Nissan Kelly Supercar takes shape

The first of Kelly Racing's Nissan Altima V8 Supercars (V8SC) is rapidly taking shape at the operation's Melbourne headquarters and could be ready for testing as early as August, control parts permitting. That's the news from team principal and V8SC driver, Todd Kelly.

Speaking at last night's local launch of the MY2012 Nissan GT-R in Tasmania, Kelly was genuinely enthusiastic about the progress the team had made with the new silhouette-style racecar and the reception the team had received since the news of its switch to the Japanese marque was made public.

"To be honest I was apprehensive about how some of our fans would take the news but the response has been overwhelmingly positive," Kelly told motoring.com.au.

"I've raced for Holden for 15 years -- only for Holden, in fact -- so I was ready to fire back if there was some backlash but there has been none. In fact, some of our sponsors are already pushing us to re-sign for next year. That doesn't normally happen until later in the season," he said.

Kelly said the first of the team's Nissan-powered Car of the Future V8 racer has reached completed 'core' chassis stage and proudly showed motoring.com.au shots of the heavily caged centre structure of the car. He stated the team was expecting a panel set to arrive via air freight to Australia in the next week.

The new Nissan racer is widely tipped to be a representation of the new Nissan Altima  (2013 model teaser pic shown) which is set to make its debut at the New York Motor Show next month. It will eventually replace Maxima in the local line-up.

Kelly said he expected the racecar to be significantly slipperier in aerodynamic terms than the existing Ford and Holden cars. But he commented that Kelly Racing and Nissan were eager to ensure the new V8Supercar was clearly representative of the new roadcar.

"We're not going to be changing [decreasing] windscreen angles or that sort of thing -- it has to look like the real road car. We'll be having to look for ways to add drag," he commented.

Kelly said the team was reviewing its options regarding aero testing of the new car. He favours a controlled wind-tunnel test as opposed to the runway-style of testing V8SC has conducted in the past.

According to Kelly, despite the change of manufacturers, he believes his operation is well advanced of most of the other V8 teams in its preparation for the Car of the Future (CofTF) rollout. He said Kelly Racing would, in fact, be supplying chassis kits for HRT and Garry Rogers' operation.

Indeed, ironically it seems likely that V8SC contracted component suppliers will be the hold up if the teams do not make the first scheduled Car of the Future test day in August.

"We've ordered every control component we can but some like fuel cells don't look like arriving until July," Kelly explained.

Kelly also dismissed claims the new cars would be cheaper to build or run.

A question mark remains on the team's choice of engine, though he admits his operation has been dyno testing Nissan V8s for around nine months.

"We took the decision that if we weren't going to be able to sign off the deal until end of 2011 or start of 2012, then we needed to invest and get a head-start on engine development," he told motoring.com.au

That said Kelly is remaining tight-lipped on exactly which engine his boffins having been working on.

"It's a Nissan V8," he quipped.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...