Michelin Delivers First Skinny Tires to Deltawing Le Mans Team

Michelin has delivered the first tires to the Project 56 Deltawing team. What is novel is the size of the tires. The front tires on the Deltawing are just 10/58-15 meaning that the tires are just 4in (10cm) wide. In comparison, an Audi R18 uses tires that are 14.5in (36cm) wide. The Deltawing uses 31/62-15 rear tires, which are 12in (31cm) wide. 

“The difference in tire size is stunning. You could fit three DeltaWing MICHELIN front tires inside an Audi Le Mans Prototype MICHELIN front tire,” said Michelin American Le Mans Series technical team leader Karl Koenigstein. 

The Deltawing has a special invitation for the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. The point of the car is to use half the fuel, half the tires and have half of the power, but its lap times would be the comparable to current cars. 

The car weighs 475kg (1,047lbs) with a 1600cc, turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 300hp that revs to 8000rpm. The transmission is a five-speed sequential gearbox with paddle shifters. The car has a 4.65m overall length with a 2.9m wheel base. 

“There is tremendous focus in the auto industry worldwide on making vehicles lighter without sacrificing performance, and we hope to learn a great deal from our collaboration with the DeltaWing program,” said Silvia Mammone, Michelin motorsports manager and project leader for the Michelin DeltaWing.