The Nissan race cars to be prepped and entered by the Kelly brothers in the 2013 season of V8 Supercars will be based on a four-door model yet to be seen here.
That much is clear from just one statement made during his presentation to the local press by Nissan Australia MD, Dan Thompson.
"On the heels of [the new] Pulsar, will be Nissan lining up on the grid in the V8 Supercar championship in 2013, with... an all-new sedan," Thompson said, in the conclusion to his speech.
Some sectors of the media have speculated that the 'donor' for the race car will be the Altima. However, Altima is likely to be marketed as a mid-size car if and when it arrives down under.
More likely, Thompson's 'all-new sedan' will share a nameplate with the new C/D segment car Nissan is expected to build and debut in the US later this year. Whether the US C/D car is front or rear-wheel drive is of little consequence to Nissan's V8 Supercar plans.
V8SC Car of the Future regs do not preclude manufacturers building rear-drive racing versions of front-drive production cars. To that extent it's a situation very similar to Toyota in the US bunging rear-drive mechanicals into a race car and calling it a Camry, in order to compete in NASCAR — an analogy that Nissan's Ian Moreillon accepted when it was put to him by motoring.com.au.
"Exactly the same sort of thing," responded Moreillon, Nissan's Executive General Manager for National Sales and Fleet — and the man who has invested much time and effort in getting Nissan's V8 Supercars commitment up and running.
The upshot is that we can't say whether the production car that will provide the cosmetic framework for the race car will be large or small, driven at the front or the rear. There are no real clues to be gained from what we know of the race car. Like the Commodore, expect it to be cut and shut to suit the V8 Supercars formula.
"It's no more of a challenge than the existing cars today," says Moreillon. "With the existing Commodore, there's a number of millimeters cut out of the rear doors to get to the wheelbase that's required for racing today — before even Car of the Future.
"Car of the Future has its dimensions and specifications that every manufacturer has to comply with; we will take an existing car at that point in time and we will adapt it — through the Kellys' engineering prowess — to fit Car of the Future cage and chassis."
It's unlikely the production car will be sold here with a V8 driving through to the front wheels, although the powerplant in the race car will be a Nissan design — and that was an important element in Nissan's decision to join the series, as both Dan Thompson and the company's General Manager for media enquiries, Jeff Fisher explained.
"With the engine, we made a decision that we're not going to with the generic engine," said Fisher. "If we couldn't fit our own branded engine — our own technology — then it wouldn't have made any sense for us... So those two things together — Car of the Future and the engine — were some of the primary drivers for making that decision."
What the engine in the race car will be also remains unclear. According to Moreillon, it could be one of a number of options ranging from the 4.5-litre engine that powers the GT500 (rear-drive) racing version of the GTR, or it could even be the 5.6-litre engine that will power the next-gen Patrol (pictured).
"The next announcement will nail the engine down," says Moreillon. "We have options of engines. We've got a 5.7-litre, 5.6-litre, we've got a 4.5-litre — we've got all sorts of things in V8s around the world..."
What seems likely is that the production model will be sold in Australia, presumably as a successor to the current Maxima. The Maxima sold fewer than 2000 units last year (1973, up 206 on the total for 2010). Although the current model has consistently enjoyed sales growth, year on year since its introduction, Nissan Australia will probably expect a replacement to improve markedly on the Maxima's performance in the market.
And associating it with Australia's highest profile motorsport category seems like a good way to set about doing just that.
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