The Nissan 350Z production car team will make its Free State début at the Phakisa Freeway this weekend when Nissan’s motorsport division returns to this circuit for the first time in four years.
The Nissan 350Z production car team will make its Free State début at the Phakisa Freeway this weekend when Nissan’s motorsport division returns to this circuit for the first time in four years.
When Nissan was last represented in the Production Car Championship, four-time touring car champ Giniel de Villiers was at the helm of the virtually-unbeatable Nissan Primera.
This time round, Duncan Vos and Gary Formato will be piloting the Nissan 350Zs at their first appearances in the Free State this season. The only official works racing 350Zs outside of Japan enjoyed a successful race début at Kyalami in February before enthralling crowds at Killarney earlier this month.
The Cape leg of the championship was highlighted by a second-place finish in race one, and the 350Z’s first pole position in race two, much to the delight of team manager Glyn Hall.
“After just two race meetings we can be reasonably pleased with our progress,” said Hall. “Our performance in Cape Town showed that we can at least run up front with the established teams, who have been at this for some years.
“Since the Killarney race meeting we have made a few changes. We have made some technical improvements to the brakes and will revert for the meantime to a manual system while we further develop the production car’s ABS to suit the racing car.
“Phakisa is a circuit renowned for its low grip characteristics. The tyres tend to ‘grain’ when they have a lot of rubber on them and the graining causes the tyre to slide across the surface. Dust makes the graining worse, but we hear that dust isn’t as much of a problem today as it was when we were here with the touring cars,” he added.
