Delta Wing Indycar concept unveiled
The Delta Wing Indycar concept was revealed on Tuesday at the Chicago Auto Show. Designed by former Lola designer and current Chip Ganassi engineer Ben Bowlby, the Delta Wing aims to revolutionise Indycar racing in 2012, with a low-drag design that eliminates front wings and places the front wheels close together beneath the nose.
The car literally looks like a Delta Wing and has been conceived to encourage close racing and more passing. It’s also much lighter than a current Indycar – 1000lbs versus 1500lbs – and is much more aerodynamically efficient because of reduced rolling and aerodynamic resistance from the front wheels and the absence of front wings. Chip Ganassi says Bowlby’s numbers indicate the car could lap a Superspeedway at 230mph with only 350bhp. “That should encourage a wider selection of engines, and they should be much less stressed and able to run at lower rpm,” he said.
Last week the IRL announced its design parameters for the 2012 Indycar as follows:
• Safety: the new chassis must adhere to the league’s already high safety standards while exploring new technology to improve safety in all aspects of the car.
• Raceable: the new chassis must continue to produce the exciting racing that has become a signature of the IZOD IndyCar Series while not affecting other cars on track (i.e. less sensitive to the turbulence).
• Cost-effective: the league continues to work to reduce the cost of participation for teams in the IZOD IndyCar Series, which remains an important priority in this economic climate. The new chassis must have a price point that adheres to that goal.
• American-made: the new chassis must be built in the US, preferably at an Indiana-based facility.
• Less mass/more efficient: a lighter chassis with less mass that produces the same aerodynamic effect in an efficient way.
• Relevant technology: the league would like the new chassis to be relevant to the future of the consumer auto industry; innovative technology that is born on the race track and can translate to consumer cars.
• Modern look: more space for sponsor logos, cars easily identifiable.
• Green: the Indy Racing League prides itself on maintaining its position as a leader in environmentally-friendly initiatives with this chassis.
At this stage the IRL is considering proposals from Dallara, Delta Wing, Lola and Swift. Delta Wing is a consortium of current Indycar teams led by Ganassi and including Roger Penske. The other teams, Penske included, have examined and validated Bowlby’s CFD numbers for the Delta Wing design.
Thanks to its reduced weight and aerodynamic drag, Bowlby’s design will accelerate and brake much more rapidly than a current Indycar. The car will also incorporate the latest in carbon-fibre technology to produce a more elastic and crash-resistant chassis. Ganassi has been talking to potential manufacturers near his home in Pennsylvania and across the American mid-west. He adds that Delta Wing’s goal is to have multiple manufacturers build competing versions of the concept.
Peter Gibbons, Andretti Autosports’ technical director, has been in the sport for more than 30 years. He hopes the IRL selects Bowlby’s Delta Wing design for its new car. “If they don’t, then at some point fairly soon it’s over,” he said. “We’ve got to take a major step and think way ahead. We need some relevancy. There’s no relevancy in what we’re doing and even less with what NASCAR is doing. When gas is eight dollars a gallon, which isn’t far off, and we’re still pounding around in these fat, horrible, heavy cars, we’re in trouble.”
IRL champion Dario Franchitti agrees: “All I know is the Delta Wing is innovative and that’s what we need. We’ve got to bring innovation back to the sport and the Delta Wing will do it. I hope it happens.”
The Delta Wing Indycar concept was revealed on Tuesday at the Chicago Auto Show. Designed by former Lola designer and current Chip Ganassi engineer Ben Bowlby, the Delta Wing aims to revolutionise Indycar racing in 2012, with a low-drag design that eliminates front wings and places the front wheels close together beneath the nose.
The car literally looks like a Delta Wing and has been conceived to encourage close racing and more passing. It’s also much lighter than a current Indycar – 1000lbs versus 1500lbs – and is much more aerodynamically efficient because of reduced rolling and aerodynamic resistance from the front wheels and the absence of front wings. Chip Ganassi says Bowlby’s numbers indicate the car could lap a Superspeedway at 230mph with only 350bhp. “That should encourage a wider selection of engines, and they should be much less stressed and able to run at lower rpm,” he said.
Last week the IRL announced its design parameters for the 2012 Indycar as follows:
• Safety: the new chassis must adhere to the league’s already high safety standards while exploring new technology to improve safety in all aspects of the car.
• Raceable: the new chassis must continue to produce the exciting racing that has become a signature of the IZOD IndyCar Series while not affecting other cars on track (i.e. less sensitive to the turbulence).
• Cost-effective: the league continues to work to reduce the cost of participation for teams in the IZOD IndyCar Series, which remains an important priority in this economic climate. The new chassis must have a price point that adheres to that goal.
• American-made: the new chassis must be built in the US, preferably at an Indiana-based facility.
• Less mass/more efficient: a lighter chassis with less mass that produces the same aerodynamic effect in an efficient way.
• Relevant technology: the league would like the new chassis to be relevant to the future of the consumer auto industry; innovative technology that is born on the race track and can translate to consumer cars.
• Modern look: more space for sponsor logos, cars easily identifiable.
• Green: the Indy Racing League prides itself on maintaining its position as a leader in environmentally-friendly initiatives with this chassis.
At this stage the IRL is considering proposals from Dallara, Delta Wing, Lola and Swift. Delta Wing is a consortium of current Indycar teams led by Ganassi and including Roger Penske. The other teams, Penske included, have examined and validated Bowlby’s CFD numbers for the Delta Wing design.
Thanks to its reduced weight and aerodynamic drag, Bowlby’s design will accelerate and brake much more rapidly than a current Indycar. The car will also incorporate the latest in carbon-fibre technology to produce a more elastic and crash-resistant chassis. Ganassi has been talking to potential manufacturers near his home in Pennsylvania and across the American mid-west. He adds that Delta Wing’s goal is to have multiple manufacturers build competing versions of the concept.
Peter Gibbons, Andretti Autosports’ technical director, has been in the sport for more than 30 years. He hopes the IRL selects Bowlby’s Delta Wing design for its new car. “If they don’t, then at some point fairly soon it’s over,” he said. “We’ve got to take a major step and think way ahead. We need some relevancy. There’s no relevancy in what we’re doing and even less with what NASCAR is doing. When gas is eight dollars a gallon, which isn’t far off, and we’re still pounding around in these fat, horrible, heavy cars, we’re in trouble.”
IRL champion Dario Franchitti agrees: “All I know is the Delta Wing is innovative and that’s what we need. We’ve got to bring innovation back to the sport and the Delta Wing will do it. I hope it happens.”
Gibbons’ comment re “it’s over” is ominous and obviously true. Tony George’s grand vision was a weapon of mass destruction.
Wow-I hope this happens as open (?) wheel racing needs something to make it exciting again.Can you imagine a field of these spaceage machines running around Indy?I wonder what they would be like on a road course???
I want one!
Just what racing needs. I hope it happens too.
It certainly looks dramatic and the basic goals for the car – and the other proposed designs already shown – are laudable. The question is how they will actually perform and we won’t know that yet until they run later this year. I am most interested in how the Delta Wing would perform on a road course. But if it does perform as expected then I am all for it.
Wow-I hope this happens as open (?) wheel racing needs something to make it exciting again.Can you imagine a field of these spaceage machines running around Indy?I wonder what they would be like on a road course???
I want one!
Imagine what it would be like on a road course… Totally useless. Just another crazy idea from America that will never come to fruition.
Yeah,Batman thinks it’s class.
Oh m god,just read some of the posts above,and i thought Juan Rico was nuts!
The vitriol spewed in some US forums about this design was really disturbing. Really intolerant to anything new! First I don’ think most people understand how the car works. I’m not sure I do, for that matter.
The whole concept is low drag. That’s why the front wheels are so close together and out of the air flow. It’s also why there are no wings. There is a ground effect downforce at the rear.
Low drag is how you can get a 300hp car to hit 230 mph.
There’s so little downforce on the front wheels, they would understeer terribly. But the I believe the “torque vectoring” acts like rear wheel steering. In essence it has four wheel steering, probably all computer controlled from an ordinary steering wheel.
Torque vectoring appears to be a differential that can delver arbitrary amounts of torque and rotational velocity to each wheel, under computer control. I guess that causes the car to turn. There are some commercial models shown online.
Unfortunately it is unlikely that the Delta car will ever be adopted by the IRL. Putting aside the questions as to whether this is the right design or not, what is interesting is that Delta has dared to define a criteria and a design concept of our future car(that criteria ironicly is now been adopted by the IRL). In addition Delta has suggested smart solutions to such issues as regulating the sport, lowering costs and idea’s by which other car/engine manufactures can compete in Indy Car racing.
Delta(Team Owners) presentation both highlights and challenges the establishment to provide the leadership and vision required to manage open wheel racing here in the United States.Did I hear anybody say, its Back to the Future?
It does look cool, sort of a LSR vehicle, but it barely meets the definition of “open wheel”. Why does Indy insist on spec racers? I’d prefer different constructors with different designs. At least let all 4 of the new ideas be used.
More importantly, Indy needs to figure out how to be the attraction it once was. It should be a race attracting the world’s best drivers, from IRL, F1, NASCAR, etc. The fact that Jeff Gordon has never entered the Indy 500 shows how far it has fallen.
I’m not sure I’d fancy being T-boned by one of these – even if the front isn’t made of tungsten carbide.
I imagine that getting it to go round corners might be a challenge as well.
What US open wheel racing needs is not a single whacky design but open competition – this thing might look interesting but that would soon wear off if if there were 33 of them. IRL / Champ Car ceased to be of interest to me when they went to spec cars. Write some rules – with some spec parts if you have to – and let teams build what they want.
Spec cars of any sort will eventually be the death of front line motor sport. Over half the point of motor racing is surely the engineering challenge to maximize performance within the boundaries of the Formula. That’s the technical challenge of the sport. If all the cars racing are the same, where’s the essential mix of car, driver, team, design and engineering. Capacity rules, aero rules, economy rules are all ways to make the sport more creative and more relevant to todays situation, but they should always be written into a formula for the engineers and designers to interpret. This wing thing is interesting in it’s self, a grid full of them would not be. Can’t see that it would work on a road corse at all though, in fact I think I’d prefer taking my chances in a Bond Bug!! ( seems the same, but shorter and slower!)
If one of these hit a bump and the front wheels left the ground, as soon as some air got underneath, it would translate a lot of it’s horizontal velocity into vertical. I wonder if wind tunnel testing in turbulent air is generally done on racing cars.
Good Lord, what a joke!
It looks more like a land speed
record device than an Indy car, very spectacular indeed but will it work ? It wouldn’t be the first spectacular looking design not to fulfill its’ promise … remember the 1972 Maurice Philippe designed Vel’s Parnelli Jones Indy special with 45-degree angled wings on each side ? Even the combined experience of Al Unser, Mario Andretti and Joe Leonard couldn’t make it work …
We should go back to something that looks like a Lotus 38. This does not have looks.