RE: DeltaWing To Race Le Mans In 2012

RE: DeltaWing To Race Le Mans In 2012

Author
Discussion

AlpinaB5s

159 posts

158 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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+1 on the understeer theory....maybe its only designed for truly racing on oval tracks in the US of A.

Snoggledog

6,948 posts

216 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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All jokes aside, I'm puzzled as to why it's been designed as an 'open wheel' car. Surely the aerodynamics would be easier and more efficient with an enclosed wheel design.

anniesdad

14,589 posts

237 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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Tyre changes?

Harji

2,196 posts

160 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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bobbylondonuk said:
how do they combat the understeer with that design?
How would they combat corners?

DonkeyApple

54,934 posts

168 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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Harji said:
bobbylondonuk said:
how do they combat the understeer with that design?
How would they combat corners?
You could have a large lead weight on a rail that under breaking will roll forward and increase the mass over the front wheels and help steering and grip in the corners and then under acceleration, would roll to the back and add mass to the driving wheels. biggrin

ellisd82

685 posts

207 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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That looks great! imagine it not being able to corner well, but am guessing it will have some inovative design. Can't wait to see it though!

Galileo

3,145 posts

217 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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V8 GRF said:
Galileo said:
I'll stick with my prediction that it doesn't make it past the wind tunnel.
Maybe you should visit the link given in the article and read the presentations before you start commenting...

http://deltawingracing.com/
Ok......oh, look....

"When I first saw the pictures of the car I thought it was a land speed record car because it must have a very low drag factor," Barnard remarked. "So I would be surprised and interested to know what downforce it will generate. The plan area appears not to be huge and with no skirts or wings I'm a bit skeptical on its downforce potential. I'm not really turning into a negative old man, but novel thinkers must expect constructive criticism. I know from experience." John Barnard"......not just me then?

HowMuchLonger

3,003 posts

192 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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Harji said:
bobbylondonuk said:
how do they combat the understeer with that design?
How would they combat corners?
If you (bothered to) read their website it mentions that the transmission is torque vectoring, makes more sense to do it this way.

Verde

506 posts

187 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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Who knows if this project will get off the ground for next years race (no pun intended). But as it stands, kudos to the LeMans regulatory staff for permitting significant innovation in the race. And of course to the project team for their boldness in trying to make change in an overspecified racing world. I know it's a re-use of a model proposed to the Indy folks, but it is still breathtakingly fresh.

McAndy

12,339 posts

176 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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<Sean Connery mode>
Looksh fashinating...scratchchin
</Sean Connery mode>

georgetuk

205 posts

217 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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If it gets its own class surely its not racing at all?

But fair dos will be interesting to see but its just not a racing shape. Could work if rear steer or 4 wheel steer perhaps.

Anyway big up for bonkers designs!

FourWheelDrift

88,382 posts

283 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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georgetuk said:
If it gets its own class surely its not racing at all?
It's racing against everyone to win overall though. Like the Welter WR specials from the late 80s early 90s, Le Mans specials in their own class (or virtually no one else in it) fastest things down the Mulsanne (251mph) but always broke down during the race. They were French of course though so they were allowed to run special narrow tyres.

Harji

2,196 posts

160 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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HowMuchLonger said:
Harji said:
bobbylondonuk said:
how do they combat the understeer with that design?
How would they combat corners?
If you (bothered to) read their website it mentions that the transmission is torque vectoring, makes more sense to do it this way.
Even with Torque Vectoring, it does seem to me that the front will always want to go straight, or up in the air

bsdnazz

762 posts

252 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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First things first, Ben and I are first cousins so anything I say will be slightly informed and obviously biased!

Firstly, there's the WWW site.

Ben has lots of experience designing, building and in his early days driving race cars. Starting with his Special Saloon SC100 and Vauxhaul Clubmans that he built as a teenager and university student he then moved to Lola designing Indy 500 winning cars and finally on to the cars he designed and built at GForce. Then there's the wind tunnel in a tunnel and now Delta Wing.

The delta wing car is a very interesting concept and is an attempt to design a racing car from scratch.

The principle idea behind the Delta Wing car is to reduce drag. Instead of high down force, high drag, high power cars what would happen if you started with low drag as the main aim? How can down force be obtained and how much power would be needed to get decent racing speeds?

The short answer is 235MPH with 325BHP and out accelerate a 2010 Indy car with 630BHP!

A lot of thought has gone into the design and I'm really looking forward to seeing it as Le Mans in 2012.

MitchT

15,789 posts

208 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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Looks like the bd lovechild of an F1 car and a Reliant Robin.

Snoggledog

6,948 posts

216 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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^ I'd be very interested on his response to what I wrote above...

"I'm puzzled as to why it's been designed as an 'open wheel' car. Surely the aerodynamics would be easier and more efficient with an enclosed wheel design."

O/T I'm working on an engineering degree so would be very keen on understanding his rationale for that. Mind you..... if it's a simple ACO requirement then that's an easy one to answer.

Stu R

21,410 posts

214 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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Very interesting design, I too am baffled by the concept of it tackling corners with aplomb in that configuration, but I'm sure the guys know a hell of a lot more than I do about these things. Certainly going to be fun finding out how good it is, and I really do hope they get it there, and that it's reliable when they do.

FourWheelDrift

88,382 posts

283 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
quotequote all
Snoggledog said:
All jokes aside, I'm puzzled as to why it's been designed as an 'open wheel' car. Surely the aerodynamics would be easier and more efficient with an enclosed wheel design.
Was originally a design for Indycar racing.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1042485_2010-ch...

Which must have open wheels naturally, not sure if they need to fully enclose them now for Le Mans, I would have thought they would have to.

poo at Paul's

14,116 posts

174 months

Thursday 9th June 2011
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I am sure I've seen this before on TV.

They were cleaning a chandelier as far as I recall or was it faulty inflatable women?!


AJLintern

4,199 posts

262 months

Friday 10th June 2011
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Snoggledog said:
I'm puzzled as to why it's been designed as an 'open wheel' car. Surely the aerodynamics would be easier and more efficient with an enclosed wheel design.
It's not an 'open wheel' car though...? scratchchin Did you not mean it would be lower drag with an enclosed cockpit?