Ingall reflects on surprise Nissan test

Ingall was given a surprise call-up to test for the squad, as it continues to make in-roads on its technical package, and looks to finalise its enduro line-up for 2016.

The 2005 series champ, who made starts for both Prodrive Racing Australia and the Holden Racing Team last season, banked laps behind the wheel of Rick Kelly’s #15 Altima.

“It never ceases to amaze me that even though under the skin of all of these cars is predominately the same chassis, it’s quite staggering how different it is with the different aero and the shape of them and how each team tunes them,” explained Ingall.

“You never know what to expect, but I actually felt very comfortable in car straight away.

“Drivers have their own technique, how they like to approach it, I think the Nissan certainly has what I like in a car. I like something that is a very stable platform and has a reasonable amount of turn in the car as well. It did everything it was supposed to do and I felt good about it out of the gate.

“The ergonomics were a lot different because the Altima has the windscreen so far forward, it’s quite different to the Falcon and Commodore.

“Once you get in the car it felt quite good and the vision was excellent.”

Old-school style hits the mark

According to Ingall, the Altima platform has some traits that were clearly inspired by pre-Car of the Future thinking.

“You do pick up a lot from commentary; you’re watching monitors all day, including in-car footage. You can definitely see different traits on how drivers extract the speed out for the cars,” he added.

“There was a big shift in Car of the Future from the previous generation car in how you drive them. Because Rick and Todd have driven both – with a lot of other guys only having come in during the Car of the Future – when you’ve done a lot of kays in the older car you’ll have an idea on what makes them quick and somehow incorporate that into this car.

“I think that’s why I like it, the way the Todd and Rick have set them is because they’ve been used to the previous generation of cars. A bit of that is involved in this car and I think that’s a good thing.”

Testing experience “enjoyable”

With his race weekend duties now centred around the Fox Sports coverage, Ingall admitted it was nice to get back behind the wheel for a day of proper testing.

“It’s always good to jump in a car again and I really enjoy testing,” he said.

“I think it comes from the European racing background where you did so much testing and were in a car two to three days a week in between rounds. I enjoy that part of it and the challenge of trying to make the car go quicker without the stresses and strains of a race meeting.

“I really enjoyed the day and working with the team. You get some teams that you gel with straight away and obviously there’s a few guys here I’ve known for a few years as well.

“I think ‘enjoyable’ is the right term to use, not only from behind the wheel, but also outside the car.”