Production V8s for all: Kelly

Nissan’s newly unveiled production-based V8 Supercar engine will be challenged to match the power outputs of racing units employed by Ford and Holden.

That’s the prediction of Kelly Racing co-owner and driver, Todd Kelly, who is overseeing the development of Nissan's new V8 Supercar Altima and the Patrol-based V8 engine that will power it.

Mr Kelly also forecast today that Nissan’s decision to go with a modified version of a production engine should put pressure on Ford and Holden to follow the same path.

A 5.0-litre racing version of the VK56DE engine was revealed today at Kelly Racing’s Braeside (Vic) facility by Mr Kelly and Nissan Australia boss, Bill Peffer.

The first race engine goes on the dyno in a couple of weeks and should test in the first Altima V8 Supercar sometime in October. It will debut in Australia in 5.6-litre production form in the new generation Nissan Patrol that goes on-sale next January, before four Nissan Motorsport Altimas debut in the championship at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide next March.

Todd Kelly and brother Rick will race two of them in Jack Daniel’s colours, while the sponsorship and drivers for the other two cars is yet to be confirmed. In total, six cars and 18 engines will be built by Clipsal time -- a massive task for a team that has raced Holden Commodores throughout its four-year history.

“It will be challenging to get enough top-end power out of this engine,” Mr Kelly told motoring.com.au at the team's HQ today.

“We are confident we will have plenty of midrange to play with, but moving it up to 7000-7500rpm [V8 Supercar rev limit] will be a challenge.”

V8Supercar engines currently make around 485-495kW but the saving grace for Nissan could be the championship’s requirement that its DOHC 32-valve engine’s outputs and torque curve be in parity with Chevrolet and Ford SVO pushrod eight-valve units used by Commodore and Falcon racers. That parity will be set by V8 Supercar.

Mr Kelly said the advantage for the Holden and Ford engines lay in their purpose-developed cylinder-heads

“There is a little restriction in how far we can go... But given that it [VK56] has got four valves and the flow is slightly different in the four valves we are hoping that can compensate.”

Longer term Mr Kelly says that Nissan’s example in going for a production engine should be followed by Holden and Ford.

“The relevance the VK56 has to Nissan and Nissan road cars is huge, and that’s a good thing. Eventually Ford and Holden are going to have to move in that direction to have more relevance to what they actually sell.

“You can get the same block and cylinder-head on a car you can walk into a showroom and buy, which is really what V8 Supercars was originally all about.”

Mr Kelly also addressed question marks over the engineering capability at Kelly Racing in the wake of the recent departure of English veteran, Tony Dowe. Dowe recently left post as Performance Director to join the Walkinshaw Racing, which runs the factory Holden Racing Team.

Kelly Racing has announced former Mercedes F1 and Walkinshaw engineer Craig Spencer will join the team after the Sandown 500 in the newly created position of General Manager, Technical and Engineering Operations.

This is the latest in a series of engineering reorganisations at the team, although Todd Kelly has stayed in overall charge throughout.

“Our design engineering capabilities are unbelievable but our racetrack engineering has been changed a lot of times. I have never been content or comfortable where we have been with that,” Mr Kelly stated admitted.

“But with the current engineering lineup and having Craig Spencer coming into oversee them, this is the first time I am at ease that we can get the cars much further up the grid. I am very confident that will be a turning point to start building a fantastic engineering group and have cars up the front of the grid next year.”

Mr Kelly also believes the improvements to engineering structure will allow him to improve his own on-track performances, which have been patchy in recent years as he has split his mind between team issues and driving.

“To have the confidence in the engineering group will take a lot of load off, but nothing helps more than having a fast car. If we have fast cars then the whole thing will fall into line,” he said.

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