New Nissan to Race LeMans

[LeonV]

I admire you for that. Your willingness to accept new things far exceeds mine.

I am more resistant to change for the sake of change. My last comment is this. They built an amazing piece of engineering. Yes. I agree. But I would disagree to calling them solutions. In order for it to be a solution, there must first be a problem. What problems were they addressing (surely not efficiency)? There is nothing wrong with Cars as they are today. They built something out of the box for sure, but without a common metric to weigh it against, its performance is just a data point. Why wouldn't a 500kilo car with 300 HP be fast? They could have put more power or sure, but then the fuel economy they were bragging about would suffer.

As far as the weight goes, where else would you put the weight? The weight bias in back was a necessity of the trike design to make it able to corner without picking up a rear wheel in the slightest corner under braking.

I think the car has some cool attributes, but lets call it what it is. A rolling sales pitch. I would rather see Nissan take the fight to Audi with a full on LMP1 car, OR, bulid the deltawing to LMP rules and destroy Audi.

Your views are extremely narrow minded and carry a heavily biased undertone. I can make similar arguments for any race car. Hell, any car for that matter.

[tlorber]

Hopefully the technologies that are successful on the track can one day be applied to the road. I'm all for private money being spent on things that may or may not work in order to experiment or advance a cause. It's when mandates or taxpayer money are deployed that I get peeved.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Your views are extremely narrow minded and carry a heavily biased undertone. I can make similar arguments for any race car. Hell, any car for that matter.

Well we all have our biases. I have have mine for sure. No getting around that. I would not call my views narrow minded as much as I would call them realistic. Nothing I said was inaccurate. It may not be welcomed, but I am use to that. I do not embrace something different for the sake of being different. And I do not give credit unless it is earned. The DeltaWing did not prove anything to me. Yes, extremely light cars are easier on tires and fuel than cars that weight a lot. This is not news worthy. The only comment I made you can really translate to ANY car is the fact that all race cars are rolling sales pitches. Yes, that is completely true.

I am sorry if you think that is narrow mined LeonV. But my biases are my own, cultivated over 39 years on this planet, forged from experiences and life lessons. Not something I can change overnight. I tend to wear down like a rock with water flowing over it. It just takes time.

The Deltawing is what it is. A car in search of a place to race. Lapping at LeMans was very clever marketing. Clever enough for somebody to invent a series for it to race in. Time will tell.

[TomoHawk]

IMO, I think this car got a mention here is because it was build by Nissan. I did a quick search and there doesn't seem to be much mention of it on other marque-oriented websites, though some automotive websites mention it because it was at the LeMans 24 hours. A week from now, you probably won't see any mention of it elsewhere.

Edited June 19, 2012 by TomoHawk

[Lazeum]

For your info, it is everywhere in auto magazines here in France

On TV, it was hard to watch it though, they did not care so much.

[Grim]

The delta wing was not built by Nissan. The car was already built and being tested when Nissan europe decided to sponsor it. Dan Gurney's company All American Racers built it. The engine is Nissan but it could just as easily been a chevy or ford or what ever.

[TomoHawk]

Obviously, some people think it's a Nissan, like the name of this topic, but we learn more details as we go.

[TomoHawk]

The best way to watch something is on Youtube with videos from members who will attend.

Is that possible, to have many people uploading videos to Youtube? You must have some kind of organization for uploading videos. It sounds even possible to have a kind of "live webcam" for the whole event, using mobile devices of some kind. You could have that kind of coverage for just about any Datsun or Z event anywhere that you have mobile reception.

[LeonV]

Well we all have our biases. I have have mine for sure. No getting around that. I would not call my views narrow minded as much as I would call them realistic. Nothing I said was inaccurate. It may not be welcomed, but I am use to that. I do not embrace something different for the sake of being different. And I do not give credit unless it is earned. The DeltaWing did not prove anything to me. Yes, extremely light cars are easier on tires and fuel than cars that weight a lot. This is not news worthy. The only comment I made you can really translate to ANY car is the fact that all race cars are rolling sales pitches. Yes, that is completely true.

I am sorry if you think that is narrow mined LeonV. But my biases are my own, cultivated over 39 years on this planet, forged from experiences and life lessons. Not something I can change overnight. I tend to wear down like a rock with water flowing over it. It just takes time.

The Deltawing is what it is. A car in search of a place to race. Lapping at LeMans was very clever marketing. Clever enough for somebody to invent a series for it to race in. Time will tell.

Here's your argument, the other way around:

Very powerful cars can go fast. Not really news-worthy, either. A Prototype racer is a car in search of a place to race, and that place is the Lemans series. They are built specifically for Lemans. Nothing else. What is the point of a prototype racer? They only participate in Lemans, therefore making them pointless (by your argument).

Your quote, with two words changed:

Again, I like innovation, but what is the point of the prototype cars. (They have) the stench of a spec series type of car.

Lemans, or pretty much any racing for that matter, is not a matter of "outright speed" but a matter of finishing the race in first (i.e. the "endurance" that you mention). If you want outright speed, go to the salt flats.

When a car finishes first, it wins (*said in best John Madden voice*). Doesn't matter how you get there, and that is where innovation is king. Stagnation and complacency are the results of prohibiting and downplaying change or innovation.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

We can agree to disagree then LeonV. The fact that the Prototypes were built for an existing race with existing rules puts them in a whole other league than a technology demonstrator built to no rules at all. My point stands. Looks like we will just not see eye to eye on this one. That is okay by me. If everybody agreed on everything it would be a rather boring world.

[LeonV]

You're right, cookie cutters are boring. Personally, I enjoy something that is built for something besides a spec rulesheet.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I can totally respect that, and in your defense some of the greatest cars ever were born from thinking waaay out side the box.