical motorsport simulations the precise year can determine body shape, team history, homologation specification and which real championship story a vehicle represents.

For the Javelin especially, 1971 aligns neatly with the Mark Donohue-era AMC machine preserved in Historic Trans-Am records.

Three generations should make setup philosophy as interesting as outright lap time

The most promising thing about the V8 Power Pack is not discovering which car is fastest around Road Atlanta.

It is discovering why each class is fast.

Historic USV8 should reward controlling weight transfer and accepting that the chassis never completely settles.

TA2 should reward precision because its cost-controlled platform minimizes the possibility of winning through a fundamentally superior machine.

Australian V8 Evo should allow substantially later braking and more aggressive corner entry, but its reduced aero means drivers should still be able to lean on mechanical balance and throttle control rather than treating the cars like GT3 machinery with different bodywork.

Road Atlanta then magnifies those contrasts.

A good lap requires commitment through fast sections, confidence over blind elevation changes and discipline under braking. Straight4 describes the circuit as somewhere a small mistake has plenty of opportunity to become a large one.

That is exactly the environment needed for three rear-wheel-drive V8 classes whose biggest similarities disappear as soon as the steering wheel turns.

The gamescom reveal is ultimately selling noise, but the engineering underneath is more interesting

“Turn up the volume, and make it loud” is an obvious way to market nine naturally aspirated V8s.

And acoustically, the pack should have enormous appeal. A late-1960s Trans-Am Camaro, modern TA2 Challenger and Australian Gen3 Mustang should not sound remotely identical even if every one of them shares the same cylinder count.

But the stronger concept sits underneath the soundtrack.

Historic USV8 represents a period when American manufacturers were learning how to transform road-car-based muscle into sophisticated circuit machinery.

USV8/TA2 takes that heritage and rebuilds it around modern cost control, space-frame chassis and strict performance parity.

AUS V8 EVO demonstrates what happens when modern professional touring-car engineering deliberately reduces downforce to preserve close racing and driver involvement.

And then Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta provides 2.54 miles and 12 turns of natural-terrain punishment to expose every difference between them.

The V8 Power Pack arrives September 15

Project Motor Racing’s V8 Power Pack launches September 15, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It includes nine cars divided across Historic USV8, USV8 and V8 Evo, plus the scanned Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The DLC is included with the Year 1 Season Pass and will also be sold separately, with the official site currently listing a $14.99 standard US price.

The complete finalized roster spans the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 TA, 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 TA, 1970 Plymouth Barracuda TA, 1971 AMC Javelin TA, 2022 Camaro TA2, 2022 Challenger TA2, 2022 Mustang TA2, 2023 Chevrolet Camaro AU V8SC and 2023 Ford Mustang AU.

That is almost sixty years of V8 road-racing philosophy compressed into three classes.

One generation learned how to make muscle cars corner.

Another made them equal enough that driver skill had nowhere to hide.

The newest combines 600 horsepower with modern engineering while deliberately refusing to let aerodynamics do all the work.

Then Straight4 sends all of them to Road Atlanta.

Earplugs are optional.

Throttle discipline is not.