Delta Wing 2012 Discussion ONLY

[gwyllion]

Audi has packed their stuff, but DeltaWing will continue testing on Friday.

Meanwhile, the DeltaWing prototype will run on Friday when the circuit will be artificially covered in water in order to evaluate the specific rain tyres Michelin has developed for the futuristic new car.

source: http://www.lemanslive.com/en/2012/03...bring-testing/

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by Matt

this car is the definition of the "P" in LMP.

Awesome, I'm going to go design a car as well that ignores and breaks all the LMP regulations that the ACO lays down and enter it. Do you think my underweight car with banned attributes would get accepted?

[gwyllion]

In http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/show...65#post3045865 I gave the relevant section in the rule book. Your car must be "the product of an innovative technological project."

Your competition for the 56th entry are the DeltaWing, the hydrogen-electric GreenGT H2, the electric Courage LC75e and the electric Lola-Drayson B12/69EV. The electric Courage project seems to be dead and Drayson has not yet express interest to go to Le Mans.

DeltaWing got the 2012 Le Mans ticket and they are already track testing. The GreenGT project also has a big head start because they will be at the Le Mans test day.

Good luck.

[gwyllion]

A picture of the DeltaWing in the wet:

Originally Posted by @highcroft

Testing continues at Sebring today with @MFranchitti behind the wheel of the #Nissan #DetlaWing in the wet http://ow.ly/i/wBYL #lm24

A bit strange that Audi did not stay for some artificial wet running.

[merlot brougham]

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a fan of the "look" of the Deltawing and abhor the idea of it "replacing" what we know of as a prototype in this era.

That being said I am APPALLED at how closed minded and how PERSONAL some of you are taking this. Only in places where people can be so rich as to follow sportscar racing as a "hobby" could they possibly be taking this so utterly seriously. It's like Ben Bowlby and Duncan Dayton PERSONALLY came to your house, kicked the crap out of your dog and knocked up your daughters or something. LIGHTEN THE HECK UP.

And Dan Gurney. DAN GURNEY. He would NEVER lend his name, experience, expertise and resources to ANYTHING that he thought was destined for failure. No matter the price. Guys from his era consider integrity and skill to be one and the same with your name not to mention that you are COMPLETELY ignoring his proven history of innovation in racing. And Michelin and Nissan? They laid in wait until there was PROOF they would not be embarrassed by this project. These are insanely complex corporations where they do everything they can to avoid bad PR. They would not have dived in the way they have if they didn't have proof this was going to work.

And the worst part about it is all you guys who are coming up with every reason possible as to why this will fail will never come back and admit you were wrong. You'll just come up with other ways to disparage it. This thread alone is causing me to consider never coming back to this forum.

[vincegail]

The knocked up daughter comparison is a little farfetched to say the least, other than that, all what you say is true. This project is not a recent one, but Nissan's participation is. They indeed only joined the party after proof it was going to rock. The fact that apparently the DW is lapping Sebring a mere 6 seconds slower than the Audis (don't know how true this is) bodes well for its chances at Le Mans, which circuit is only 2.something times as long as Sebring, so the DW will be around 15 seconds slower than the (assumed) polesitter this year. This will put it in the 3.35 - 3.40 bracket. And it was not that long ago that 3.45 put you firmly on pole position. The more I hear/read/see about this project, the more I like it. And I liked it ever since the IndyCar proposal several years back, so that's saying something. Can't wait till wednesday evening 13th of June, 19.00 hours to see it running! (or maybe at the testday? will it be there?)

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by vincegail

(or maybe at the testday? will it be there?)

Yes it will, the regular technical rulebook doesn't apply but the sporting regulations do, and they need to qualify at least one driver (Krumm was most recently at Le Mans in '05 I believe, and therefore needs to requalify) in terms of the 10 laps.

[miatanut]

Originally Posted by merlot brougham

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a fan of the "look" of the Deltawing and abhor the idea of it "replacing" what we know of as a prototype in this era.

That being said I am APPALLED at how closed minded and how PERSONAL some of you are taking this. Only in places where people can be so rich as to follow sportscar racing as a "hobby" could they possibly be taking this so utterly seriously. It's like Ben Bowlby and Duncan Dayton PERSONALLY came to your house, kicked the crap out of your dog and knocked up your daughters or something. LIGHTEN THE HECK UP.

I don't think anybody is a fan of how it looks, but some of us are fans of a clever new idea and a welcome relief from the stagnation auto racing technological development has experienced the last two or three decades.

Sadly, I think it is a result of closed rules causing racing cars to become a bunch of clones, and it has impacted the auto racing fan base. Those of us who were blessed to be fans in the 70's got to see teams trying lots of funky new stuff, some of which was quite ugly, but we got to be challenged regularly. Auto racing was kind of a competition between gearhead geeks on who could build the best mousetrap. Narrow rules have narrowed what the fanbase is capable of accepting.

Kudos to the ACO for being bold enough to allow this in their race and show people that auto racing can be more than just entertainment.

[gwyllion]

Another article on the DeltaWing, this time from PMW magazine April-June 2012: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/...9#/9cb4d8f9/42

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

Awesome, I'm going to go design a car as well that ignores and breaks all the LMP regulations that the ACO lays down and enter it. Do you think my underweight car with banned attributes would get accepted?

This is actually the crux of the matter.

The whole field would be hugely faster if they were allowed to trash all the regulations as they saw fit. Chucking 60 kg plus of ballast out of any car would for a start make a huge difference. Ground effect tunnels we all know work.
Better streamlining well Duh! etc. etc.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by merlot brougham

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a fan of the "look" of the Deltawing and abhor the idea of it "replacing" what we know of as a prototype in this era.

That being said I am APPALLED at how closed minded and how PERSONAL some of you are taking this. Only in places where people can be so rich as to follow sportscar racing as a "hobby" could they possibly be taking this so utterly seriously. It's like Ben Bowlby and Duncan Dayton PERSONALLY came to your house, kicked the crap out of your dog and knocked up your daughters or something. LIGHTEN THE HECK UP.

And Dan Gurney. DAN GURNEY. He would NEVER lend his name, experience, expertise and resources to ANYTHING that he thought was destined for failure. No matter the price. Guys from his era consider integrity and skill to be one and the same with your name not to mention that you are COMPLETELY ignoring his proven history of innovation in racing. And Michelin and Nissan? They laid in wait until there was PROOF they would not be embarrassed by this project. These are insanely complex corporations where they do everything they can to avoid bad PR. They would not have dived in the way they have if they didn't have proof this was going to work.

And the worst part about it is all you guys who are coming up with every reason possible as to why this will fail will never come back and admit you were wrong. You'll just come up with other ways to disparage it. This thread alone is causing me to consider never coming back to this forum.

This is in no way personal from my perspective.

It is ambush marketing of a deeply flawed concept, IMO!

Roll on Le Mans 3 June and I will happily; yes happily; admit I am wrong if it manages to qualify well and perform well in the race.

That is the good thing about racing: "When the flag drops the BS stops." as Jack Brabham was fond of saying.

[miatanut]

Originally Posted by wnut

This is actually the crux of the matter.

The whole field would be hugely faster if they were allowed to trash all the regulations as they saw fit. Chucking 60 kg plus of ballast out of any car would for a start make a huge difference. Ground effect tunnels we all know work.
Better streamlining well Duh! etc. etc.

It's intended to be a demonstration project.

Hopefully it will be a success and the result is the ACO re-writes the rule book to specify an energy limit at half what the cars use now and beyond that, pretty much anything goes, as long as it's safe.

[F50GTPlus]

Aside from future developments that may reduce lap times, wasn't it mentioned earlier that the Delta Wing was running on a harder compound from Michelin

[Canada ALMS fan]

Going on a bit of a limb here... Anyone else getting a bad feeling this may become a spec class in the ALMS to replace LMPC? I wouldn't mind one or two but not a whole class. The Oreca FLM cars are in the their last year possibly based on some of the rumours at Sebring.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by merlot brougham

And the worst part about it is all you guys who are coming up with every reason possible as to why this will fail will never come back and admit you were wrong. You'll just come up with other ways to disparage it. This thread alone is causing me to consider never coming back to this forum.

Yep, it's a discussion forum. Disparaging comments aren't banned. I don't like it - I've said so - and I'm done with that. Now I just want to see what it does.

However, having people repeat tediously over and over again that it doesn't comply with the rules is completely otiose. It doesn't have to. That's the whole darned point.