163 replies to this topic

[Jacob Shiplet]

Personally I think the Audi looks incredible. I thought the Aston Martins looked good along with the Peugeot's. I will agree dirt late models dont look good sitting still, but in motion are incredible. Wing sprints are just like wing cars, only good for the downforce and going fast.

[Phil Irvin]

I worked in a motorcycle shop in 87 when the HUBBUB about 3 wheelers came out. With the short wheelbase & narrow width at the back. We 'found out' real quick the center of gravity was about chest hi....We learned to put our bodies as far as we could to the 'inside' of the turn. Even with 4 wheels. They could tip easily. It was the 'idiots' that thought they were play things that wouldn't hurt you and those 'idiots' that thought the were 'super' riders. I went threw 'spinal cord' rehab with a girl that had ridden one 5 times and had NO idea as to how to corner one. She had NO training and thought it wouldnt tip going around a corner...........

I built a 3 wheeler for flat track racing. It had 3 in. ground clearence and offset rear wheels. You still HAD to lean left...But it sure handled...an won more than its fair share..

You can make it low enough and with airo dynamics and suspension low enough to put its center of gravity below ground level...
Then try and catch it. Just look at the F1/Can Am cars now. The fisical wings don't work as hard as they did 10 years ago. Turn one over & look at all the tunnels underneath.......

OLPHRT
PHL I.

[flem1959]

[Ace]

The Audi may be lumpy but the rules state the tires /wheels must be covered. They have lowered the cg of the chassis so much the fenders ar just light weight tire covers that direct the air flow to the rear wing. However with the LeMans organizers making their own rules for one race you can end up with some strange designs. Dan Gurney is a great racer he has desinged some cool race cars he undrestands that cg must be lower to generate cornering speed just look at his gator motorcycle project. just think they missed the boat this time.

[MSwiss]

Of some interest, I read in my new Road & Track that Ben Bowlby tested his "wild idea" by building a RC model
that he described as a 3 wheel version of a 4 wheel baseline model.

Also, I was surprised to read each front tire is only 4" wide.

[TSR]

Dan Gurney really had nothing to do with this project, AAR is just building the Bowlby design after it was created at Ganassi Racing.
But we will see after testing who missed the boat...
By the way there is an interview of Ben Bowlby in the latest Road & Track mag, in which he explains the concept.
And yes, the car can turn, and will turn, and will surprise a lot of you, some will have to eat crow big time...

Mike, the front tires are only 4" wide because that is all what is needed, since the car really steers as lightly as a jet liner, and jet liners do not need much of a front tire to steer...

[Ron Hershman]

You want ugly? What about this (very fast) mongrel?



Want some more? How about this marvel of beauty:

Sorry that beauty is just plain BAD AZZ

Mike, the front tires are only 4' wide

4 foot wide???

[Ron Hershman]

The Audi may be lumpy but the rules state the tires /wheels must be covered. They have lowered the cg of the chassis so much the fenders ar just light weight tire covers that direct the air flow to the rear wing.

Nothing more than a F1 car/engineering with fenders and a cockpit

[MSwiss]

4 foot wide???

If I was prone to sarcasm, I would probably make some joke that it wasn't the first time he "inflated"
something that was really only 4 inches in size. LOL

[Noose]

Hmm...Darth Audi. Grandaddy to those VW commercials with the Darth Vader kid. LOL

[Ron Hershman]

Grandaddy to those VW commercials with the Darth Vader kid. LOL

One of the "best" commercials when they run it "full length"

[TSR]

[Duffy]

Hmm...Darth Audi.

"....Luuuke...<wheeze>...I am NOT your Father's Oldsmobile...<wheeze>..."

[Mopar Rob]

Obvously, the team saved some time using the 1989 Batmobile as inspiration?

[MG Brown]

I just want it in the race so Red Fox can make a Eurosport body of the Delta Wing for ISRA.

[Steve Deiters]

If you go to the Autoweek website there is a brief video of the Delta car on the track. Not at speed, but appears they are shaking the car down.

[TSR]

The main thing is it worked, turning corners with remarkable stability. So far, so good.

“Well, it is counter-intuitive,” said chief designer Ben Bowlby, formerly of Lola Cars. “For a long time, we all believed that the world was flat, because it's counter-intuitive to think that it's round, or spheroid or whatever.”

OK, so for the many here who were doubters of simple technology, let's go back to simply screaming in unison: "It's ugly!" since your other arguments are falling off the flat earth.

[Duffy]

Actually it don't look all that bad. In a sinewy, swimmers-muscley way, not in a baaadass jailyard-buff lumpy way. I can deal with it.

Now, prove it out on the track, and shut us up by actually taking some races.
Then, we lot can start figuring out how to make it work with a guide shoe under there.

Duffy

[Ron Hershman]

OK, so for the many here who were doubters of simple technology, let's go back to simply screaming in unison: "It's ugly!" since your other arguments are falling off the flat earth.

Well until they get up to speed at LeMans we will have to wait to see.

If it's competitive.....great..... if not competitive....then we told ya so.

[TSR]

Yes, Ron, let's change the subject of the conversation as you are such a master of it.

Now, prove it out on the track, and shut us up by actually taking some races.

Duffster, it is not the point. The point is, to show that equal performance can be achieved with half the weight and half the drag and half the fuel consumption and half the CO2 emissions. It is a laboratory on wheels.

90% of the doubters said very publicly that it could not corner. Now they are being proven wrong. If the car was inherently unstable, at the speed it went around the track in this preliminary test, it would have stood on its nose.

Now part two, more testing, more weight distribution adjustments, and let see if the lowered drag provides the necessary straight-line speed; that is crucial, more than cornering speed, at LeMans.

[MG Brown]

As Steve said, apparently it can go around a race track...

DeltaWing race car hits track for first test

[Duffy]

Duffster, it is not the point. The point is, to show that equal performance can be achieved with half the weight and half the drag and half the fuel consumption and half the CO2 emissions. It is a laboratory on wheels.

Now part two, more testing, more weight distribution adjustments, and let see if the lowed drag provides the necessary straight-line speed, that is crucial, more than cornering speed, at Le Mans.

And Spa, too. Other Enduros, not so much - but we'll see. Yah, the performance index is a part that gets missed a lot in these LeMans discussions.

I'd love to see this happen. I'm rooting for it.

Duff

[TSR]

Michael,
Spa is quite twisty nowadays, not like the old days!
The Deltawing is a new concept and indeed needs to prove its worth, but the first test went very well and was very encouraging. The car has a lot more enemies than it has friends, but it has the ACO as a friend because they know that they will sell 50000 more tickets with the car in the show. People are a bit tired of seeing near-silent Audi Diesel torque machines pile up the laps, the ransom of success.
it's like watching Duran lap everyone every 10 laps at BPR, it's getting old bu the guy is damn good, so what to do?
Call Hershman for help and order a tricycle from him.

[Duffy]

Call Hershman for help and order a tricycle from him.

Ohh, well, that's just froid.

Publicity is good in spectator sports, and even better when there's an underlying motivator--like here, not-like Danica Patrick (even tho' she can still wipe the track with my butt and most or you lot's as well, so shuddup)--so, yah, I'm cheering from the sidelines.

Duffy

[MSwiss]

I hope it works, but it looked like in the turns it was just going a little faster than the Suzuki econo-box
they let the celebrities use in on the U.S. version of Top Gear.

And I wonder how it will run in traffic.