Flying Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen put the past firmly behind him with a miraculous first career pole position as V8 Supercars entered the era of the unknown at the Clipsal 500 today.

Van Gisbergen had left his former team Stone Brothers Racing late last year with a want to revive his mindset and while most expected him not to return to V8 Supercar racing for at least 12 months, he accepted a new deal with Tekno VIP Petfoods in January.

At least today it turned out to be a masterstroke when the unquestionably talented 21-year-old, considered by many to have the early talents of a young Craig Lowndes, blasted his Commodore onto ARMOR ALL Pole Position, in exactly the same time as Lowndes.

It was the perfect start in front of a massive Friday crowd of just under 68,000 ahead of the new dawn of V8 Supercars and the emergence of Nissan and Mercedes AMG to the grid.

Courtesy of setting the lap time first, Van Gisbergen took ARMOR ALL pole away from Lowndes with Pepsi Max FPR pilot Mark Winterbottom third and alongside one of the quickest cars so far this year - the Lockwood Racing Commodore of Fabian Coulthard.

It was a fairy tale 'start' of Van Gisbergen's newfound career and few would have guessed the script.

"All day we have been in the top five or there abouts and it felt amazing," Van Gisbergen said.

"The car and the team atmosphere is really good, I'm really enjoying myself and just going racing, my phone's broken so I haven't read any media at all, it's been great, so I'm just going out and doing it.

"I've got something on for the next six weeks in a row so it's pretty good, I am really enjoying it at the moment so just today has been a fantastic day, and I am still pretty overwhelmed by it all.

"It's no points on the board but it's points in my mind, it's a pretty good step for us and gives us a lot of confidence."

Van Gisbergen said he did not intend to return to V8 Supercar racing when he left, but changed his mind in the New Year when the deal came to light.

"It was probably mid-first week of January late week of that we started talking again and I had a pretty good December so it's good to be back and I'm in a pretty good place right now; meaning with the team and also my head space is really good.

"So everything I'm doing, I'm really enjoying it and going about it the right way so seeing how the last team went in that session confirms that I made the right decision."

Superteams Red Bull Racing Australia and Pepsi Max Crew FPR encountered the first of the interlopers in the new era of V8 Supercars, but it appears the new marques of Nissan and Mercedes AMG have work to do.

With Van Gisbergen out second last FPR and RBRA had fought it out for pole but were sternly challenged by largely unexpected foes - namely Coulthard and Van Gisbergen but also the two Fujitsu GRM cars of Alex Premat and rookie Scott McLaughlin; and Van Gisbergen's team-mate Jonathon Webb.

But both Lowndes and Winterbottom spoke about the unknowns of a 250km fight on the uncompromising Adelaide street circuit with 28 brand new cars.

"Every team came in this week a little bit in the unknown - still bolting cars together - so it's been quite remarkable to see all the cars out running around," Lowndes said.

"We still haven't extracted the best out of them and I think only time will get our head around it. The fundamentals of the car has really changed, gearbox, wheels, breaks tyres, we don't have a roll centre that we can adjust, so you have to start thinking of other things and approach things in other ways.

"It has been a great thing - you can tell by the crowd. It has been a great start to the season, been a record crowd. It's a proven that everyone is interested in the new makes, models and the new cars, so it's fantastic. Everyone is alive and abuzz so we can't wait until tomorrow. "

Winterbottom: "No one knows, we come in anxious, nervous, excited ... we really don't know where we are at. We still don't know until tomorrow so what do we do to tune it? What do you need for a race car?

"If it's ugly 78 laps around this place it's going to punish you, but if you get it right you are going to look like a hero. We go in fresh and hopefully we will get it right."

As the Car of the Future further levels the playing field at this debut event for 28 new cars the best of the newcomers were the Norton 360 Nissans of Michael Caruso and James Moffat. Brothers Rick and Todd Kelly were 17th and 19th in the other two Altimas.

Of the Erebus Motorsport V8 entries Tim Slade was 24th in the Heavy Haulage Australia AMG E63 and Lee Holdsworth 23rd in the second AMG E63.

Their team-mate Maro Engel was a casualty in qualifying with six minutes to go when he spun seemingly on his own fluid. The super quick German was the best of the AMGs in official testing two weeks ago and was looking to make a first run coming out of the pits.

But his car started to smoke just after pit exit, and the spin ended his very first qualifying session and also brought a red flag which sent him to the back of the field.