Todd Kelly doing more than flying down Conrod straight V8 driver Todd Kelly flies his own plane to Tasmania. TODD Kelly hit a top speed of 350km/h yesterday with the Nissan star swapping his V8 Supercar for a $500,000 aircraft he flew across Bass Strait. Proving every inch the top-gun, the former Bathurst champion turned pilot to fly eight of his race crew from Melbourne to Launceston for this weekend's second round of the V8 Supercars' championship beginning today. Kelly purchased a 1982 model Piper Chieftain twin-engined aircraft in 2004 after obtaining his pilot's licence and uses the aircraft to fly to events in Bathurst, Winton, and Symmons Plains. "Believe it or not, the car I drive is probably worth more than the plane," Kelly said. And it almost goes as fast. I imported the plane from America in 2005 after buying it from a mob in Indianapolis. A guy from Sydney actually went over and flew it all the way from the US back to Melbourne. I would never attempt that trip but I use it quite a lot and it is very convenient given all the travel I do. I took all the crew to the aero tests for the VE and regularly take it to Mildura where my family lives. Kelly is the brains behind Jack Daniels Racing's high profile switch from Holden to Nissan and is a renowned engineer with a love for engines. He hasn't been brave enough to stick his hands anywhere near his aircraft. "It has a top speed of 180 knots (350km/h) and is packing a couple of 540 cubic inch flat-six cylinder engines with turbochargers," he said. And, thankfully by law, I am not allowed to tinker with the engine which is probably a good thing. I dare say I would have had a go at modifying it if I was allowed. I have pretty much touched and changed everything on it that I have been allowed to. Kelly spent 12 months studying and training to obtain his licence, which was a life-long dream inspired by his love of military aircraft. "I always enjoyed looking at all the old war planes," Kelly said. I eventually thought I should go and have a trial flight and see what it is like to fly. I did that and loved it because it was all new. It was nothing like driving a car. From there I decided to go about getting my licence. I had had nothing to do with planes and had to learn everything from scratch. The whole challenge of learning something new and the whole buzz of flying really caught me. Aside from the joy it is also for convenience. It comes in handy with all the travel. Used to clocking over 300km/h hurtling down Conrod Straight at Bathurst, Kelly said he would have no hesitation flying a jumbo jet. "I would certainly give it a go," he said. But I can't guarantee everyone would be walking off the thing after I landed it. I have been lucky enough to fly a couple of cool planes, including a F-18 and a (RAAF) Roulette. Unfortunately for Nissan fans, Kelly is not expecting his V8 Supercar to be nearly as quick as his plane this weekend when the championship resumes in Tasmania with the new car expected to be down on horsepower. "This is going to be a difficult weekend for us," he said. We are expecting to struggle a bit. This place is so tight with the lap time that you can lose five spots in an instant. If we struggle coming out of the hair-pin with power, we will really struggle down the back straight.