Deltawing Gets Nissan Sponsorship and Engine; Faster than LMP2

Highcroft Racing has announced that Nissan will be the experimental sports car's main sponsor and will also supply the car's engine. It is now being referred to as the Nissan Deltawing. Marino Franchitti and Michael Krumm will be the team's main drivers, and it has not announced other drivers yet. 

The Deltawing will use a 1.6 liter, direct-injected turbocharged engine with about 300hp. Highcroft claims that the car weighs 475kg, about half of a conventional race car, and has half of the aerodynamic drag. Highcroft is claiming that the Deltawing will have performance between LMP1 and LMP2 cars. Its chassis is a highly modified version of the one used by the Aston Martin AMR-One LMP1 car. 

“As motor racing rulebooks have become tighter over time, racing cars look more and more similar and the technology used has had less and less relevance to road car development. Nissan DeltaWing aims to change that and we were an obvious choice to become part of the project,” said Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

The Deltawing poses unique challenges due to its design. In most race cars, drivers aim the car's front wheels at the apex of the corner. However, because the front of the Deltawing is more narrow in the front than in the rear, the driver will have to aim the rear of the car at the apex. If the front of the car hit the apex, the rear would go off track and lose traction. 

Highcroft Racing had previously had a very close relationship with Honda Performance Development (HPD). It was chosen by HPD to be one of the first teams to race the ARX-01 LMP2 car in the American Le Mans Series, and it was later chosen by HPD to be one of the first two teams to race the ARX-02a LMP1 car. The team won the 2009 ALMS LMP1 class and won the LMP2 class in ALMS in 2010. 

It will not be long until we get to see just what kind of times the Deltawing puts in on the track. The team will be testing the car at Sebring on Thursday while other ALMS and WEC teams are testing for the race, although the Deltawing will not race in the 12 Hours of Sebring. 

The Deltawing will race as an experimental car for no points in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. 

The videos below show the unveiling of the now Nissan-sponsored Deltawing and some in-car shots of the car on track.