What's this Delta Wing car running in Petite LeMans?

[LeeH]

Just tuned in to the live stream and saw this go by----->

[Noah930]

Isn't that the car that was made by ex-Ganassi and AAR guys? Powered by Nissan. It's run in the experimental class, designed to push the (green) limits of what we consider a traditional racecar. It has run at the last 2 LeMans and Petit LM.

[cashflyer]

deltawing - Home

DeltaWing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The DeltaWing is a racing car designed by Ben Bowlby and debuted at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. The entry was run under the Project 56 name, composed of Ben Bowlby (design), Dan Gurney's All American Racers (constructor), Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing (racing team) and International Motor Sports Association owner Don Panoz (managing partner). Nissan's NISMO division provided the engine in return for naming rights for part of 2012.


Another Ben Bowlby design:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_ZEOD_RC

[LeeH]

2012? Makes me feel kind of out of touch!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by LeeH

2012? Makes me feel kind of out of touch!

No kidding, but then I rarely get watch the races, kind of wish I did more, but I guess glad I'm not glued to the TV.

So how does this thing do/perform? How does it stack up against the competition?

[sand_man]

Some pictures i took during the 2013 season:

Sebring 2013, open cockpit car:


VIR 2013 closed cockpit car:

[sand_man]

[TheMentat]

Seems silly to me. That thing has got to be an absolute pig in the corners... No downforce, no front track width and a big rear weight bias.

[Texlexic]

Been watching all day for free on imsa dot com.
The DeltaWing has been leading from the beginning. Taking advantage of better mileage on long runs, as it was designed to do.

[sand_man]

Deltawing front tires:

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

Seems silly to me. That thing has got to be an absolute pig in the corners... No downforce, no front track width and a big rear weight bias.

Actually, its down force is quite good. A common problem in conventional design is that the front of the car pushes the air out of the way for the rear of the car to get downforce, there is a constant fight for rear downforce and inefficient things are done to gain it, such as scooping large amounts of air under the front of the car to be released at the rear, front lift traded for rear downforce.

With the delta wing, because it fans out at the rear, fresh air hits the rear of the car, and rear downforce is great, at little cost to drag. Also, a weight concentration and downforce balance are both rear wards, where as with most cars the weight concentration is to the rear, and the downforce is to the front.(imbalance).

Because the front is light, and far from the CG, it doesn't take as much force to rotate.

The car's primary asset, is it combines low drag, with high rear downforce.

You'll notice the absence of a giant rear wing compared to what it races against - that is because the body itself can generate the needed downforce as the rear body work is in much cleaner air.

The amount of grip generated from downforce is in relation to the mass that the tire pushes with. For example, 300lb on a wheel, +300lb of downforce nearly doubles your force to grip with relative to mass. If the front tires have 100lb's of weight on them, 300lb of down force is now four times the force available for grip.

If your car has half the power, half the drag, and half the weight, it can be just as fast with half the downforce.

I think its something other than Nissan in the DW though.

[sand_man]

You get the feeling that a Top Fuel dragster played a part in the overall styling...

[sand_man]

A bit of a stretch, I know. Especially considering that huge rear wing, but...

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by sand_man

You get the feeling that a Top Fuel dragster played a part in the overall styling...

The key design influence IIRC was to combine the aerodynamic downforce and safety of a race car, with the smaller lighter engine and frame demands of a motorcycle.

Perhaps racing motorcycle side cars would be the closest prior thing out there.




As far as modern racing cars, it really though somewhat on its own and new. It exists to challenge the way rules are written showing that you keep from becoming too restrictive you can get fresh ideas built. Variety makes for more exciting races.

[rfuerst911sc]

I was at the race yesterday the Delta Wing did very well and ended up 4th overall if I remember correctly. Not sure if the chassis can except other engine configurations but I'd like to see customer based/supported efforts.

[s_morrison57]

that's 1 fugly car, carbon fiber or not. Whats next? 4 door?

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by s_morrison57

that's 1 fugly car, carbon fiber or not. Whats next? 4 door?

The basic idea for this car came about a number of years ago when IndyCar (or whatever they call that series these days) was looking for a new, safer, less expensive car.

In my opinion, the delta wing is a great innovation - one of the few clean sheet innovations in racing in a long, long time; I was disappointed that this idea was rejected and the butt-ugly turd that is the modern Indy racer was given the go ahead.

I'm glad to see that engineers from many different manufacturers have seen the worth of this design and have kept the idea moving forward. Ganassi was involved early on, then Nissan worked with it for a while, and now these guys.

As to your four-door comment, what would be the benefit of a four-door race car?
Oh, wait, we already have that with NASCAR. The benefit is plenty of room for sponsor decals.

[JanArm73]

The DeltaWing race team is based out of Don Panoz' operations in Braselton GA. Panoz and Ganassi took the concept to endurance racing after Indy rejected the concept in 2010. Bowlby designed while working foe DeltaWing Project 56, but then jumped to Nissan and built the same car with a different powertrain. Panoz filed an intellectual property theft lawsuit because even though bowlby did the work the design belongs to Project 56. It wasn't his to take. Been lots written about it since last year. Search DeltaWing on the Car and Driver, AutoWeek, AutoBlog and Jalopnik sites. I read a bunch on the DeltaWingTech page on Facebook. From what I read, Nissan provided an engine in 2012 for naming rights but never paid the multi-million dollar sponsorship. They were only involved for a short time, like 8 months or something. The car uses an Élan engine now.

Drivers say it drives just like a regular race car, but you just have to be mindful of the front placement on the apex. I think Panoz is trying to bring the technology to street cars. I'm all for lighter cars with good mileage and comparable performance.

[intakexhaust]

^^^ Wasn't Dan Gurney involved from the inception?

[herr_oberst]

^^ Yeah, probably. Ganassi's involvement was probably money and marketing. I didn't read the WIKI on it, but just went from recollection. I just remember being so disappointed that this wasn't the design chosen. Could have changed everything.

But I'm glad that endurance racing has embraced it a little....