Nissan has unveiled its new V8 engine that will be used to power the Nissan V8 Supercar in the 2013 season. The ‘VK56DE’ engine is derived from the same unit that will power the upcoming 2013 Nissan Patrol.
Obviously there is some considerable work done to the engine to separate it from its production counterpart, especially to help it cope with racing conditions. However, Nissan is boasting the fact that it is the only manufacturer to be racing with a production vehicle engine.
The folks at NISMO have tuned and honed the engine to extract optimum performance, as well as resized the unit from 5.6 litres to comply with the usual 5.0 litre capacity of V8 Supercars.
It features 32 valves and twin overhead cams, a first for V8 Supercars, and fuel injection with a MoTeC engine computer. Power output will also comply with the series regulations of around 450-470kW, with an engine speed limit of 7500rpm.
The engine has been used in the Nissan GT-R GT1 race car which competed in the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011, where the GT-R took victory. It will be interesting to see how the unit runs up against the Holdens and Fords next year.
Nissan Racing Team director Todd Kelly spoke about the new engine at its unveiling earlier today. He said,
“The unveiling of the VK56DE engine is a key milestone in Nissan Motorsport’s journey to the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship grid.
“Everyone involved in Nissan Motorsport is proud of the fact that we will race a production-based engine and that we will truly be ‘Powered By Nissan’.
“A huge amount of time and effort has gone into getting the first VK56DE completed and the result is a spectacular looking engine.
“There is still a lot of work to do but we’re proud to unveil our Nissan engine technology today at our team’s facility.”
The engine will be built in the refurbished Kelly Racing facility, which is set to be finalised by January 1, 2013. The facility will be renamed as Nissan Motorsport.
The 19-department facility features a dyno cell, CNC machining equipment, a carbon fibre manufacturing department, and the new engine assembly with former NISMO employee Shigeru Kugimiya on hand.
At this point, the all-new Nissan Altima V8 Supercar is yet to be revealed. All is expected to be unveiled later this year.
