Former Nissan Motorsport Altima for sale
It’s a big month for ex-Supercars promotional vehicles, with an Altima used by Nissan Motorsport during the latter stages of its tenure appearing in the classifieds.
Nissan’s most recent stint in Supercars was brief, with the factory-backed, Kelly family-run effort lasting from 2013 to 2018, during which time just two wins were scored by the Altima.
The Altima road car itself wasn’t the most popular offering locally, with just 4648 examples sold between 2013 and 2017, though this particular one has a less tenuous connection to those which raced in the Supercars Championship than most.
Listed on Facebook Marketplace in Perth, a former Altima promotional car built by Kelly Racing for the 2016 and 2017 seasons is up for sale, complete in its race replica livery.
Wearing the Sengled-backed colours which Rick Kelly ran in 2017, the Altima includes the body kit from the early-Car of the Future (COTF) Supercars, with its rear wing dating back to the central-mounted design of 2013 to 2014.
Running on Racer Industries’ 18-inch replicas of the control wheels used by Supercars teams in the period, the cosmetic changes to the Altima have only been made on the outside.
Controversially, the front-wheel drive Altima produced just 127kW and 230Nm from its 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine, making it the least powerful vehicle a Supercars racer was ever based on, though 3.5-litre V6 versions upped outputs to 183kW and 312Nm. All Altimas featured a single-speed continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).
That’s in contrast to the Altima Supercar, which was powered by a 5.0-litre V8 engine (borrowed from the Patrol) driving the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential transaxle.
This particular Altima is claimed to have racked up approximately 80,000km since new, with its current price of $20,000 being significantly higher than that of most standard versions available.
It’s also dearer than a former Triple Eight ZB Holden Commodore show car, which was listed last month by Collectable Classics & Complete Auto Solutions for $16,888.
