Nissan to Rejoin V8 Supercar Championship in 2013
The Kelly Racing Nissan GT-R. (Image Source: V8Supercars)
There have been rumours flying around for several days about a major announcement over in the world of V8 Supercars. Many had speculated of the possibility that Nissan or Chrysler or both would be joining the fray to take on the likes of Holden and Ford in what had been a two-make series. This was not uncharted territory, as both manufacturers had participated in the old Australian Touring Car Championships prior to its transformation into V8 Supercars. Most observers, however, were treating this possibility as unlikely at best; more likely was an announcement of a new venue, such as a race somewhere in South-East Asia.
Mark Skafe's Bathurst-Winning Skyline GT-R (Image source: Caradvice.com.au)
Today, it was confirmed true. After an absence of 20 years, Nissan is returning to the V8 Supercar Championship in 2013. For fans of Australian race tradition, this should be a welcome return. The Skyline GT-R had become a legend in the capable hands of Mark Skaife, who is now the V8 Supercar Commission Chairman. In fact, the ATCC is where the Skyline earned its nickname “Godzilla”, or “The Monster From Japan”. Nissan remains the only manufacturer other than Ford and Holden who can claim outright victory at Bathurst, with two victories. As V8 Supercars transitions to its new “Car of the Future” format in 2013, Nissan will once again join in.
This marks an interesting change, as back in 1993, the rules were specifically and aggressively changed to make it extremely difficult for foreign manufacturers to participate. BMW, Nissan, Jaguar and Volvo were fairly bluntly driven out of the league. Now, they’re being welcomed back.
There are so many questions involved, it’s baffling. The previous requirement had been that it must be a four-door saloon car, with rear-wheel-drive and a V8 engine option. The closest possibility would actually be the Skyline, sold in North America as the Infiniti G37, yet Kelly Racing, the first team to adopt the new car, introduced their candidate as the GT-R sports car. This would seem to involve a major set of rule changes, but this could result in many other competitors. Most notably, Chrysler is chomping at the bit to take a swing at the series in a 300C SRT8. This could be a very interesting development indeed.
Related posts:
The official response from Holden Motorsport, and I quote: "Bring it on!"
I'd like to have seen this as a V8 Supercar:
<img src="http://www.nissan.co.jp/EVENT/WALLPAPER/IMAGE/gloria2_s.jpg" width="500" />
So very much yes.
AKA the original Infiniti M45 in the US, a Q-ship if there ever was one. The V-8 of the Q45 without a lot of the unnecessary doodads and electronic gizmos. Went like stink. I never took a customer on a test drive who didn't ooh and ahh over the acceleration. Handling was a bit soft but this was easily rectified in the aftermarket.
Had I lived in the US, I may well have ended up with a 2002/3 M45. However, here in Canuckistan unmolested examples are few and far between and I'm too impatient to go through the process of importing one from The Greatest Nation On Earth.
That's a shame. Despite the fact that Infiniti never advertised the M45 there are plenty of clean examples here in the US, even though less than 8000 were sold here.
The JDM Gloria was only offered with a V6, IIRC, which would have rendered it ineligible for this series.
would need to keep plenty of extra oil in trunk they drink it
I drive an RX-8. I keep cans of oil in my pocket and stuffed down the back of the couch, fercrissakes.
I did a catalog of all the ATCC winners in the 1980s. Talk about diversity!
http://karakullake.blogspot.com/2007/12/atcc-pre-…
Just don't go all NASCAR and crap.
"Nissan remains the only manufacturer other than Ford and Holden who can claim outright victory at Bathurst…"
O RLY?
<img src="http://www.jaguarmagazine.com/media/18220/aaa%20goss%20wins%20at%20bathurst%201985.jpg" width="500">
Anyway, this news pretty much makes up for the move away from production bodies-in-white.
Yes really. Back in the earlier era, they would declare "class winners", not overall winners. That has been rewritten since, but at the time, there was no "Bathurst winner".
Ah. Righto.
The reason Nissan is joining in 2013, is that it's also the same year as the V8 Supercars introduce their "Car of the Future" control chassis, which was specifically brought about to lower costs and encourage other manufacturers to participate.
While the current Ford and Holden V8 chassis are already incredibly similar, the upcoming Car of the Future, means every entry is running with same underpinnings, regardless of manufacturer.
Currently it's speculated that Nissan will running the Altima body/"shell" (yes, I'm not a fan of the control chassis). The big question is what the engine will be.
I'm not a huge fan of the new control chassis, either. It's turning into a spec series real quick.
the new large Nissan sedan to be built in the USA and sold later this year will be the model. It will apoparently be sold in AUS and the racing team have made space for a special vehicles section, making hot road versions. Headed by the ex. chief of HSV. (Holden Special Vehicles) http://www.motoring.com.au/news/2012/nissan/v8sc-…
So… the Maxima? Or are you referring to an Infiniti? They've already got the M56 in the lineup; I'm not sure what the advantage would be to adding another full-size car, unless they were doing a car just above the Maxima in the Nissan lineup, based on the Infiniti FML platform…
This is good for V8 Supercars. Historically, they have had a variety of manufacturers running with the traditional Fords and Holdens. So, it will be interesting to see how well Nissan and, possibly, Chrysler integrate into the competition.
One of the big concerns is that Nissan will bring the GT-R and dominate. Much like they did with Skaife's Godzilla. This is less of a concern since the new Car of the Future (if you hear Car of Tomorrow you're not that far off) will set a spec chassis that all manufacturers have to use. Where things could get squishy is which engine Nissan tries to bring. Technically, it should be a V8 from a production sedan. Hopefully, V8 Supercars doesn't cave too much on this.
Nissan has their 8, it's pretty much on par with the other guys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_VK_engine#VK5…
At least the COTF, while almost the same, isn't exactly the same from one brand to the next.
Well, except that everyone else is required to use pushrod 2-valve V8's…
COTF isn't going to be the horrendous disaster everyone is bemoaning it to be. Really, if people were going to complain, they should have been complaining back in '07 when they introduced the heavily-modified VE Commodore. Since the new Commodore was so much longer than previous versions, and was, really, a bloody huge car, it had to undergo massive modifications to make it fit into a reasonably-comparable class against the smaller Falcon. It used a certain percentage of body panels and equipment, but it was basically a custom tube chassis.
Well, this proved such a massive success that Ford started following a similar approach. They learned that in the process of building the custom-built Commodore to the appropriate specs, they could do a LOT more with the design and safety of the car, and actually do more for less cost. So if they're having to custom-build it to be similar to the Falcon… why not make the roll-cage a "control" piece, that is exactly the same for each car? Why not incorporate more control pieces? Since the performance of each car is largely determined by the tweaks each team does to their particular car, does it matter who made the roll-cage, or where the fuel tank is required to sit? If it brings the cost down enormously, and could potentially allow a 60-car field instead of the 28-car field we have now, wouldn't that be a good thing?
There will still be the differences — for instance, the differences between how a Walkinshaw car performs versus a Triple Eight car — but now they don't have to try and develop their own safety equipment for each team, each car. It is absolutely NOT the Car of Tomorrow approach they took with NASCAR, and that is a strategy they are specifically trying to avoid.
use the infiniti M56 5.6l 420 hp in stock form they also slip the 5.6L into 350/370 Z cars for drifting engines in race trim That is a 4 door saloon with a V8 from Nissan
Except that it has to be a 5.0L. I'm not sure where exactly they're going to get a 5.0L pushrod V8 from; pretty sure Nissan hasn't had one of those for quite some time.
The other possibility is that it might open up the series to the possibility of using more modern engines. Nissan would probably be able to come up with a V8 running DOHC technology by modifying something they have in the lineup, and Ford has the Coyote ready to go. I can't help but wonder how this might transpire.