motorsportmania

When I first read about the DeltaWing it was in a magazine article and the proposition was that it could be the new IndyCar. Having read the article and checked the date on the Magazine; it was the April issue, I came to the conclusion that it was an April Fool spoof and left it at that.

Later of course I found that it was nothing of the sort and was a genuine effort at producing something radical. Now that I can be a fan of for I loved the sorts of things that came through the 1960s and into the 1970s; anything from Jim Hall, the Grantelli Indycars, especially Silent Sam, Tyrrell’s 6 wheeler and so on. I morn the regulations that have stopped that sort of innovation, but the DeltaWing somehow I can’t get.

This week I saw a Tweet from NASCAR star Brad Keslowski referring to it as a car designed by people who don’t get motor racing, and then Tiff Needell weighed in with a Tweet that included a link to a DeltaWing almost flipping following a minor side swipe from a Porsche at Road Atlanta. That video clip, including on board footage, is on YouTube for all to see and it’s doubtful in my mind that a car with a conventional front end would have been as vulnerable. It reminded me of a Reliant Robin, and looks about as stable as they were at speed but check my Twitter page for a little Tweet exchange yesterday with @Motor_Sport who fairly point out that cars do get light under the bridge there.

The thought of what might have happened had that been at 200+ mph on an oval is terrifying though, and to be seeing that just 12 months after we lost Dan Wheldon…

No, I might love radical thinking, it may be very good on fuel economy and my old hero Dan Gurney may have had a hand in it somewhere, but as a racing car the DeltaWing just leaves me cold.

Filed under: Cars, Indycar | Tagged: #Motor_Sport, ALMS, DeltaWing, Indy500, Indycar, lemans, NissanDeltaWing, PLM, tiff_tv |