Thread: The DeltaWing lives

Originally Posted by FIAT1

Gordon Kirby - Auto Racing - The Way It Is .

Great article!

Gary

Have you seen it make a hair-pin turn ? I havent and I havent heard anyone say they have either. I would love to see this monstrosity make the sharp hair pin at Long Beach. It would look ridiculously stupid doing it and extremely slow at making it.....lol

Originally Posted by DanicaFan

Have you seen it make a hair-pin turn ? I havent and I havent heard anyone say they have either. I would love to see this monstrosity make the sharp hair pin at Long Beach. It would look ridiculously stupid doing it and extremely slow at making it.....lol

And you would know this, how? If your engineering prowess is anything like your race prediction prowess, you might want to rethink this assertion.

Gary

Originally Posted by DanicaFan

Have you seen it make a hair-pin turn ? I havent and I havent heard anyone say they have either. I would love to see this monstrosity make the sharp hair pin at Long Beach. It would look ridiculously stupid doing it and extremely slow at making it.....lol

So by the same token, how can you comment on how this car will perform when you have not see it perform? How can you be so sure it wouldn't make a tight corner? Perhaps you would care to comment on your Engineering experience, and then we can decide whether or not your comments bear any weight at all.

I'm looking forward to seeing this car in action. I have no current opinion either way on whether this car will work on all types of circuit. For information I hold a Masters Degree in Physics with Astrophysics, and a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics. I've also done a little bit of automotive CFD in my time.

Whether it works or not, this car will leave a lot of people looking stupid on either side of the fence.

Im not an engineer but with a long nose on a car like that, commen sense kicks in that it could not make a sharp turn. Its not physically possible. It would have to go wide.

To quote Gordon Kirby in that article - "Imagine yourself fifty or sixty years ago as a fan of the beautiful Indy roadsters of the late 50s and early 60s or the classic Maserati 250F, Mercedes-Benz W196 or Dino Ferrari Formula One cars from the mid-fifties. If I suggested to you that those superb cars were about to be replaced by an invasion of tiddly little rear-engine Coopers and Lotuses you would have said I was crazy. But it happened, almost overnight, between 1958-'61 in F1 and 1963-'66 in Indy cars. "

Common sense means nothing in Engineering. The Indy boys in the early 60s would have looked at rear-engined cars and laughed their heads off. They were soon laughing on the other side of their faces when they got blown away by rear-engined cars. Go back in time to the 1910s and show someone an A380 and they would think you were mental if you suggested that thing could fly. We only perceive the Delta Wing car to be ridiculous because it is a radical concept. It may work, it may not work. If it does work you can be sure that it will be adopted pretty sharpish by manufacturers as a lot of its technology seems to be relevant to what really matters - cars that will be on the road in future.

Originally Posted by garyshell

Anthony,

I have been searching for any video from the Sebring rollout. Do you know if there is any posted on the web?

Gary

Originally Posted by Andrewmcm

To quote Gordon Kirby in that article - "Imagine yourself fifty or sixty years ago as a fan of the beautiful Indy roadsters of the late 50s and early 60s or the classic Maserati 250F, Mercedes-Benz W196 or Dino Ferrari Formula One cars from the mid-fifties. If I suggested to you that those superb cars were about to be replaced by an invasion of tiddly little rear-engine Coopers and Lotuses you would have said I was crazy. But it happened, almost overnight, between 1958-'61 in F1 and 1963-'66 in Indy cars. "

Common sense means nothing in Engineering. The Indy boys in the early 60s would have looked at rear-engined cars and laughed their heads off. They were soon laughing on the other side of their faces when they got blown away by rear-engined cars. Go back in time to the 1910s and show someone an A380 and they would think you were mental if you suggested that thing could fly. We only perceive the Delta Wing car to be ridiculous because it is a radical concept. It may work, it may not work. If it does work you can be sure that it will be adopted pretty sharpish by manufacturers as a lot of its technology seems to be relevant to what really matters - cars that will be on the road in future.

All due respect to Gordon Kirby but its not a good analogy.

The mid-engined cars was born out of the spirit of racing and competition.

Where did Delta Wing come from? A design brief that called for gimmicky cars.

If there was series that called for wingless cars would the DW concept succeed?

Originally Posted by DanicaFan

Im not an engineer but with a long nose on a car like that, commen sense kicks in that it could not make a sharp turn. Its not physically possible. It would have to go wide.

Would that be the same "common sense" that had you pick Danica to win every single IndyCar was she ever entered?

Gary

Thank you for the video links, Anthony!

Gary

Originally Posted by wedge

All due respect to Gordon Kirby but its not a good analogy.

The mid-engined cars was born out of the spirit of racing and competition.

Where did Delta Wing come from? A design brief that called for gimmicky cars.

If there was series that called for wingless cars would the DW concept succeed?

Actually the Delta Wing was born as a response to a request for design by the Indy Car Series that met certain performance and safety parameters much like many other series.

More video from Sebring.

Gary

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Actually the Delta Wing was born as a response to a request for design by the Indy Car Series that met certain performance and safety parameters much like many other series.

True, I was being harsh.

Such radical designs interpreted by DW, Swift, et al can be argued appropriately as gimmicks.

Bowlby was in London early last week for Nissan's announcement that its turbocharged 1.6 liter direct injection four-cylinder engine will power the Delta Wing. The engine makes 300 bhp at 7,500 rpm and the 1,000 pound Delta Wing (475 kilograms dry and 575 kilos with driver and fuel) is designed to produce competitive lap times using half the fuel of a conventional car. Congratulations to NIssan for taking the plunge with the Delta Wing and shame on the domestic manufacturers for shying away from it.

"This car was designed for what the auto industry stated they wanted," Bolwby said.

I thought automakers were looking to make more powerful engines that consume less fuel. This is a less powerful engine that consumes less fuel. That's neither bold nor radical; that's a formula for more pack racing.

Originally Posted by call_me_andrew

I thought automakers were looking to make more powerful engines that consume less fuel. This is a less powerful engine that consumes less fuel. That's neither bold nor radical; that's a formula for more pack racing.

Pack racing is a phenomena of Flat out, all the way around, oval racing. Rarely happens in road racing. Even in spec series set-up and Talent separates most.

The demonstration run at Sebring was just that - a demonstration. Issues with the gearbox (among other things) kept speed and laps down. RML will take the car from AAR and continue development in the UK.

Originally Posted by shazbot

The demonstration run at Sebring was just that - a demonstration. Issues with the gearbox (among other things) kept speed and laps down. RML will take the car from AAR and continue development in the UK.

RML? I'm missing that one, who is that? Brain fart or something.

Originally Posted by garyshell

More video from Sebring.

Gary

Thnaks Gary. I see slow speeds, wide turns, lots of under-steer and nowhere near the apex rumble strips