V8 Supercars: Nissan surprised by car's pace on test debut
Nissan's V8 Supercars test debut went even better than the team could have hoped, according to drivers Rick and Todd Kelly
Two of the Kelly family team's four new Altimas took part in the official pre-season test at Eastern Creek on Friday, with Rick Kelly going fifth fastest.
Kelly was 0.6565 seconds down on pacesetter Jason Bright, and the fastest non-Holden in the 25-car field.
Todd Kelly said the result was amazing given that his brother's car had not run at wheel prior to the practice day.
"The pace has been, I'd almost say surprising," he admitted.
"We still have a lot of work to do on the engine side still by refining our engine package, but the way the car is handling has probably masked that and almost overcome it."
Rick Kelly insisted that Nissan had stuck to a relatively conservative programme for the test.
"The first hour we just worked through the initial electrical things and bits and pieces we had to sort out to make sure everything was working well," he said.
"An hour and a half into the day we ran our first set of tyres and at that point it took us straight to the top three, which is very exciting.
"Everyone's not necessarily trying to go fast, but working through their programmes and so are we, so for us to show that amount of speed up front I think is very promising."
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