Deltawing sent flying
Nissan's radical racer lives up to its name in dramatic testing crash
Not any old racing car of course. We're talking the Nissan Deltawing here, which got clouted during testing at Road Atlanta and sent flying into a crash that registered a 7G deceleration according to the onboard telemetry. Puts Dan's little shunt in his Caterham race into perspective and goes to show that even top-level racing drivers get it wrong sometimes, driver Gunnar Jeannette's feelings toward the Porsche driver who hit him made very clear indeed in the footage. Jeannette has been declared fit after the accident and Nissan mechanics are busy rebuilding the car for the Petit Le Mans race it was testing for that takes place this weekend.
Watch the vid here and get ready to wince...
Glad to hear the driver was ok, looks like he got a bump or two on the head.
I'm not saying it shouldn't race, I just think that in this particular instance the physics involved with the configuration of the wheels MIGHT have had something to do with why it went over relatively easily.
The Tripod layout, in the event of a side impact at speed doesn't seem to be as stable as a standard configuration.
I suspect the porsche moved right thinking there was more space than there was because he could see the narrow front of the deltawing, but forgot the rear would be closer.
The guy in Posche was moving right giving the car room, and then the back of the Nissan is so much wider it gets clipped.
As for comments about the stability of the design, (can I whisper this bit) didn't Clarkson do a comedy routine along these lines with Reliant Robins?
That doesn't mean there aren't things to learn from an accident. Without meaning to sound flippant, I'd venture that further protecting the driver's head would be a good start. That said, it's held up better than many conventional cars have in the past.
There does seem to be a bit of a problem when it comes to visibility for the DW - not sure there's much that can be done about that though?
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