You might be wondering why the launch of a V8 race car in Australia, which Nissan doesn’t even sell in South Africa, is news worthy to us. Well, we happen to think Aussie V8 Supercar racing is some of the best saloon based racing in the world and we appreciate the significance of the Nissan Motorsport (Nismo) badge returning to Aussie racing for the first time in 20 years.
You see, back in the days between 1990 and 1993 the Nissan Skyline GT-R arrived on the scene in Australian Touring Car racing and proceeded to decimate everything in its path. The twin-turbocharged Godzilla was so successful and unstoppable that the regulations were changed just to exclude it from 1994 onwards. V8 Aussie Supercar racing was born as a result.
Now Nismo have returned to V8 Supercar racing with a new factory backed Nissan Altima. The Nissan Altima will be the first new entry in the series that has been restricted to Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores for the past two decades. The new Altima is as a result of collaboration between Nissan Australia and the existing team, Kelly Racing.
Nissan Motorsport has committed to having four Altima race cars ready to roll before the 2013 championship’s opening round in March next year. The Nismo-prepped version of Nissan’s VK56 V8 engine also powers the Nissan Titan, Armada and Pathfinder, as well as the Infiniti QX and the Australian market 2013 Patrol SUV. The V8 engine is now a 5.0-litre unit and has been strengthened for competition to produce 450 kW.
The VK56DE has some significant race pedigree and powered the Nissan GT-R FIA GT1 entry to victory in the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship. For the Australian racing series, however, the V8′s displacement needs to be reduced from 5.6-litres to 5.0-litres and will be adjusted to comply with Aussie V8 Supercar technical regulations.
