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seabass
champcarmanic
Joined: 07 Dec 2005
Posts: 696
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 Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:13 pm Post subject: DELTA THING |
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Live from the Chicago Auto Show we are proud to pull the covers off of this...
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Drum roll
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This can't be really happening, can it? This is really the car everyone has been dreaming of???
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stmookeyj
champcarmanic
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 881
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:26 am Post subject: |
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If this is legit it's not an open wheel racing car.
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STICKING IT UP AMERICA FROM THEIR 51ST STATE. |
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Ruhiat.Ari
champcarguru
Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 1603
Location: Virginia Beach
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Ligier_AL
champcarguru
Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 1902
Location: Mid-West
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:54 am Post subject: |
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| OrlandoSentinel wrote: |
New Indy Racing League car could put NASCAR on notice.
The DeltaWing looks like the Batmobile but a cheaper and faster product could help save open-wheel racing series.
By Steven Cole Smith
CHICAGO — The Indy Racing League put NASCAR on notice Wednesday.
The top open-wheel series in the U.S. is tired of being dominated by stock car racing, and they are fighting back, possibly with a stunning all-new car for the 2012 season called the DeltaWing that debuted at the Chicago Auto Show.
The IRL has said it wants a new, less expensive car for the 2012 season, and several manufacturers, including Swift and current car builder Dallara are submitting proposals, but none are remotely as radical as the DeltaWing.
Narrow in the front, extremely wide in the rear — with a vertical tail that looks like it came from a Cessna airplane — the DeltaWing concept is unlike any current race car.
And that may be the beauty of it. Dario Franchitti, current IRL champion, was impressed. "Is it too weird? I think people can get used to it. I was just thinking that when the first rear-engine car showed up at the Indianapolis 500, and when the first car showed up there with wings on it, people went, 'Oh my God, that's so revolutionary. This is something really different, and I like it. And we've got to do something. It grabs your attention, and as a lifelong race fan, I've seen all different kinds of cars, and this is the first one I've looked at in a long time and gone, 'Oh, my, what in the world....'"
The car was designed by Ben Bowlby, chief engineer for Chip Ganassi Racing, the team Franchitti and Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon drive for. Though it looks much larger than the current IRL car, it's about six inches longer, and the width at the rear, 70 inches, is about the same. There are openings in the body above the tires to give it an open-wheel look. "We didn't want it to look like a sports car," said Dan Partel, CEO of DeltaWing Racing, and the former president of Lola, another chassis manufacturer.
Though the DeltaWing design has been proven only in computer simulations, several teams have come to the same conclusion about its potential. The engine would be a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, which most every car company already has in its product inventory. It would be less that half the horsepower of the current car's V-8, but DeltaWing says the new car can go 230 mph, in part because it will weigh only 1,000 pounds – including the driver.
"Here are the key points," Ganassi told the Sentinel. "Half the cost of the current car, half the weight, half the drag, half the downforce, uses half the fuel — same speed. Which is 230 mph on 300 horsepower. And safer than the current car."
Partel said the fuel flow would be restricted to the engine at a certain rate – teams could run larger, heavier engines if they wanted, but with the restricted fuel flow, the bigger engine would likely be no faster than a small four-cylinder.
There are, however, concerns beyond the Batmobile looks. One is the fact that 33 cars powered by 300-horsepower four-cylinder engines — the Subaru Impreza offers a model with a 305-horsepower four-cylinder — may sound less than invigorating at the Indy 500.
And since the front wheel width is so much narrower than the rear wheel width — and there will be no rear-view mirrors, Partel insists — might not drivers have a hard time judging where their rear wheels are? "Mario Andretti brought that up," Partel admits, "and it's a valid question. But don't you think they'd figure it out pretty quickly?"
A surprising collection of IRL decision-makers were on hand, including deposed IRL founder Tony George, new IRL head Randy Bernard, who moves over from the Professional Bull Riders association; John Barnes, owner of Panther Racing; team owner and forrmer driver Michael Andretti, and Kevin Kalklhoven, IRL team owner and former owner of the Champ Car series. Reportedly team owner Roger Penske and several other IRL drivers and owners have endorsed the DeltaWing concept.
The car displayed in Chicago is a model, Partel said, and the production version would have some different components. The show car's body is one-piece, but the production version would have separate body parts, made from carbon fiber that sandwiches a different, cheaper lightweight material. Refueling would be done NASCAR-style from the rear, with hand-held gas cans. "There are too many fires in the pits with the current IRL fueling method," Partel said.
If the DeltaWing design is chosen by the IRL, other manufacturers could build it, Partel said, so long as they were willing to sell it for a certain set price, likely around $600,000. He said he expects to have one ready to roll onto a race track by August.
"I think it's very cool," said Jimmy Vasser, former open-wheel champion driver and current team owner. "If people are flipping through the channels on the TV, and they come up on a bunch of these cars racing -- they are gonna stop and watch for a while. And we need that. We have to do something to counter that other racing series that seems to be getting all the attention."
"I'm fascinated by it," said Kurt Antonius, head of public relations for Honda, the IRL's current engine supplier. "It's time for the IRL to make some big statement. I say let's build a few, put 'em on the track and see what happens." |
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/motorracing/os-indycar-batmobile-car-of-tomorrow-nasc20100210,0,5735873,full.story
One thing that IndyCar managed to do was it took the focus off of NASCAR for just one day during their biggest race of the year.
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Mospeada
champcarguru
Joined: 31 Jul 2004
Posts: 1582
Location: near the fence, on the other side...
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:21 am Post subject: |
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Looks like something from Speed Racer. Not in a good way either.
I was fairly hopeful about this project, you know, a radical approach to Indycars, but this, this is a bit too much. It looks like an F16 mated with a top fuel dragster, again, not in a good way.
I would think that the narrow nose would give idiot drivers even more incentive to do idiot things since they could literally stick the nose into tighter places.
Mos
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whatever
champcarmanic
Joined: 01 Mar 2003
Posts: 808
Location: Tampa
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:49 am Post subject: |
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The car has striking similarities to the car Ace and Gary drove in the SNL skit "The Ambiguously Gay Duo", doesn't it??
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thunderroad
champcarmanic
Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 918
Location: snowboarding in Manitoba
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:58 am Post subject: |
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| I've seen the future and it's fucking ugly. Stupidest POS I've ever laid my eyes on... |
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thunderroad
champcarmanic
Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 918
Location: snowboarding in Manitoba
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:01 am Post subject: |
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| whatever wrote: | The car has striking similarities to the car Ace and Gary drove in the SNL skit "The Ambiguously Gay Duo", doesn't it??
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There's nothing ambiguous about this car looking like a POS.  |
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BananaJoe36
champcaracer
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
Posts: 306
Location: Tiki Bar on A1A, South Florida
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:27 am Post subject: |
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Bring on the Flintstones - at least they drove truer open-wheeled cars.  
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Xplex Remix 96
champcarfan
Joined: 21 Apr 2008
Posts: 58
Location: Eastern Long Island
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:47 pm Post subject: |
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Delta Wing Project  .
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