DeltaWing testing results released

IndyCar commentary — By on April 8, 2010 4:21 pm

(Originally posted by Kohl Kirkland to Planet-IRL.com.)

Delta Wing has completed the first wind tunnel test of its radical IndyCar concept.  The results confirmed much of what as already known about the chassis.

The car showed a 50% drag reduction from the current chassis and confirmed all of the original projections set by the project. The car ran on a rolling road wind tunnel that accounts for wheel movement, unlike normal wind tunnels. The tires, specially produced by Firestone, completed the test at 140 mph wind and road speeds.

A wet-road simulation was also done that showed minimal spray from the front of the car hitting the cockpit area. The design of the car also produced significantly less spray behind the car, helping safety and visibility.

Said Ben Bowlby, “The test was a huge success and confirmed the trends of our advanced computational fluid dynamics modeling. We are very pleased that the results in the wind tunnel support our CFD findings. This is a critical step for the project and allows us to move forward towards a final design with the growing confidence gained from these results. We continue to believe that the car will respond on the race track as our simulations have predicted over the past 16 months. We are more convinced than ever that the DeltaWing concept will meet or exceed the parameters that the IZOD IndyCar Series has established for the 2012 chassis.”

In addition it was confirmed by Dan Partel, CEO of the DeltaWing project, that the car will use the 300-350 HP engine that was originally suggested, which will save fuel and be much more relevant to today’s road cars.

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