AERO CHANGE FOR NISSAN ALTIMA
Areo change for Nissan Altima – Photo: InSyde Media
The Nissan Altima will go into its final season with a small aerodynamic tweak.
By MARK FOGARTY
Supercars has confirmed that the Altima L33 will race in 2019 with “an adjustment” to the height of the gurney flap on the rear wing.
No further official details were provided, but Kelly Racing co-owner, Todd Kelly, revealed that the gurney flap had been trimmed – presumably to reduce high-speed air drag.
According to Kelly, the change is “a minor adjustment to the gurney which was lowered slightly” following the recent VCAT (Supercars Controlled Aerodynamic Testing) trials.
The gurney flap is a raised strip across the trailing edge of a wing used to adjust downforce and drag.
It is named after American racing legend Dan Gurney, who first used the trim tab in motorsport in 1971 on his Indycar team’s open-wheel racer.
The tweak for the Altima was approved earlier this week by the rule-making Supercars Commission following the three-way straight-line aero testing between the new Ford Mustang, Holden Commodore ZB and Altima.
The Commission also approved the final front splitter, side skirts and rear wing aero kit combination for the Mustang body shape, which will race in Supercars for the first time next year.
There will be no change to the aerodynamic package of the ZB Commodore, which bowed this year.
Cars were run in the nine-day VCAT exercise at an airstrip in southern NSW by the official Ford, Holden and Nissan homologation teams – DJR Team Penske, Triple Eight Race Engineering and Kelly Racing respectively.
VCAT was overseen by Supercars’ new head of motorsport Adrian Burgess alongside departing technical and sporting director David Stuart.
“The purpose of the VCAT is to balance the competing models and we achieved that with a great outcome for the competitors,” Burgess said. “Any adjustments made to the cars during VCAT is a matter for the homologating teams and are confidential to that process.”
Oddly, shortly after releasing Burgess’s non-committal statement, Supercars confirmed that “there was an adjustment made to the gurney height of the Altima”.
Nissan was the first new make to enter Supercars under the Car Of The Future rules in 2013, with Kelly Racing rebranding as Nissan Motorsport Australia to run four Altimas with factory backing for six years.
Following Nissan’s withdrawal at the end of this season, Kelly Racing is reborn and will continue with its quartet of Altimas in 2019.
The gurney flap adjustment is the first alteration of the Altima’s homologated aero body kit since an upgrade introduced in 2015.
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