I've been circle track racing a 93 Altima with a 2.4 with a fair amount of success. Late last season we got involved in a big wreck and totaled the car.

Been itching to get back into the game and a buddy called me yesterday and said he got in 2007 Nissan Altima 2.5L with extremely bad hail damage, insurance total, but car only has 70k miles on the motor and trans.

This is a perfect race car donor.. but its the automatic with the CVT

Since I'm circle track racing.. and generally, under race conditions.. I am always operating in the same RPM band.. 5000 to 7500rpm.. I don't do any standing starts, normally don't shift..

How would this CVT treat me ?

The idea of being in the optimal gear for torque everytime I step on the gas sounds really good. But I've raced several ATX's before where it felt like pudding when you stepped on the gas.

What are your opinions ?

CircleTrack wrote:I've been circle track racing a 93 Altima with a 2.4 with a fair amount of success. Late last season we got involved in a big wreck and totaled the car.

Been itching to get back into the game and a buddy called me yesterday and said he got in 2007 Nissan Altima 2.5L with extremely bad hail damage, insurance total, but car only has 70k miles on the motor and trans.

This is a perfect race car donor.. but its the automatic with the CVT

Since I'm circle track racing.. and generally, under race conditions.. I am always operating in the same RPM band.. 5000 to 7500rpm.. I don't do any standing starts, normally don't shift..

How would this CVT treat me ?

The idea of being in the optimal gear for torque everytime I step on the gas sounds really good. But I've raced several ATX's before where it felt like pudding when you stepped on the gas.

What are your opinions ?

Well, CVT has been used in racing, such as Formula 500 (think lightweight spec open wheel racer with motorcycle engines) and some gokarts. But I don;t think Nissan had racing in mind for a 3000+ lb family sedan with their CVT. I'd be more concerned about it holding up to the stressful application of racing more than its being competitive. If it were me, I'd look at something without a CVT.

With the car stripped and in race trim, it weights 2350lbs. fyi.

Endurance not withstanding, the question I'm most interested in is will it compete ?

My first experience with a CVT transmission was in a rental car and it seemed to me like the car could never decide what gear to be in. Going down the highway, the tach looked like it had ADHD.. 5000, then 3500, then 4000, then 4500.. every little rise in the road, every time I got behind a big truck, every time a gust of wind hit the car..

It was a horrible driving experience.. I'm afraid that is what it will be like on the track.

CircleTrack wrote:With the car stripped and in race trim, it weights 2350lbs. fyi.

Endurance not withstanding, the question I'm most interested in is will it compete ?

My first experience with a CVT transmission was in a rental car and it seemed to me like the car could never decide what gear to be in. Going down the highway, the tach looked like it had ADHD.. 5000, then 3500, then 4000, then 4500.. every little rise in the road, every time I got behind a big truck, every time a gust of wind hit the car..

It was a horrible driving experience.. I'm afraid that is what it will be like on the track.

It'll probably be a similar driving exerience. As far as it being competitive, that depends on what you're competing against. But I think you missed my point about the weight factor. A Formula 500 car weighs just 800 lbs, go karts are maybe 400 lbs (with driver). Even stripped in race trim, that Altima is literally TRIPLE the weight of the formula car. It's a huge difference. Plus early nissan CVT's were not known for their long term liability in ordinary use. So beating on one at a race track puts additional stress on what already is a weak component. My feeling is if you're gonna spend the money/effort to prepare a car for a track campaign, you might want to use something that's more likely to hold up.
And you can't win unless you finish.

Just curious, do you see any Altima CVT's that participate at your track events? If not, then I think that might be a hint that it's not a great idea.

Well, the mid 2000's type cars are just now falling into the affordable range, when you can start buying them for under a $1000, then they are ready to race. So no, no one is racing them there now, but 10 years ago, no one was racing a DOHC engine and now everyone is.

My automatic held up every bit as good as my manual, generally, the car never has to shift. We don't shift in the manual or the automatic. Like to get it into the right gear and just leave it there.

Could a six speed automatic be programmed to not shift ?

CircleTrack wrote:Well, the mid 2000's type cars are just now falling into the affordable range, when you can start buying them for under a $1000, then they are ready to race. So no, no one is racing them there now, but 10 years ago, no one was racing a DOHC engine and now everyone is.

My automatic held up every bit as good as my manual, generally, the car never has to shift. We don't shift in the manual or the automatic. Like to get it into the right gear and just leave it there.

Could a six speed automatic be programmed to not shift ?

I imagine so, but I'm not a mechanic. What kinda cars are your competitors driving?
If you want to compare your old Alti's automatic transmission to the next generation Alti's CVT, please keep in mind your old automatic did not have any serious reliability problems reported (which suggests durabilty). The CVT did. Its up to you if you want to dismiss a warning sign like that.