Nissan Altima to undergo big changes for 2014 V8 Supercars

Nissan and Kelly Racing are hard at work in preparation for a number of planned changes to the car ahead of the 2014 V8 Supercars season, mainly focused on engine and aerodynamics.
“We were down on engine speed and straight line speed at the beginning of the year,” said Kelly Racing co-owner and driver Rick Kelly to the Daily Telegraph.

“We suspected the engine was to blame for both. As we improved the engine the straight line speed was still down. At Bathurst we were 10km/h off the rest of the field.”

Nissan has been reported to describe their V8 Supercars debut season as ”a $5 million waste”, blaming a ”low-tech” aerodynamics parity test ahead of the season. The test was conducted on a drag-strip where the cars were accelerated to top speed and a measurement was then made how far they rolled.

The V8 Supercars organisation has after a dialogue with Nissan granted them to redesign the aero package ahead of the 2014 season and to test the cars again, along with the new Volvo S60. Aerodynamics expert Ben Bowlby, who designed the Delta Wing for Le Mans, will be in charge of the new aero package for the Altima.
”We knew it was an aero problem then and while frustrating, it is great that we know what is wrong and have been given permission to do something about it,” said Kelly.