My Thoughts on the Delta Wing

My Thoughts on the Delta Wing

      Ladies & Gentleman introducing “The Homer”. When Homer's half brother Herb introduced this abomination of a car, the reaction was very similar to what was heard around Indy car nation... GASP! Then the jokes & dislikes flooded the world of Twitter and Facebook when the Delta Wing photos were leaked, & when the official unveiling took place this week.

     The first thing that came to mind when I saw the Delta Wing was the Austin Powers radar bit (It looks like a giant.... Wang, Johnson, One Eyed Monster, Willie, etc). I thought maybe we should pull the plug on Hot Wheels making our die cast cars as it looks like a giant Hot Wheels fantasy car. Though the more I look at the car the jokes are still there, yet I’ve had several thoughts about this car, and its possible potentials. Maybe Ben Bowlby has the right idea like Homer does as far as starting with a clean sheet of paper and doing something completely different and off the wall.

     Looking at the years 1994-2000 We have had Swift, Lola, Reynard, and Penske chassis, Ford, Mercedes, Honda, and Toyota engines, and Goodyear and Firestone tires in the CART series. In the IRL there was Ford, Chevy, Nissan, Oldsmobile, Mercedes, engines, Lola, Reynard, Dallara, Panoz, Riley & Scott, Menards chassis, and Good Year, and Firestone tires came and went. Talk about combinational confusion! With all these car combinations the costs sky rocketed for fielding a team. One year a team on the grid with Honda engines, Reynard chassis, and Firestone tires totally Obliterate the competition. The next year most teams think that is the championship combination and switch out their entire operations. With all these combinations brought out a lot of fans to witness greatness in open wheel racing.
    
     May 10th 1996, Arie Luyendyk sat the fastest practice lap at Indianapolis at 239.206. The following Sunday Arie set the fastest one lap qualifying record (237.498), and the four lap qualifying average (236.986) & started 21st (He qualified 2nd on Saturday but was disqualified for the car being underweight). June of 1998 and Patrick Carpentier set a track record at the Milwaukee Mile at 185.500mph (Just under 20seconds on a mile track!). Aside from the fact there was an open wheel war going on the stands were packed with fans enjoying these speeds, and the product on the track. Was it due to the various combinations of engines, chassis and tires? Or was it how much machine could one man handle before he met his limits?

     Open wheel racing as a whole lost its wow factor with a lot fans still left wondering when are we going to see that 240+ lap at Indianapolis or faster, resulting in fewer fans attending qualifying at the speedway, since the speeds are comparable to the 1994. As the cars slowed down it seemed as though it was becoming harder and harder to overtake another car (Wheelbases, Hanford devices, push to pass, speedway wings on short ovals, spec cars etc), and each change resulted mostly in the same type of racing which a lot of fans call follow the leader. Now on high banked ovals there is a lot of passing and close finishes, and a lot of it with the help of drafting, but that’s only a handful of races on the schedule. One can hope that maybe the Delta Wing or any other new chassis can bring back interest into old fans, and bring in newer fans that have so many more choices and options out there.

The Delta Wing

     Looking at it does have a wow factor. For some wow as in cool and for some a wow what were you thinking? As it was mentioned on trackside on Feb 11th, every time you look at it, the car kind of grows on you. This is true, as every time I look at it, I try to picture it at Indianapolis, or Long Beach, and wonder how racy it really is. For me there are 3 factors I like in Indycar racing. Lots of passing, close finishes (This is what separates the league from all other forms of racing), and finally speed. I can spend hours on this blog and bore you to death on all 3 subjects, but I don’t want to bore anyone.

    I heard the term "Open Source" a few times with this design. In other words builders can use this as a template to build from. The IT guy in me likes this as some Internet software like Open Office, and the flavors of Linux Operating systems available. Thus, allowing programmers to view the source code of the program, tweak a few lines of code in their form of expertise to make the program run better or to close up a security hole. So maybe with Delta Wing we can see Dallara, Swift, and Lola, but with their own little signature tweaks within the rules, and maybe it will open it up to multiple chassis at a set price.


     It is claimed that this car can run 235mph laps, but will this bring back the fans to qualifications at Indy? I can see an increase in fan attendance for qualifying, and for practice for the first year as some fans will be curious to see how fast it can go, how it sounds, and if it can run in packs, side by side, or even three wide racing. But let’s just remember there are more tracks than just the Indianapolis Motor speedway. Theres short-ovals, superspeedways, road-courses, and street courses, that any new car has to be compatible with, and hopefully provides some great action, and memories for years and years.


     Another small tidbit I wanted to throw in the mix. For years my friend has dragged me out to Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie Wisconsin to witness midget racing. Though it is not my cup of tea (It’s the caution laps don’t count rule I hate), I have always heard of a lot of these young drivers that were going to school to become engineers, or auto cad specialist, etc. If the new car is affordable whether it be Delta Wing, or anyone else, overtime we might see an increase in American drivers who will stay in open wheel racing as long as the series changes with technology.

Race fans have to remember the following:

     The current concept / design has been around for a very long time. The Indy 500 was always about innovation, and speed. This is what we have been asking for and Ben Bowlby definitely brought innovation (Or in the words of Barack Obama: Change) to the table. As of now Dallara's and examples are modified versions of what we run now in the Indycar series, and teams already know everything there is about those designs, and have eliminated as much drag from them as they can, and spent so much time in the wind tunnel with them. Swift’s latest designs do look really impressive, but again Delta Wing is the first builder to actually show us a real life looking model. With that said, Delta Wing hasn't been chosen yet. Yes a lot of teams stand behind it, but there are 3 other companies still out there pitching ideas, so don’t give up your tickets to races just yet, or abandon ship. Regardless of the type picked lets put them through a series of real race environments, & not a wind tunnel! I can think of several Midwest race tracks (Superspeedways, Short ovals, and road courses) where you can spend a days worth of testing to get some serious race results. See how many miles it can run before it has to be rebuilt, see how many miles it can go on a tires or a tank of gas.


     Am I sold on the Delta Wing yet? The answer is still not really, but everyday I look at it I Im starting to like what I see and hear, and remind myself that the current car has had tweaks and updates done to it over the years, no car is perfect the day it comes out. To me I compare the current car as a PC, and the Delta Wing as a Mac. I've grown up with this design all my life and now there are some annoyances, but this new design is intriguing, and sounds like it might cure some of what’s plagued Indycar for awhile, and have the potential to bring in newer younger fans, and embrace newer and better technologies.


I will wait to see what Lola comes out with, and have a blog for those 3 but, I figure Id dedicate a blog to the Delta Wing since it’s the hot button of the week.


Until then everythings gunna be aight


Wow I spent quite a while typing this out. I hope it was interesting for you the reader.


Don






More about Open Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source


More about the Delta wing Project: http://deltawingracing.com/