Official

DeltaWing announces forthcoming GT-class racer, road car details

View 4 Photos
It's possible we'll see a DeltaWing racer that's less... DeltaWing-y than the current DWC13 Coupe racing in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. The company's racing arm announced it is developing a concept two-seater GT-class racer utilizing its core principles - two small, closely spaced wheels in front, traditional wheelbase in back, the project led by racing industry veteran Brian Willis. It is expected to be shown off later this year.

That effort is being twinned with continuing development of two- and four-seater DeltaWing road cars, also under the leadership of Willis; now that hopes for the Nissan BladeGlider are on the backburner all but dead, this is where you'll have to get your street-legal isosceles fix. When we last heard about it, the company predicted that a small-displacement four-cylinder could return up to 70 miles per gallon. It had Meszler Engineering Services analyze the numbers for such a car powered by a 1.4-liter, 138-horsepower four-cylinder gas engine. Meszler found that the model would return 57 mpg combined, 70 mpg on the highway.

There's a long way to go from mathematics to actual EPA tests, but the findings - bolstered by the real-world capabilities of the Claro/Tracfone DeltaWing DWC13 Coupe in the USCC - bode well for its green credentials. If they can figure out how to wrap it in an attractive body, they could be onto something. You can read more about both initiatives in the press releases below.
Show full PR text
DELTAWING ANNOUNCES GT RACE CAR CONCEPT

DeltaWing Technology Group to design and build a DeltaWing® GT concept, expected to appear in 2015. Brian Willis, the newly appointed vice president, Engineering and Design, leads the project.


Sebring, Fla., March 20, 2015 – DeltaWing Technology Group, Inc. today revealed an exciting evolution of the DeltaWing Racing Cars program with its announcement that it will begin development of a DeltaWing® GT race car concept.

It will be designed to demonstrate that with far less horsepower than many of today's best sports cars, a two-seat performance car based on the DeltaWing® architecture would deliver the same performance, yet with previously unimagined fuel economy and efficiency. Expected to appear in 2015, this new DeltaWing Racing Cars project is a major step toward a street-legal two-seat DeltaWing® sports car.

"This is an important point in the DeltaWing® project's next phase," said Don Panoz, DeltaWing Technology Group chairman and CEO. "We've been very busy leading up to this launch announcement, and we'll remain quite busy coordinating the race car project's many details."

Brian Willis, DeltaWing Technologies' newly appointed vice president, Engineering and Design, will lead this project. He also will lead a simultaneous and related project – development of two- and four-seat DeltaWing® road car prototypes for further development and real-world testing.

Willis is no stranger to Panoz and racing. His 27-year career includes stints as senior designer for Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd., director of engineering for Élan Technologies' motorsports division, chief engineer for Panoz Motorsports, and technical director for Audi Sport Japan, winners of the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Team Goh Audi R8. Most recently, he was director of technical services for Multimatic Inc. in Canada.

This announcement does not impact the Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing Cars team or its racing efforts with the DWC13 Coupe, which competes in the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

The DeltaWing® project's roots are in racing, but the program has remained focused on its 'raceway to driveway' mission and has proven the architecture's performance, efficiency and green technology through the original DeltaWing® Roadster and the Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing Cars DWC13 Coupe. The coupe competes with about half the weight and aerodynamic drag, half the horsepower, and half the fuel consumption while delivering the same performance.

The DeltaWing® design in the prototype roadster and coupe features a very narrow front track and conventional rear wheelbase. The result is a significant reduction in overall mass and weight coupled with an aerodynamic efficiency gain. The rear-engine layout and narrow track design provides a 30 percent/70 percent front-to-rear weight distribution, which allows engineers to use much smaller steering, braking, suspension, and other components up front to reduce overall mass and weight. Less mass and weight means less horsepower is needed to propel the vehicle, which in turn decreases fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Other benefits include reduced front tire and brake wear and less rolling resistance.


DELTAWING SHARES NEW ROAD CAR MPG FIGURES AND ANNOUNCES PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

If available today, DeltaWing® road car would be America's most fuel efficient automobile. Company launches two- and four-seat DeltaWing® prototype projects.


Sebring, Fla., March 20, 2015 – DeltaWing Technology Group, Inc. today released the results of an independent engineering analysis of a four-passenger road car concept based on the patented DeltaWing® narrow front track vehicle architecture that showed it would achieve an unadjusted EPA fuel economy rating of nearly 74 mpg Highway and over 57 mpg combined rating. If it was available today, those figures would not only make it America's most fuel efficient internal combustion engine vehicle, it would meet the 2025 CAFE standard today.

Indeed, those ratings based on an internal combustion, 1.4-liter gasoline engine would make the DeltaWing® four-passenger model even more fuel efficient than all of today's available hybrids.

Through a board-level relationship with the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), DeltaWing Technology Group recently commissioned Meszler Engineering Services to model fuel economy performance of a four-cylinder, 138-horsepower DeltaWing® four passenger automobile. Meszler's proprietary computing model calculated from all available data points including weight, power, drag coefficient, frontal area, rolling resistance, and many more.

The efficiency and performance of the DeltaWing® vehicle architecture can be defined as a "green technology multi-tool." The architecture can accept virtually any current or future transverse engine powertrain and deliver significant fuel savings and green benefits when compared to traditional vehicle designs. The DeltaWing® platform also can be fitted with all-electric or hybrid powertrains; today's smaller and lighter high-efficiency gas, diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) engines; and even tomorrow's hydrogen fuel cells. As a result, it can:

- Reduce EV range anxiety and help put more EVs on the road, further reducing emissions and helping improve air quality
- Further extend a diesel-powered vehicle's already impressive range
- Reduce emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles by up to 42 percent
- And even extend the range of hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles

"I'm very pleased to see how this objective testing validates and even exceeds our initial estimates," said Don Panoz, DeltaWing Technology Group chairman and CEO. "This key milestone allows us to immediately move forward with our plans to build prototype two- and four-seat DeltaWing® vehicles and begin real-world testing."

Brian Willis, DeltaWing Technologies' newly appointed vice president, Engineering and Design, will lead the development of two- and four-seat DeltaWing® road car prototypes, as well as the testing program.

Willis is no stranger to Panoz and racing. His 27-year career includes stints as senior designer for Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd., director of engineering for Élan Technologies' motorsports division, chief engineer for Panoz Motorsports, and technical director for Audi Sport Japan, winners of the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Team Goh Audi R8. Most recently, he was director of technical services for Multimatic Inc. in Canada.

Share This Photo X