Wednesday 6th June 2012

Video: Pre-Le Mans testing for DeltaWing

DeltaWing manages 54 laps in Le Mans pre-test - and at a reasonable pace, too...

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Nissan has released this video footage of its intriguing DeltaWing racer in action at the Le Mans test day over the weekend.

DeltaWing managed 54 laps

It was a moderately successful run for the experimental team, too, with the car completing 54 laps with Michael Krumm, Satoshi Motoyama and Marino Franchitti at the wheel. The big question, of course, is how fast the DeltaWing could go - have they achieved their aim of being somewhere between the LMP1 and LMP2 classes on pace?

Not quite, is the answer. With Motoyama at the wheel, the DeltaWing set a best time of 3min 47.9secs, 22 seconds slower than the time set by the Audi of McNish, but also more than seven seconds off the 3min 41.3secs set by the fastest LMP2, the OAK Morgan-Nissan.

TS030 Toyota just a second off Audi pace

The Deltawing isn't the only Nissan interest in Le Mans, however - a whopping 14 of the 23 LMP2 runners are powered by Nissan motors.

Up at the sharp end of the field, the Toyota TS030 hybrid - probably the only serious threat to Audi following the withdrawal of Peugeot - managed a creditable 3mins 27.2secs. That put it in fourth place, but less than 1.3 seconds off the pace of the leading Audi.

Looks like shaping up to be an interesting Le Mans and, if you're going, remember that you can join us at the PH Friday Service en Sarthe before the race on 15th June...

 

 

 

[the fury]

Great stuff, can't wait to see this thing blasting round. I think the times are pretty respectable for a virtually untried machine, myself.

[Oddball RS]

Yes the times are 'nearly there' but maybe they aimed too high (double top anyone) ahem, that sort of time difference is as good as a mile.

[MiniMan64]

Is this car the "new" Jap Lambo entry?

It gets a cheer each time it gets another lap under it's belt?

[Krikkit]

Good pace for an experiment, I bet there's a load more time to come yet.

Other good news is the TS030 doing well - hopefully they'll keep the Audi's honest.

[dele]

MiniMan64 said:

Is this car the "new" Jap Lambo entry?

It gets a cheer each time it gets another lap under it's belt?

No, the JLOC Lamborghini could only dream of doing 54 laps

[camel_landy]

Oddball RS said:

Yes the times are 'nearly there' but maybe they aimed too high (double top anyone) ahem, that sort of time difference is as good as a mile.

True but it also depends on how often it has to come into the pits compared to the others...

M

[the fury]

Well, we know it's unclassified this year anyway so it'll have a good ol' test session and maybe next year they might be racing proper and will have figured out how to find those couple of seconds. I'm just glad it wasn't totally hopeless, like some people scoffed...

[loudlashadjuster]

Sounds like a really good shakedown result, well done to all involved.

I'd imagine they're being pretty conservative with regard to setup and pace right now so there's probably a bit more in the bag, hence the continued confidence.

[Mini1275]

I think it was a pretty respectable test day from them, certainly not a complete failure like some people predicted.

[KDIcarmad]

Cannot wait to see the DeltaWing running in the race at full speed. It would be fun if... it won the race! OK it will not happen... but it would be fun!!!

I understand Top Gear is trying to build a version of the DeltaWing. That could be fun or a total heap of disaster. A road going one would make a great batmobile.

[jeremyc]

The big story, and very much what the DeltaWing is all about, is that those 54 laps only used one set of tyres (save the few wet laps).

I don't know how our intrepid reporter missed such salient facts ....

[TonyHetherington]

As Jeremy alluded to above, it doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.

As with all things 24-hour, being quick (or slow) over a lap doesn't necessarily show how you'll be placed over 24 hours of racing.

Tyre wear, fuel usage and reliability play such a huge part.

[Man-At-Arms]

dele said:

MiniMan64 said:

Is this car the "new" Jap Lambo entry?

It gets a cheer each time it gets another lap under it's belt?

No, the JLOC Lamborghini could only dream of doing 0.54 laps

EFA

[eddie man]

"Up at the sharp end of the field, the Toyota TS030 hybrid - probably the only serious threat to Audi following the withdrawal of Peugeot - managed a creditable 3mins 27.2secs. That put it in fourth place, but less than 1.3 seconds off the pace of the leading Audi."

Looks unlikely. Audi's seemed ruthless on the practice day. Really well controlled, and just so quick. Audi 1, 2 & 3, unless they suffer some mechanical issue, or crash out.

[zebedee]

PW said:

Oddball RS said:

Yes the times are 'nearly there' but maybe they aimed too high (double top anyone) ahem, that sort of time difference is as good as a mile.

Their target laptime from the ACO was 3:45, with top speed limited to 300km/h.

Not bad to be a couple of seconds off that after starting from scratch 11 months ago. With the long lap that's about 1% off.

Don't forget - it uses the monocoque of the Aston Martin AMR-One, which was 20s+ off the cars it was supposed to be competing against...

If they had come in under the target time on the test they would probably have been hit with restrictors too, so it may be that it is quite a bit quicker but they'd rather everyone didn't know. Same could apply to Audi and Toyota too, there's only one way to find out (and we might not re: the Deltawing...)

[Antj]

This time next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


also why no GTR's, cannot believe they have never raced in the GT class, thought that was the idea behind Sumo powers NA ones?????

[zebedee]

Antj said:

This time next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


also why no GTR's, cannot believe they have never raced in the GT class, thought that was the idea behind Sumo powers NA ones?????

Sumo Power built cars to GT1 spec. GT1 is dead. Don't think there is a GTE GTR anywhere yet but I do imagine it won't be long as the GT3 ones are finding form.

[scubadude]

Sounds of much humble pie being consumed in some corners of the interweb, clearly it can go around corners amongst all the the other things it wouldn't be able to do :-)

Given its experimental tag and limited build time doing so many laps at a reasonable speed is very impressive, La Sarthe isn't exactly a forgiving circuit either.

I still think they should have got sponsorship from Warner Bros and driven it wearing Batman shaped helmet :-)

[pwrc]

eddie man said:

"Up at the sharp end of the field, the Toyota TS030 hybrid - probably the only serious threat to Audi following the withdrawal of Peugeot - managed a creditable 3mins 27.2secs. That put it in fourth place, but less than 1.3 seconds off the pace of the leading Audi."

Looks unlikely. Audi's seemed ruthless on the practice day. Really well controlled, and just so quick. Audi 1, 2 & 3, unless they suffer some mechanical issue, or crash out.

Yep, it's nice to see the TS030 relatively competitive but they'd need to at the very least be as reliable as the Audis to stand any chance of a serious result. Which is unlikely seeing as it's a year one car. It's Le Mans though, after last year who knows what will happen

[Mark-C]

Man-At-Arms said:

dele said:

MiniMan64 said:

Is this car the "new" Jap Lambo entry?

It gets a cheer each time it gets another lap under it's belt?

No, the JLOC Lamborghini could only dream of doing 0.54 laps

EFA

2006 - 283 Laps
2007 - 1 Lap
2009 - 1 Lap
2010 - 138 Laps

The middle two years were absolutely cringe inducing!

The DeltaWing has budget, a support team and drivers that JLOC could only dream of and Nissan have taken it up a level with their involvement. I'm looking forward to seeing it and the economy and tyre wear will be important in an endurance race. Would be good to see it a couple of seconds a lap faster so that it's probably in the game with the LMP2s ....