New Nissan to Race LeMans

[240260280z]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/03/nissan-deltawing/

[5thhorsemann]

I'll be intrested to see if that front suspension and narrow profile steering tires aren't more of a liability than they think. It might be able to go without fuel, but I see a few extra tire changes durring the race, we shall see.

[jmortensen]

20% of the weight is on the front tires, so front tire wear shouldn't be a problem. I've been talking to some people on another forum about it, and the main argument seems to be on the downforce and drag numbers. They're claiming that it will have CD of .24 which is lower than any passenger car, and yet it is supposed to be able to corner with cars that have much higher CD and wings (meaning that it will have to produce significant downforce while being slippery) and originally it was only supposed to put out 300 hp and be able to keep up. Lately I've been seeing hp numbers of 400. That doesn't mean that it isn't a good idea to me, but some have issues with the notion that they had to add hp, as that may mean the CD is higher than originally stated, in which case it won't be as fuel efficient which was the whole point. I think the car will work in a general sense and it will prove the point, a lot of people seem to be coming around after seeing the videos of the thing out at Buttonwillow. I guess we'll know soon enough.

FWIW, it's not technically competing, it's running as an exhibition car. This was originally suggested as the newest Indy car design and too many people balked so they went with a more traditional design.

[26th-Z]

That isn't a Nissan chassis - just the engine. Nothing new, really. Nissan successfully competed in the past with Lola and March chassis.

[Bruce Palmer]

I'd like to get one of those 300HP 1600's to put in my wagon...... Talk about slippery. And it already has a wing. nyuck nyuck

[jmortensen]

Yeah, nothing new. Same old same old.

[26th-Z]

Pretty wild looking car, isn't it?! I wonder if they will be able to make anything of it.

What I was saying was that Nissan typically collaborates with experimental and prototype chassis design. And they have been doing it for a long time. For instance the 1986 March / Nissan R86V for group C racing.

[TomoHawk]

the car retired during the tenth hour.

[240260280z]

Yeah a dumb Toyota side swiped it on a restart an it walled.

A ton of attrition in the race so far.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Blue

[TomoHawk]

I'm surprised it didn't flip over in a turn, with the skinny (10 cm!) front wheels so close together. It wouldn't have been allowed to compete, if it wasn't safe. I didn't see anything about ho fast it was able to go or to keep up with any other cars. But 300 HP from a 1.6L engine??

I'd rather watch the Classic LeMans race instead, but that was in early May

[conedodger]

That thing is so light weight I hear it went 53 laps on its first set of tires. That is something close to 4 times the laps the other cars were doing. As for the narrow front end, I bet the turn in was incredible as long as they can keep if from pushing...

[Lazeum]

The race was nice. The Deltawing was quite ok from a time stand point; within LMP2 times. That's too bad it did not finish the race or went further. It would have been interesting to see how it performs on a longer time period to check if it was a good solution on the long range regarding fuel consumption or tires.

Regarding the Classic Le Mans race, it is in 3 weeks!!! We're going to gather French, UK, Dutch & Belgium clubs to have a dedicated Datsun area. We should be over 30 Datsuns + some extras at Nissan who has asked for some special race Z cars. It will be nice