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The DeltaWing is a racing car designed by American race car designer and engineer Ben Bowlby and debuted at the
2012 24 Hours of Le Mans The 80th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''80e 24 Heures du Mans'') was an 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 16 to 17 June 2012 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le ...
. The entry was run under the Project 56 name, composed of Ben Bowlby (design),
Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, ...
's
All American Racers All American Racers is an American auto racing team and constructor based in Santa Ana, California. Founded by Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby in 1964, All American Racers initially participated in American sports car and Champ Car races as well a ...
(constructor), Duncan Dayton's
Highcroft Racing Highcroft Racing was an American auto racing team based out of Danbury, Connecticut and founded by driver Duncan Dayton in 1989. Initially founded for Dayton's involvement in historic motorsport, specifically the restoration and preparation of cla ...
(racing team) and
International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dire ...
owner
Don Panoz Donald Panoz ( or ; February 13, 1935 – September 11, 2018) was an American entrepreneur who founded various pharmaceutical companies. Early life Panoz was an Italian-American. His father, Eugene Panunzio, immigrated to the United States f ...
(managing partner). Nissan's
NISMO , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...
division provided the engine in return for naming rights for part of 2012. The DeltaWing is built and maintained at
Panoz Panoz is an American manufacturer of sports automobiles founded in 1989 as Panoz Auto Development by Dan Panoz, son of Don Panoz. Panoz products have included the Panoz Roadster and AIV Roadster, the Panoz Esperante, and the Panoz Avezzano. Pa ...
headquarters in
Braselton, Georgia Braselton ( ) is a town in Barrow, Gwinnett, Hall, and Jackson counties in the U.S. state of Georgia, approximately northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 7,511, and in 2018 the estimated population was 11,6 ...
U.S.A.


History

The project began in January 2009, when Bowlby created a potential new
IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...
design for the 2012 season. With financial backing from
Chip Ganassi Floyd Ganassi Jr. (born May 24, 1958) better known as Chip Ganassi, is a US businessman, former racing driver, current team owner and member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He has been involved with the North American auto racing scen ...
, owner of Chip Ganassi Racing, the prototype was unveiled in February 2010 at the
Chicago Auto Show The Chicago Auto Show is held annually in February at Chicago's McCormick Place convention center. It is the largest auto show in North America. History Samuel Miles, formerly a promoter of bicycle shows, produced the first "official" Chic ...
. Ganassi and the team partners own the car and its patents. In July 2010, IndyCar chose a
Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created ...
design instead. Bowlby then worked with
Don Panoz Donald Panoz ( or ; February 13, 1935 – September 11, 2018) was an American entrepreneur who founded various pharmaceutical companies. Early life Panoz was an Italian-American. His father, Eugene Panunzio, immigrated to the United States f ...
to present the idea to representatives from the
Automobile Club de l'Ouest The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (English: Automobile Club of the West), sometimes abbreviated to ACO, is the largest automotive group in France. It was founded in 1906 by car building and racing enthusiasts, and is most famous for being the orga ...
, organizers of the
24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...
. They applied for and received an invitation to race in the 2012 Le Mans race as a "Garage 56" entrant, a category reserved for experimental vehicles. Despite skepticism over the project, the DeltaWing made its on-track debut on March 1, 2012, completing a shakedown at
Buttonwillow Raceway Park Buttonwillow Raceway Park is a motorsports park in Kern County, California, north of the town of Buttonwillow and northwest of Bakersfield. Opened in 1995, it is owned and operated by the California Sports Car Club, a region of SCCA, Button ...
. The DeltaWing is planned to compete at the
2012 Petit Le Mans The 15h Annual Petit Le Mans was an endurance auto race held at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia on October 20, 2012. The race served as the final round of both the American Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series seasons. Nico ...
. Panoz stated that he hoped that the car would be allowed under the LMP1 and LMP2 regulations of the
American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...
in 2013, or that it would replace the
Oreca FLM09 The Le Mans Prototype Challenge (shortened to LMP Challenge or LMPC) was a spec racing, spec sports prototype formula created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and sports car racing, sports car constr ...
as the LMP Challenge spec car. On February 5, 2013, Marshall Pruett of
Speed Channel Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as aut ...
revealed that Don Panoz would enter the DeltaWing in the road course events on the
American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...
for the 2013 season. Panoz will develop the car without the DeltaWing's original partners Nissan,
All American Racers All American Racers is an American auto racing team and constructor based in Santa Ana, California. Founded by Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby in 1964, All American Racers initially participated in American sports car and Champ Car races as well a ...
, Michelin. Instead of the car being set to P2 regulations, Panoz will make the 2013 model to P1 specifications as well as enable the car to compete for points as a fully classified P1 entry. The Sebring version will continue to be an open top prototype, but later versions will be closed top. The power plant will be a 2.0L Mazda MZR-based engine produced by
Élan Motorsport Technologies Élan Motorsport Technologies is an American enterprise that serves as an umbrella company containing the race car engineering, development and manufacturing companies owned by American racing and automotive company conglomerate Panoz Motor Spor ...
which is currently producing 345 hp on the dyno and is lighter than the RML-built Nissan engine of 2012. Future iterations are rumored to include a carbon fiber engine block.


ZEOD RC lawsuit

A lawsuit was filed on November 22, 2013, by the DeltaWing consortium (Don Panoz, Chip Ganassi) against the former designer of the DeltaWing, Ben Bowlby and former engine-supplier Nissan for “damages and injunctive relief arising out of theft of confidential and proprietary information, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contracts, unjust enrichment, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation. The lawsuit, arising from the similarly designed and technologically derived Nissan ZEOD RC and BladeGlider concept car, was settled out of court for confidential terms in March 2016.


Design

The DeltaWing was designed to reduce aerodynamic drag dramatically, to allow a marginally faster straight and corner speed than a 2009–2011 Dallara IndyCar on both ovals and road/street courses with half as much weight, engine power and fuel consumption. As the name suggests, it has a delta wing shape, with an unusually narrow front track and a more traditional rear track. The car lacks any front or rear wings – downforce comes from the underbody. In 2012, the engine was a four-cylinder turbocharged direct injection 300 bhp unit assembled by Ray Mallock Engineering with largely Chevrolet parts. The model to run at Le Mans had a fuel tank, bespoke BBS wheels and Michelin tyres, a weight of , a power-to-weight ratio of 631 brake horsepower per ton, and a
drag coefficient In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient (commonly denoted as: c_\mathrm, c_x or c_) is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment, such as air or water. It is used in the drag e ...
of 0.35. The braking system weighs , about half the normal weight for a race car. Also unique compared to other race cars is that 72.5 percent of the mass and 76 percent of the downforce is at the rear. It has a moveable
Gurney flap The Gurney flap (or wickerbill) is a small tab projecting from the trailing edge of a wing. Typically it is set at a right angle to the pressure-side surface of the airfoil and projects 1% to 2% of the wing chord. This trailing edge device can i ...
, normally not allowed but can be used by experimental vehicles.


Coupe model

In 2013, a coupe variant of the DeltaWing was unveiled at the 12 Hours of Sebring race and made its race debut at the 2013 American Le Mans Series round at Austin in September. The redesign was intended to bring the DeltaWing in line with
Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were crea ...
P1 regulations, and to minimize the chance of the driver's head being hit in the event of an accident. There are also several other changes to the design: including the adoption of a purposebuilt monocoque (rather than the Aston Martin derived one used on the previous car), and addition of a roof mounted air intake. The car was first tested in September 2013. The new closed top chassis was given the designation DWC13 as opposed to the open top DWC12 used previously, although some unofficial sources still refer to the coupe as DWC12.


Competition history


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans

In June 2011 it was announced that the car would fill the 56th garage at the
2012 24 Hours of Le Mans The 80th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''80e 24 Heures du Mans'') was an 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 16 to 17 June 2012 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le ...
, reserved for experimental vehicles. As with all Le Mans cars, the DeltaWing was a two-seater.
Marino Franchitti Marino Alessandro Cesare Franchitti (born 7 July 1978) is a British racing driver, and the younger brother of Dario Franchitti. He has spent the majority of his career racing in sports cars and grand tourers, with a career highlight of winning t ...
,
Michael Krumm Michael Krumm (born 19 March 1970) is a German professional racing driver who won the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship driving for JR Motorsports. Biography Born in Reutlingen, Krumm married Japanese tennis player Kimiko Date on 1 December 2001 a ...
and
Satoshi Motoyama Satoshi Motoyama (本山哲 - Motoyama Satoshi; born March 4, 1971) is a Japanese professional racing driver and team manager. He is best known for racing in the Super GT Series, formerly known as the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGT ...
drove the DeltaWing at Le Mans. It qualified 29th with a time of 3:42.612, which was 18.825 behind the lead car. The car was retired after 75 laps following an accident in which the DeltaWing ran into a concrete barrier at the Porsche Curves after a collision with
Kazuki Nakajima is a retired Japanese professional racing driver who drove in Formula One for the Williams-Toyota team from to . In 2012 and 2014, he won the Super Formula Championship driving for TOM'S. Racing for Toyota Gazoo Racing, he won the 2018, 2019 a ...
's
Toyota TS030 Hybrid The Toyota TS030 Hybrid is a Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) sports car built by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and used by the manufacturer in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 and 2013. It was Toyota's first all new prototype since the GT-One ...
. The DeltaWing recorded a best race lap time of 3:45.737, rivaling some of the LMP2 teams. The car did 11 laps on one tank, that is 150 km on a 40-litre fuel tank (26.67 L/100 km or 8.82 mi/gal).


2012 Petit Le Mans

After failing to complete the 24 hours of Le Mans, DeltaWing was granted an unclassified entry to the
2012 Petit Le Mans The 15h Annual Petit Le Mans was an endurance auto race held at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia on October 20, 2012. The race served as the final round of both the American Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series seasons. Nico ...
at
Road Atlanta Road Atlanta (known for sponsorship reasons as Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) is a road course located just north of Braselton, Georgia, United States. The facility is utilized for a wide variety of events, including professional and amateur spo ...
. After rebuilding the car from a collision in practice the DeltaWing went on to finish fifth overall, completing 388 laps to the overall winner's 394. The car also underwent testing for its potential inclusion as a classified entry in the American Le Mans Series starting in 2013.


2013 season

The DeltaWing was entered in the
2013 American Le Mans Series The 2013 American Le Mans Series was the fifteenth and final season of the International Motor Sports Association GT Championship being labeled as the American Le Mans Series, before merging up with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in 2014. ...
in the P1 class, now using an
Élan Elan Corporation plc was a major drugs firm based in Dublin, Ireland, which had major interests in the United States. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as ELN, the Irish Stock Exchange as ELN.I, and the London Stock Exchange as ELN. ...
chassis and a 1.9 liter four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine producing 350 bhp, built by Élan and based on a
Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
design. The team was headed by David Price, former owner of
David Price Racing David Price Racing (commonly referred to as DPR) is a British motor racing team, founded by David Price. The team competed in various forms of motorsport from their foundation in 1976 until 2008. The team was sold in April 2009, but continued ...
. The new car debuted at 12 Hours of Sebring, where it was driven by
Olivier Pla Olivier Pla (born 22 October 1981) is a French racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Glickenhaus Racing. His younger brother Jim is also a racing driver Career French Formula Campus and Formula Three Bor ...
and Andy Meyrick. Pla qualified the car in fifteenth place, ten seconds off the pace the
Audi R18 The Audi R18 is a Le Mans Prototype (LMP) racing car constructed by the German car manufacturer Audi AG. It is the successor to the Audi R15 TDI. Like its predecessor, the R18 uses a TDI turbocharged diesel engine but with a reduced capacity of ...
that qualified on pole, and five seconds slower than its nearest rival in the P1 class, but 5 seconds ahead of the fastest GT class car. After struggling with temperatures all week, the car retired in the second hour with a terminal engine failure after only ten laps. The DeltaWing competed most of the season with drivers Meyrick and
Katherine Legge Katherine Anne Legge ( ; born 12 July 1980) is a British professional auto racing driver, competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. She is also featured in ''Richard Hammond's Crash Course''. Racing career Early racing and Atlantics ...
. It only scored two times, with a best place of 5th overall at Road America (last in P1 and beaten by 2 PC-class cars). The car was notably absent from Long Beach and Baltimore, the reason given by the Deltawing Team Manager, Dave Price was "At the moment, we're not planning to do Long Beach or Baltimore, principally because we're not convinced it would be ideally suited for those
treet Treet (Armour Star Treet) is a canned meat product similar to Spam first introduced in 1939 by Armour and Company in the United States. Sold as "spiced luncheon loaf", it is made with chicken and pork and has a more finely ground texture than S ...
circuits". The coupe version of the car debuted at The Circuit of the America's race. It qualified last in P1; 8 seconds slower than the leading P1 car and was also slower than all the P2 cars. In the race it completed 66 laps to the winner's 83 and finished 29th overall and last in the P1 class.


2014 season

The DeltaWing began competing in the new
United SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...
in 2014. The four drivers at the
24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layo ...
were Meyrick, Legge, eventual
Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a progra ...
champion
Gabby Chaves Gabriel "Gabby" Chaves (born 7 July 1993) is a Colombian-American racing driver, currently competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Pilot Challenge. He raced in the IndyCar Series and is the 2014 Indy Lights Champion. ...
and
Alexander Rossi Alexander Michael Rossi (born September 25, 1991) is an American professional racing driver and podcast host. He currently competes full-time in the IndyCar Series, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP. Rossi is best known for winning ...
. Whilst the P1 class no longer competes in the USCC the DeltaWing race team continued to run in their P1 specification of 490 kg and 350 bhp. The DeltaWing led 15 laps of the 10-hour finale at
Road Atlanta Road Atlanta (known for sponsorship reasons as Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) is a road course located just north of Braselton, Georgia, United States. The facility is utilized for a wide variety of events, including professional and amateur spo ...
, the
Petit Le Mans The Petit Le Mans (French for ''little Le Mans'') is a sports car endurance race held annually at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, USA. It uses the rules established for the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which ...
, en route to a season-high fourth-place finish.


2015 season

For the 2015 United SportsCar Championship, Legge had a new partner in
Memo Rojas Guillermo "Memo" Rojas Jr. (born August 18, 1981) is a Mexican professional race car driver. Successful in American sports car racing, Rojas is a four-time series champion in the Rolex Sports Car Series, a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Day ...
, whereas Meyrick joined at
Daytona Daytona refers to the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, or things named after it. Daytona may also refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Da ...
and Sebring, and
Gabby Chaves Gabriel "Gabby" Chaves (born 7 July 1993) is a Colombian-American racing driver, currently competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Pilot Challenge. He raced in the IndyCar Series and is the 2014 Indy Lights Champion. ...
at Daytona. The team spent significant time at the front of the field during the first 90 minutes, only to retire due to recurring problems with the car's redesigned gearbox. The team finished only three out of nine appearances, with a best results of sixth at Road America. They finished eighth in the Prototypes teams standings.


2016 season

In 2016, Legge would have two part-time co-drivers in Andy Meyrick and
Sean Rayhall Sean Rayhall (born March 10, 1995 in Winston, Georgia) is a racing driver. He competed in the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Series, winning the championship in 2017. He has also previously raced in the GT Daytona class of the WeatherTech Spo ...
sharing a seat and driving together in North American Endurance Cup, with Andreas Wirth joining them at Daytona. The team elected not to qualify at Daytona because of poor conditions, but quickly moving through the field, leading a total of 29 laps between Legge and Meyrick before the latter crashed into a stationary vehicle in the semi-blind Turn 1. The bad luck followed the team to Sebring, where the steering broke while running in eighth position, leaving the car to retire from the event. After starting sixth at Long Beach (which had skipped the event every year since 2013 due to fears of suspension trouble on the bumps of the street course), the team encountered braking issues that would plague them until an engine failure forced the car to be retired.


2017 season

After the 2016 season it wouldn't be possible anymore to race with the DeltaWing, due to changed regulations. Don Panoz told the press that they had some unfinished business with the Rolex 24. It would be in the same class as the new DPi's and LMP2's according to the organization. In November 2016 it was confirmed that the DeltaWing wouldn't race in the 2017 Rolex 24.


See also

* Nissan ZEOD RC *
General Motors Firebird The General Motors Firebird comprises a quartet of prototype cars that General Motors (GM) engineered for the 1953, 1956, and 1959 Motorama auto shows. The cars' designers, headed by Harley Earl, took Earl's inspiration from the innovations in f ...


Notes


References


Inside The Delta Wing Project
– Speed, Robin Miller, February 10, 2010

– The Way It Is, Gordon Kirby, February 22, 2010

– The Way It Is, Gordon Kirby, July 2, 2012 *
Developing the Deltawing
– Racecar Engineering, January 8, 2012


External links

* {{Nissan Sportscar Racers Nissan racing cars 24 Hours of Le Mans race cars Sports prototypes WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams