Nissan V8 Heads for Japan

Nismo in Japan has promised to devote one of its engineers full-time for two months to improving the performance of the 5.0-litre version of the VK56DE engine used in the Altima V8 Supercar.

An example of the engine was due to be crated up at Nissan Motorsport in Melbourne and shipped to Nismo’s Yokohama global headquarters late this week.

The version of the engine shipped is the ‘Bathurst’ specification with the latest generation cylinder head development work that proved troublesome at the recent ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600, where two engines suffered three failures between them. 

“At least one guy is dedicated for two months,” Nismo global president Shoichi Miyatani confirmed to v8supercars.com.au. “Depending on the needs I may have to allocate some more people for a week or days. But it depends on that guy’s assessment.”

The decision for Nissan global motorsport and performance vehicle development partner to get more deeply involved in the engine’s development reflects a directive from high within the company top global management to get the Kelly family-owned team more competitive.

In its first year of V8 Supercars competition, the production-based multi-valve VK56DE has lagged behind the long established Ford and Holden push-rod V8s in terms of outright power and torque, their delivery curves and fuel economy.

The other new engine introduced this year, the AMG M159, appears to be making more progress sooner in the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG.

Nissan Motorsport technical director, co-owner and driver Todd Kelly said Nismo would face a significant challenge extracting significant gains from the VK-based engine.

“It is a pretty tough category we have over here because it is one of the few categories in the world where there is a set of rules and you can make as much power as you possibly can within those rules,” he explained.

“In most categories now they are capped at a set output and most categories have an air restrictor and things like that to bring the power back. That’s what Nismo has mainly dealt with from what I understand. 

“So I think they will find it quite challenging, but in saying that, with their equipment they have got, if anyone can get more out of it than what we have got then it should be those guys.”

Attempts by V8 Supercars to redress the fuel consumption imbalance between the push-rod and multi-valve engines this year have included reblended ethanol fuel at Winton, minimum pit stops specified for all cars at Sandown and Bathurst and a fuel use minimum on the Gold Coast.

But that didn’t seem to help the Nissans significantly as they couldn’t get into the top 10 at either the Wilson Security Sandown 500 or the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. However, they were more competitive on the Gold Coast, where James Moffat qualified on the front row in his Norton Altima on Sunday and Rick Kelly and Karl Reindler brought their Jack Daniel’s Altima home sixth. 

Nismo engineers have visited Australia and made suggestions to the Kellys on how to improve engine performance and there has been constant phone and email dialogue. But Miyatani says these actions had proved inadequate.

“Phone calls and emails don’t really work, particularly between Japanese and Australians due to some language problems,” he explained. “So that’s why I sent our engineers to Australia twice, but unfortunately we couldn’t see the performance results.

“So we decided to send the engine over and we’ll have a look at it in our Nismo facility and we will develop it to a certain level. So that’s what we are doing.” 

Nissan Motorsport Innovations boss Ben Bowlby is also providing the Australian team with guidance, as it is suspected the Altima’s high-speed performance issues are also related to aerodynamics.

Miyatani said Nismo may also provide Nissan Motorsport with assistance on pit stops and team operations based on its experience racing in Japanese Super GT.

“But each race has its own unique character so the lessons and our skills acquired in Japan for Super GT may not work in Australia. We have to see whether our skills are helpful for them or not.”