French will take delivery of the first ever Oscar Fiorinotto-built cars, which is currently being used as a prototype during the testing and development stage of the project.

When the series kicks off French plans to run the car for reigning Toyota Racing Series champion and current Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 driver Randle, who he’s financially supported for the last few seasons.

“I have always been interested in the 5000s, from back in the old days when they were running the Tasman Series and I think it is a fantastic series to be involved in,” said French.

“I have been assisting Thomas Randle in the Toyota series in New Zealand last year, and I am now sponsoring him in Europe in the Renault Series where he is doing well and running at Spa next weekend, so I have agreed to put Thomas in one of these cars in the new category.

“I believe that if we could end up with a grid of 16 or 18 of these cars it would be fantastic racing.”

With the Super5000 programme now merged with Chris Lambden’s Formula Thunder 5000 project, the technical make-up of what the race series will become is yet to be officially confirmed.

However, French says he’s expecting it be a mix of the chassis built by Fiorinotto for Super5000, but paired with the crate V8 engine used in the FT5000 car rather than the Supercars-spec engine currently powering the Super5000 prototype.

“The car that I have purchased is this [Super5000] car, but there will be some variation to the mechanical side of it,” said French.

“I believe the chassis aero will stay the same, but it could very well be that Chris Lambden’s engine could be the choice of the engine package to run, which would keep the cost of these cars down.

“But for the price of these cars they are similar money to a Carrera Cup car. For anybody that wants to go racing in open-wheelers and have a big banger V8 I think they are fantastic.”

French also highlighted the 2019 season-opening Supercars event in Adelaide as the ideal launch pad for the Super5000/Formula Thunder 5000 series, although Supercars is planning on having the category up and running next year.

“I believe that probably seven rounds out of the annual calendar for the Virgin Australia Supercars would be fantastic, so if we launch this in, let’s say Adelaide in 2019, with 20 of these cars in the grid it would be taking people back to their Formula 1 days in Adelaide.”

French is planning to get Randle in the car as soon as he returns from Europe after the Spa Formula Renault round, and wants to have his young driver involved in the development.

“Thomas is going to have a drive in it when he comes back to Australia after his running at Spa next weekend,” said French.

“I would like to have Thomas involved and happy to contribute in that way.

“Let’s get the thing right, let’s do it once, do it properly and then we won’t be…we don’t want it to be like another Supercar that could cost 250 grand and they cost 500…”