source:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/motor/nissan-to-join-v8-supercars-comp...

looks like I'll be going to clipsal 500 next year

wow more than a two horse race.
funny they still wont let toyota in.
actually thinking back wasnt it the skylines dominance that proceeded the two horse race.
bring back the show room challenge. take it off the showroom floor, add a roll cage and safety upgrades then race the bastard. joe average can then go and buy roughly the same car on monday

Second that, better than same car different body.

Gee, wow, they've finally announced it. I mean was about the worst kept secret in motorsport wasn't it ???

Hardly surprising with the increasing lead that Skaife has been taking on the organizing side, his very loooooooooong history with Nissan and the fairly obvious cooling of support for the category funding wise from both the Blue and Red camps.

Good move for Nissan too I reckon... a lot of pro-Nissan guys in motorsport still from the Godzilla and even Seton days, so they'll get a fan base pretty quickly. Curious about their colour tho... will they stay traditional with Red and Blue over White... or will they go all new-age enviro-friendly and launch as Green ???

LOL.

just open this thread and as I was reading, it was anounced on the radio and it was the first I have heard of it either way.

LOLOLOLOL

The problem is that the cars are just about identical. All of the checks and balances are there to provide an even playing field, sure, but then it isn't really a ford or holden product anymore is it? There are heaps of single make events that you can watch if you are into the art of racing - Formula Vee, HQ, Excel Cup etc - but it is hard to see why the Holden and Ford fans still see these vehicles as their brand to the point of violence between each other over damn near identical vehicles.

I agree with Barls - Showroom challenge all the way. Or even a Redex trial with Stock standard vehicles. I love the sound of the V8s, but they have all become so homogenised in the series that it has become a bit of a bore.

So with all the control parts etc, does this mean the Nissan will just be a Falcodore with Nissan badges?

Car of the future is basically the same underneath with different panels and badges. Its not holden or ford its CAR OF THE FUTURE. I heard Alan Moffit sprouting about how they did this in nascar and the fans didn't care and still waived their fans. This is not USA, we care about the car not just the drivers and the badges. Bring back old group A with BMW, Nissans etc etc
THIS IS NOT AMERICA

Not Falcadores anymore. Now they are called Falcdatadores!
But what sort of Datsun will the race? Surely not the Tiida.

4wd twin turbo Micra?

This is interesting stuff. To all those asking about the formula, yes, the Car of the Future is a control chassis, with control suspension, gearbox and electronics. Teams can choose to use either an engine from their manufacturer which fits within the rules, or a "control engine", which I presume will be a small-block Chev or similar. The replica body panels and aero package will basically be developed by the ruling body, meaning that all of the teams with the same manufacturer will have the same body panels and spoilers. So, in other words, the teams do not have any freedom to design their car and every manufacturer's car will be exactly the same except for body panels and engine. That means that front-wheel-drive sedans from Nissan or Toyota would be raced with a 5 litre pushrod V8 driving the rear wheels, via a sequential transaxle in the rear of the car. I don't believe that any parts from the actual production car will be retained. Currently the V8 Supercars retain the front doors from the production car and that's about it.

It's a pretty safe bet that Nissan will be racing the Altima, which is a Camry-sized front wheel drive car that will be replacing the Maxima very soon. There are strong rumours also that Chrysler will also be joining in the fun and racing the new generation 300C. I think it will be an interesting time to watch, for sure! Something had to be done before the series became a total whitewash, especially with Holden winning 24 races out of 28 last year! Ford just don't have the money to support teams to compete with Holden. Nissan, on the other hand, seems to be going in hard with a $15 million budget. What Rick and Todd Kelly can do with $15 million at the wheel of a Nissan V8 Supercar remains to be seen.

drove through Wakefield Rd. they're already putting barrier and that up for adelaide clipsal 500
I guess I'll go this year anyway
but the first thought that came to mind was the R35 with V8 lol

Agreed narumi, I keep picturing MINE's R34 with a 5ltr V8 going through Adelaide.
That would definitely be a site to see!

Here's a current Altima with a body kit. Maybe this could look good as a V8 Supercar?

it'll be interesting to see how much "assistance" Nissan gets from the controlling parties to ensure they see some results in their first year in order to keep the interest going.

What a pity the 'Car of the Future' committee didn't get together with the German V8 championship organisers (the DTM - Deusche Tourenwagen Masters) to come up with an international standard design. That way we could have seen the current V8 Supercars from Mercedes, BMW and Audi competing as well, for minimum cost. And our cars could have competed in Europe.

As VW fans, we should be happy that Audi were the 2011 champions. Audi were also the champions in 2008 and 2009. Here are the basic German V8 Supercar rules:

http://www.dtm.com/reglement_t.php 

lol... love the number of wings on the rear quarter panels!!!

I don't think that we really want V8 Supercar to merge with DTM, that would be terrible. V8 Supercar has it's own unique identity. The most obvious difference being that DTM cars are a lot more high-tech and look nothing like production cars! Too many wings and spoilers for my liking. Keep the aero aids to a minimum and the cars look much more like street cars, even if they aren't real bodyshells. All those aero aids would just get in the way when the V8 drivers are swapping paint and rubbing panels!

I dunno about that, the whole problem is that the V8 Supercars' 'identity' has become stale and monotonous - hence the new regulations to allow Nissan, Chrysler and others to take part. Why shouldn't we have high-tech V8 racers too?

Have a look at the footage of the A5 V8 race car Audi will be running in the DTM this year. Looks a lot like an A5 to me! Who wouldn't love to see these racing here? (put it on large screen)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWZc3VXA49o 

A large part of the reason for the 'Car of the Future' formula is to cut costs. V8 Supercar are claiming that the cars are only supposed to cost approximately $250,000 each. I'm not sure what a DTM car costs, but I bet it's a lot more! All that technology costs money. The DTM cars make a lot more extensive use of carbon fibre in their chassis, whereas the Car of the Future is good old-fashioned steel tube. I'm sure that carbon monocoque tubs are not cheap! Add in all of the wind tunnel time and fancy electronics and the smaller V8 Supercar teams' budgets would be swallowed whole in no time.

That's true, a DTM car certainly would be more expensive, given the much greater use of technology, but their race teams and their market is much bigger too. Last year there were rounds of the DTM held in Holland, Spain, Austria and the UK (at Brands Hatch), and the year before they had a round in Shanghai. The V8 Supercars went to Shanghai in 2005 but this was discontinued afterwards; perhaps the two formulas are already competing against one another in the marketplace. I know the V8s want to race in Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea and even in the USA. I was hoping the V8 and the DTM rules could move closer together to allow cars to race in both series with little changes.

I've read that the current V8 Supercar budget is around $600,000 for a car plus $100,000+ for engines. The big team budgets are around $10 mil a season for two cars; the 2006 'TREC' salary cap of $6.7 mil was quickly scrapped. So yes a change to $250,000 each is a big cost saving.

I'd still much rather watch V8 Audis racing against Fords and Holdens than Nissans! I just don't know if it can happen.

we need racing like this here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N_1GqyNYAw&feature=g-u-u&context=G263...

I lol'd at the lexus in this video, looks so slow. the gt2 on the other hand

Same Same........ Havent followed aussie racing since they killed the turbo. Would be good if they said you could race any car you like as long as it had 4 doors and capped everyones power at 600 horsepower, now THAT I would watch.

im definately excited that the supercars are expanding and it will be a spectacular event next year...its been a while..i think two decades since nissan
raced in it....something to look forward to next year....ps all you guys from adelaide there is a free entry this weekend to the clipsal for test runs and stuff...
giving the heads up

next year will just be a full size version of this http://www.aussieracingcars.com.au/image-gallery/2011/clipsal.html  though its not far removed now. They'll have to stretch and pull the nissan to fit the chassis, but they are already doing similar things cut and shutting the falcadores. The VE commodore was longer than the BF falcon so had to be cut at the C pillar. And I think the new falcon is also longer than a BF so is now shortened to match the short commodore?

Showroom showdown doesnt work despite all the hopeless romantics asking for it. There already is an Australian production car championship. Not many know about it, even less watch it. Other than F1, V8s are the only things Australians on a whole watch. Its not that the others dont get aired on TV either.

The old way didnt work at all. It was a constant battle to trim holden wings and undertrays to try and introduce some parity. Nobody turns up if the outcome is determined before the flag drop . You knew a holden was going to win, and most of the time it was the HRT team that would be at the front of those. The new way is very even racing. Any one of say 15 cars is a chance of winning on the day. If you are watching it for the sport and not the colour of a flag its an exciting series. To me it doesnt matter if the only factory part is a tail light lense. So long as the Kellys and James COurtney dont win I am happy. So sorry Nissan, I'll be cheering against you from the outset. Just not for the same reasons the rest of the knuckle dragging fraternity are booing for.