Let the V8 battle begin

Thirty years? Well that’s how long ago Nissan Australia’s communications boss Jeff Fisher and Kelly Racing chairman John Crennan worked together at Holden.

In October 2010, purely by happenstance they both attended a social lunch in Melbourne known as the Curmudgeon’s Club, and then – again by chance – sat next to each other at the table.

Fisher told Crennan Nissan was looking to enhance its local motorsport involvement, reflecting a global company push along the same lines. Crennan told Fisher about V8Supercars’ Car of the Future strategy that would open the category up to brands other than Ford and Holden.

Roll forward from that key moment to February 2012 and the deal to form Nissan Motorsport was done and announced.

Of course, much transpired in between, and it really wasn’t until the last quarter of 2011 that the program began to seriously look like it might happen.

That was when Australian Ian Moreillon returned from a four-year posting with Nissan in Japan, to become the local division’s executive general manager sales and fleet.

Moreillon, a V8Supercar fan, saw an opportunity for Nissan to re-energise the image of its passenger car lineup. While Nissan SUVs and sports cars were respected, the Tiida small car and Maxima mid-sizer were poor sellers and dowdy drives.

Replacements were on the way, in the form of the Pulsar small car and Altima mid-sizer. Both would have to capture significant sales if Nissan was to boost its passenger car share and become the leading importer brand its ambitious business plan envisaged.

“We used to have a strong passenger car range a long way back,” says Moreillon. “But in recent years, I’ll be honest, our image in passenger cars is not that strong … and nowhere near where we needed to be to achieve the results that we want looking forward.

“So this was an opportunity for us to add a strong injection into that.”

Altima was the vehicle of choice for V8Supercar racing, even if it meant a front-wheel drive V6 production car turning into a V8 rear-wheel drive racer.

Through late 2011 and by early 2012 Moreillon and Fisher – who has since become Nissan’s motorsport manager – gained both international and local board approval for the project.

In the end, Japan agreed to supply technical assistance and knowledge but no money – that comes from the local coffers. How much? No one is saying, but even with external sponsors such as Jack Daniels and Norton kicking in, the five-year deal to run four Altimas is costing Nissan multi-millions.

Easier? The road car really donates nothing more than its exterior shape because Car of the Future is a silhouette formula. Underneath the familiar body is a racing spaceframe chassis and racing componentry.

Much of that stuff, including rear suspension, transaxle and fuel tank and where it fits into the car, is controlled. So the design engineers knew the parameters they were working within.

Where it gets hard is that Car of the Future is a brand new set of technical regulations. The Kelly Racing engineers would not only have to develop a new car for racing, but do it using a new set of rules.

The engine also posed a particular problem. It was an absolute stipulation of the deal that the Kellys race one of Nissan’s own V8 engines. In this case the VK56DE 5.6-litre unit as seen in the US-market Titan pick-up, new-generation Nissan Patrol and its Infiniti QX spin-off.

The all aluminium DOHC 32-valve engine had to be reduced in capacity to 5.0-litres to fit with V8Supercar regulations and also encouraged to produce enough horsepower (approx 650hp) to go up against the long-established Ford and Chevrolet pushrod V8s that propel the Falcon and Commodore – as well as the M159-based V8 that propels the other new car in the field, the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG.

It has not proved an easy task for chief engine builder Ryan Webb and his team, says Todd Kelly, team technical chief and part-owner.

“On a calculator, the engine is capable of getting to where it should be, so if it’s on a calculator I am confident our guys can find it. The job that Ryan and the guys have done on the engine has just blown me away.”

One challenge of tuning the engine is the time it takes to design a part, make it, test it, send it back for modifications and test it again.

The same time issues applied to finalising the exterior shape of the Altima, which not only had to look as similar to the production car as possible, but also fit on the CotF wheelbase and produce the same aerodynamic performance level as the other cars in the field despite being a much slipperier shape.

That has required a redesign of almost every panel on the car, and yet the look when bolted together is very similar to the road car, says Todd: “You walk around the car looking at every single gap … and just go ‘heck it’s almost like it’s come off the proper production line of a car manufacturer’. The fit has been amazing.”

But costly. The total bill for the first racer completed, dubbed KR003 because it was actually the third car started (the first two chassis had to go back fro revisions when V8Supercars changed the mandatory pedal box design), totals $1.5 million. That’s a figure that should drop to under $300,000 for a rolling chassis once the team is in assembly-line mode.

The dollars aren’t the only gob-smacking number either: KR003 took seven-and-a-half months to build, comprising 23,000 man-hours: 12,500 hours for design; 2200 for assembly; 1500 hours for making moulds and the first set of panels; 900 hours for fabrication and 350 hours of machining.

Phew!

It was the day that the team’s first Nissan Altima racer rumbled into life and rolled into action on a racetrack.

The venue was Calder Park near Melbourne and it was only days after the media reveal of the car in its temporary Nissan livery.

The surprising thing about the first shakedown and test, mainly for aerodynamic evaluation, was not that the car performed without any serious issues, but that Todd Kelly was driving.

The elder racing brother, team technical chief and co-owner, had injured his right shoulder in a training accident late in 2012 and missed the last few races of the championship rehabilitating from reconstructive surgery.

He was meant to stay out of the cockpit until February, but the temptation of driving his new baby simply proved too much. Even if it meant grasping the steering wheel one-handed!

“I just had a grin from ear to ear and I had a tear in my eye when I drove that car,” Todd said. “Driving it was almost the first time in seven-and-a-half months I actually had a chance to think about what we achieved.”

Kelly’s first lap was a slow check-over, then he headed back into the pits to make sure everything was running properly and secured correctly.

“On the next lap the tyres were a little warmer I grabbed the steering wheel with my other hand and I just flattened it, grabbed gears all the way up the straight and away it went.

“The last time I drove a V8Supercar was at Bathurst with the tall ratios, so the car was a slug out of the corners. But with short ratios in, the acceleration of the Altima was insane.

“I had no earplugs in and the induction noise because it had no airbox in it was just ‘holy crap; this is unreal’.”

After several laps, Kelly handed the car over to V8Supercar enduro driver and V8 Utes competitor Nathan Pretty for the formal part of proceedings, while James Brock drove one of the Kelly team’s Holden Commodores to provide comparative data.

Kelly watched from pit wall as the Altima went past, revelling in the sight, sound and achievement.

“What we have had to endure and achieve has made us twice the team and people we were last year,” he admitted. “We have almost achieved the impossible to do what we did.

“Everything should be easy from here,” he said with a smile.

Testing times

When Rick Kelly briefly sat atop the timesheets during the public test day at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 16, there was more than a little bit of surprise up and down the pitlane – including in the Nissan Motorsport garage.

Sure, the brand new Jack Daniel’s Altima drifted back to fifth by the end of the day, but it was a definite statement to their rivals and the 17,600 fans on-hand, as well as confirming to the team itself that the design and development process had been heading in the right direction.

"It was a really exciting day for us, obviously it's the first time I've driven my own race car that I'm going to debut at Clipsal and everything went really well," said Rick Kelly.

"The first hour we just worked through the initial electrical things and bits and pieces we had to sort out to make sure everything was working well, and an hour and a half into the day we ran our first set of tyres and at that point it took us straight to the top three, which is very exciting.”

Adding to the pleasure for the team, James Moffat also completed a trouble-free day in his Norton 360 Altima.

“The pace has been, I'd almost say surprising,” said team co-owner and technical director Todd Kelly. “We still have a lot of work to do on the engine side by refining our engine package, but the way the car is handling has probably masked that and almost overcame it.”

Mr Kelly’s comments about the engine package references ongoing concern about extracting competitive power from the production-based VK56DE engine to match the Ford and Holden pushrod V8s that have been developed within the category for years.

Engine homologation was being finalised by V8Supercars in mid February, although any hope Mr Kelly had of gaining some temporary freedoms to bridge the gap – most likely a raised rev limit – appeared unlikely given the car’s pace.

But Sydney's Motorsport Park wasn’t the first time the Altima had hit the bitumen since that historic first run for KR003 at Calder in November. V8Supercars confiscated the car for five days of aerodynamics parity testing at East Sale air force base the same month.

In December Rick Kelly and – still secret new signing – James Moffat conducted the first of two ‘Accredited Manufacturer’ days at Winton, then all four drivers tested at SMP in January. A second and final batch of aero testing was also completed in January.

Mr Kelly said the testing process had revealed an important practical issue with the Car of the Future switch from live rear axle to IRS.

“With the rear-end a roll centre change which would previously take three or four seconds and you can do in a pit stop takes 35 minutes because you have to move the rear arms,” he explained. “So the amount you can get done to get your head around tuning the car is probably a quarter of what we could do with the old car.

“So the simulation software and what the guys do back here at their desks has now become a lot more important than what it used to be.”

That was when the four cars were revealed in their warpaint and the full driving lineup officially confirmed. It completed a progressive disrobing that started with the engine unveil last September and the first showing of the Altima racer in a temporary Nissan paint scheme in October.

Motorsport being what it is, the grapevine had long beaten out what was shown off that day in a spectacular event at the Melbourne showgrounds.

As the curtain dropped and the smoke cleared Todd and Rick Kelly stood by their two Jack Daniel’s Altimas, but the new signings – all on multi-year deals - were all on the other side of the stage – drivers Michael Caruso and James Moffat and naming rights sponsor for their cars, the internet security company Norton by Symantec.

Caruso had swung across to the Nissan squad after five years with Holden team Garry Rogers Motorsport. And after two years racing for Queensland Ford icon Dick Johnson, James Moffat had made the trek south and brought Norton with him.

Of course Mr Moffat, 28, is the son of another touring car and Ford legend in Allan Moffat. But as he points out, Dad didn’t spend all his career with the blue oval either.

“I guess it’s been a pretty long time since a Moffat hasn’t been in a Ford, although Dad did have a history with another Japanese car manufacturer (Mazda) in the 1980s,” Mr Moffat said. “At the end of the day there were no opportunities for me in a Ford and I am very excited to be joining the Nissan factory team for 2013.”

It’s a similar story of renewal and opportunity for Mr Caruso, 29, who has long been regarded as one of the bright young stars of the category waiting to fully launch. But so far his career has brought just the solitary win.

Norton’s sponsorship, which in effect doubles its signage rights from one to two V8Supercars is accompanied by comprehensive activation that was still yet to be made public as this was written. However, Kelly Racing chairman John Crennan made it clear that the lure of being involved in a factory program was a key factor in its commitment.

“If we weren’t moving to Nissan I am wondering if we would have had the same level of success commercially because it is tough,” he said. “But we have been able to present a new product, a new dream, a new horizon without smoke and mirrors.”

It wasn’t all good news of course. Norton replaced Pepsi Max, which elected to take over naming rights sponsorship of both factory FPR Ford Falcons, while driver Karl Reindler and his sponsor Fair Dinkum Sheds also departed the operation.

But the most painful and clearly difficult situation was the shift to Nissan also effectively ended the chances of Holden-linked Greg Murphy staying with the Kellys. Never one to mince words, he was unimpressed with the way 2012 season had panned out after a promising first season with the Kellys in 2011, especially after he finished the summer driver ‘silly season’ without a full-time ride in 2013.