No one broke the fabled 300kph barrier but Holden's Fabian Coulthard still showed enough speed to shatter his own Bathurst 1000 lap record on Thursday.
However, Coulthard won't be surprised if the fastest V8 Supercars lap ever seen at Mount Panorama is lowered by another second in qualifying.
Coulthard (2:05.47) blitzed Thursday's third and final practice session, pipping his 2014 qualifying mark by 0.13 of a second.
But Coulthard was one of the few people at Mount Panorama not getting too carried away.
"You get faster and faster through qualifying," he said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a quicker time."
But asked if anyone could crack the two minute, four second barrier, Coulthard warned: "If there is a 2:04 in it I am going to try and do it."
The flying Kiwi feared his record set last year would be broken on Thursday - little did he know it would be by himself.
Defending champion Chaz Mostert of Ford appeared the man to beat after his opening 2:06.32 effort on Thursday - the fastest ever set in an opening practice session on the mountain.
Yet remarkably Mostert didn't finish in the day's top three times.
Mostert's teammate and series leader Mark Winterbottom (2:05.57) was second fastest in the final practice blitz ahead of fellow Ford driver David Reynolds (2:05.73).
"The track was ultra fast today, you just had to look at the first session," Coulthard said.
"I was sweating a little bit, I was thinking my record was going to go."
Lap records fell like dominos on the mountain's resurfaced track last year.
And more were expected this week with drivers tipped to reach 300kph for the first time after the introduction of a new gearing set-up at Bathurst.
Teams had removed a "rev-limiter" which had stopped acceleration and restricted top speeds to 297kph.
However, drivers reckoned they were slower on the famous Conrod Straight due to the gear set-up tweak.
Stats proved it - Volvo's Scott McLaughlin topped the speed gun readings with 296kph.
"I think they were faster last year because it takes a lot longer to accelerate (with the new set-up)," Reynolds said.
"Maybe during the race in a five car tow (300kph can be reached) but by yourself it's definitely slower."
Swiss star Simona de Silvestro - one half of the first all women pairing at Bathurst since 1998 - was 25th in the 26-strong field.
Her co-driver is Queensland's Renee Gracie.
They had been keen to silence critics after V8 great Dick Johnson claimed they were "a million to one" and had no chance of finishing their first Bathurst 1000.
Nissan's Rick Kelly missed final practice after co-driver David Russell earlier hit the wall.
Qualifying is on Friday and Saturday before Sunday's Great Race.
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