An inside look at the DeltaWing, the boldest--and most polarizing--racecar design in decades
Posted 09.24.2012 at 11:05 am
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Little Wing: Despite an engine that puts out just 300 horsepower, the needle nose and clean bodywork reduce drag enough to get the Delta Wing moving at 200 miles per hour. Highcroft Racing 2012
Ben Bowlby, DeltaWing’s 45-year-old creator, is a British expat whose accent has been dulled by nine years spent living in the U.S. Upbeat and amiable, he has the supportive but faintly didactic air of a favorite high-school science teacher. At 16, he built his first road car by welding two Minis together in a small machine shop at his parents’ house in London. He raced cars of his own design before spending nearly a decade as chief designer at Lola Cars, which was then one of the world’s preeminent racecar manufacturers. In 2003 Bowlby moved to the U.S. to join former racecar driver Chip Ganassi’s sprawling motor-sports empire. In addition to serving as technical director of Ganassi’s Indy Car, Sprint Cup stock car and Daytona Prototype sports car programs, Bowlby also oversaw such unorthodox projects as the transformation of an abandoned Pennsylvania railroad tunnel into a wind-tunnel testing facility.
In 2008 Bowlby experienced an epiphany. He was attending the U.S. motorcycle Grand Prix, marveling at the sight of motorcycle riders leaning at 45-degree angles as they drifted through 100mph corners, tires squirming at the edge of traction. It struck him that any spectator, no matter how clueless, could see the courage and talent of professional bikers. Racecars, on the other hand, hide their drivers’ skills. Their giant wings produce so much grip that driving them looks effortless. The wings also generate a wake of turbulent “dirty air” that prevents cars from racing closely together, robbing races of drama. Bowlby wanted to get rid of the wings. What would happen, he wondered, if he mounted a single front wheel in the center of a super-narrow nose? The streamlined snout would reduce drag and cut weight. Plus, it would permit a wingless aerodynamic profile that would showcase the driver’s prowess, allowing him to slide more outrageously into corners and run closer to competitors.
This triangular profile—known as a delta wing planform—is common among Top Fuel dragsters and land-speed record cars. But those machines race only in a straight line. If they had to turn at high speed, wouldn’t they just topple over like a little kid on a tricycle? As Bowlby thought more deeply about the issue, he realized that the problem with most three-wheelers was not the number and arrangement of the wheels. It was the disastrously high center of gravity. So he conducted an experiment. He bought a pair of radio-control cars, modified one to run with a single, centered front wheel, and tested them both on a frigid winter night on the suburban streets around his home in Zionsville, Indiana. The battery-powered three-wheeler, with its low center of gravity, turned just fine. In fact, it cornered at higher speeds than the four-wheel version. Later, back at the Ganassi shop, computer simulations showed that a full-size car built on the same template should turn just as well.
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Well written article about a very interesting vehicle and even more interesting group of people. In conclusion, the author notes only two possible futures for the DeltaWing: create a set of equivalency rules to allow this dramatic departure from the current norm to compete with the norm, or scrap the rules altogether and establish weight and/or energy allowances for any vehicle used in competition. I would propose a third alternative. Here (the region around Charlotte, NC) in the heart of NASCAR country, an new type of entry level racecar was introduced some years ago. Like the DeltaWing, this new breed could not be fit into any current class of racing vehicle. So a new class was created just for this car style, called the Legends. A new class could be created for the DeltaWing, allowing interested parties to buy into and build their own, with sponsorship and any other financing means available, similar to what a NASCAR start-up would do today. Expensive? Sure. But wouldn't it be great to see an entire field of these sleek land missiles setting new world records in competition against each other? Just a thought.
Keep the great reads rolling!
Richard
F-Zero X type races are coming closer....
Fascinating. Thank you.
To the batmobile!
Great feature article. Le Mans should have an open class with only necessary constraints (for safety). Having an experimental entry winning the race would add excitement to that class of racing. I'd have to see more to buy into it entirely but the premise of eliminating dirty air practically makes it sale to me.
You can see the accident here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJAiZVuC3YI
... on first view it almost looks blatant but watch it a couple of times. The other driver does not even see the DeltaWing for quite a while as another car blocks the view of the lower profile Nissan. It certainly did look like pinball!
" Le Mans should have an open class with only necessary constraints (for safety)"
Actually, the LeMans race many years ago had a prize for efficiency. It took into account factors such as weight, engine displacement, fuel consumption, etc.
Cool car, great story. Take it Bonneville.
"Hello Commissioner Gordon. I'd like to uh...report a car theft... No it wasn't Robin joy riding this time."
"Its novel shape enables it to clock competitive lap times with an engine only slightly more powerful than the one in a standard family sedan."
I don't know about you, but around where I live, which is outside the US, the average sedan has about 120hp, far below the 300hp this vehicle has. I'm talking about an average Toyota Corolla, Mazda 6, Volkswagen Passat, or Ford Focus. You know, an average sedan.
High praise an applause to Ben Bowlby, the Gurney's and all involved with putting the Delta Wing on the track!
Thank you Mr. Lerner for an excellent article.
Motorsports have "been shedding fans, losing sponsors and struggling" because it shares a disturbing aspect of current American society. We are so focused on the safety of keeping our foot on first base that we don't see the rewards of stealing second.
Mr. Bowlby has much more true American spirit than most of the people born in the United States during the last 60 years.