Apparently, Porsche and Nissan’s radical DeltaWing racer mix like oil and water. At this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, the DeltaWing retired after hitting the barrier at the Porsche Curves following a collision with a Toyota TS030 Hybrid on lap 75.
Undeterred, Nissan entered the DeltaWing in the final event of the 2012 American Le Mans Series, the Petit Le Mans 1,000 mile/10 hour race that will take place tomorrow at the Road Atlanta track.
During testing, Gunnar Jeannette who was behind the wheel at the time, had a frightening accident when the DeltaWing was hit by a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on Turn 11 and rolled over.
“I followed a GTC car through turns 10a and 10b and had a run on him exiting the corner before the bridge and pulled almost completely past. He cut over to take the apex and made heavy contact with the left-rear of our car”, said Jeannette, adding that the contact with the Porsche sent him “for a bit of a ride”.
Nissan’s engineers managed to get the car, which will be driven by Jeannette and Playstation GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, ready for the race in less than 24 hours.
“The biggest impact the car suffered was actually the hit from the Porsche, but, the subsequent damage from the rollover and then hitting the wall broke a lot of components”, said Nissan DeltaWing Concept Originator Ben Bowlby. “We had some damage to the roll hoop but that was mainly cosmetic. Unfortunately we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The good thing is the car again proved to be remarkably safe.”
The experimental racing car is built around an all-carbon fiber “tub”. It is powered by a 300HP four-cylinder engine but weighs half as much as a regular LMP racer and is designed to minimize aerodynamic drag.
You can view a video of the DeltaWing rolling over, as well as Jeannette describing his accident, right after the jump.
By Andrew Tsaousis
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