The Nissan Altima gets a V8 and goes supercar - Gizmag
The Nissan Altima is one of the last cars that you'd ever think of as a "supercar. Nissan unveiled the car in Melbourne in anticipation of participating in Australia's V8 Supercars Championship next season. Nissan announced its invasion of the Ford and Holden territory of V8 Supercars racing earlier this year, returning to Australian Touring Car Championship title racing after a 20-year absence. Key to the Altima's transformation into a V8 Supercar was converting the production VK56DE engine, which appears in Nissan models like the North American Titan, Armada and Pathfinder, into a race-ready powerplant within V8 Supercars regulations. Nissan said last month that it will be the only manufacturer to use a production engine in V8 Supercars competition. Nissan carefully constructed the Altima V8 to the new "Car of the Future" regulations. Nissan hasn't released much other information about the car's build, but it still needs to work through homologation (the race approval process) with an emphasis on the car's aerodynamics package. Once the car is approved, Nissan will begin circuit testing in anticipation of its debut at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide in February/March. Source: www.gizmag.com
