Delta Wing projections?

True on the turbine! That would have been cool.

Fixed!

 

Panoz paid a fair portion of the cost of completing the prototype. If the car is ever adopted for, say, a one-make class or series, then Panoz' Elan Motorsports Technologies will handle the production run. Gurney covered a lot of his own costs but has now been paid back as part of the Nissan deal. Highcroft were supposed to come up with the sponsorship and crew for Le Mans but failed, which is one of the reasons RML will be fielding the car at La Sarthe.

 

I think Indy is close to unique in that it is one of the tracks where a gas turbine engine would have worked ... that is ~1% of motorracing.

Even the Rover struggled around Le Mans when it was a lot simplier track ... drivers had to lift of the throttle way before a corner and then accelerate way too early so that everything happened when they actually wanted it to happen. Bloody dangerous.
Pete

 

Is that story online anywhere do you know? I'd love to get a better understanding of what they're up to. [I had a quick look on the RCE site, but couldn't find it]

Cheers,
Ian

 

I have to say the car is SWEET in-person. The engineering involved is really fascinating.

We were actually involved in the Delta project: http://www.cxcsimulations.com/news/cxc-simulations-involved-in-revolutionary-deltawing-racecar-development/

 

Top Gear builds its own Delta Wing

http://jalopnik.com/5912040/top-gear-builds-a-deltawing-and-its-kind-of-brilliant

As for the real DW, word is that it is now faster than LMP2's at Snetterton but the gearbox is unable to last 24h. Impressive.

I didn't think it work but it does. I also didn't see the purpose of the car & I still don't.

 

Perhaps the pod's extra height is to meet a minimum height requirement? Or aero? One of the articles mentioned that the center fin is being eliminated, and that is how the car appears in the last photo currently shown on the "Mulsanne" link.

Also, doesn't ACO require two "seats" in its LMP cars? Is the passenger seat actually installed? What is the reasoning behind this? Just to make them non-single-seaters?! The black delta car has right-hand drive but the red (latest) car has left-hand drive.

 

...couldn't resist

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSaIv_5-Mho&feature=related[/ame]

 

not to bad ...last years top runners were IIRC in the 3:27.6 to 3:30.0 range for top 5-6 positions

 

Does it have no rear wing?

 

They are aiming for P2 speeds, not P1.

Nope



From what I hear from the team, speed is not their concern. Their concern now is the gearbox and how long it will last.

 

Last I heard in Endurance racing Finishing is important...

 

Indeed. It's a shame that it's a component that has nothing to do with the revolutionary concept that may let them down and define their Le Mans.

 

They could easily install one of the many gearboxes that have and can go the distance.

 

Can they? I was under the impression that packaging things like that is a big deal on a prototype.

 

Dunno about any packaging (or "sourcing"?) issues, but I'd be willing to bet Hewland have something that would work - Proven, "cheap", and many options from which to choose.

Cheers,
Ian

 

True.

Hewland was able to rebuild their gearbox to our engineering to run KERS very quickly.

The idea that they can't find a gear box that would quickly fit to hold up for 24 hours isn't credible to me.

 

There's no class where it would be legal. Le Mans is a lot different than the Ring and requires a different approach and set up. We could have applied to Garage 56 like the Delta Wing but after thinking about it deceided not to. It will be interesting to see how they do.

 

+1

There's a guy over on F1technical rebuilding an RA007 Honda. The carbon gearbox was there - gotta hang the suspension on something - but it was sans any internals. After much research Hewland have apparently given him a *great* deal on doing a completely new 'box. Apparently Xtrac were only interested if he wanted "many", Hewland are doing it more out of "enthusiasm" apparently - For sure, he says they're about the best company he's ever dealt with.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Very interesting - I'd have guessed Le Mans would be the proverbial "walk in the park" by comparison to the 'Ring (?) - Surely, it's *much* easier on the car - no flugplatz's breaking original Ferrari parts for example!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Three weeks before our 24 we ran a 3 hour and our Chassis cracked. We re-engineered the chassis and built a section that tied the gearbox into this new section for added strength and stiffening. Hewland worked with our engineers and we got this done in plenty of time for the 24.

 

It's much easier on cars but is a high speed track very different than a brutal street monster like The Ring.