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Toyota takes out the delta wing


Will370z

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Looked that way to me. Nissan is getting all the hype plus more. The world looking at the delta wing with anticipation. People know of the delta wing. No one really cared about the Toyota hybrid was it? See lol.

 

I could have been just carelessness but since it came from a Toyota I dont know. I would say Nissan see Toyota as its direct conpetitor not just for the normal market but the "sports" market too now with the gt86. I know racing has politics but I hope I'm way off the mark and it was a mistake though. Main thing was no one was hurt.

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You're miles off the pace if you think a) outside of F1, any driver would knowingly punt another driver off the track, especially one he's not even directly racing, and B) that the Deltawing was getting more attention than the Toyota hybrids.

 

 

This isn't a specific Jap-only race, this is LM and you'd probably have found the two companies wanting to help each other in a Euro and US dominated race. Besides, the Nissan stuff was limited to the engine and some massive sponsorship: This is a Highcroft car, not a Nissan one.

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Toyota (incl Nakajima) have been in to see the Deltawing crew to apologise. Top marks, real sportsmanship :thumbs:

 

There was a nice press conference from the team this morning with all the drivers and the designer, all seemed pretty upbeat despite everything that happened. Franchitti understandably peeved that despite him doing more testing of the car than anyone, he didn't get a chance to race it.

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Toyota (incl Nakajima) have been in to see the Deltawing crew to apologise. Top marks, real sportsmanship :thumbs:

 

There was a nice press conference from the team this morning with all the drivers and the designer, all seemed pretty upbeat despite everything that happened. Franchitti understandably peeved that despite him doing more testing of the car than anyone, he didn't get a chance to race it.

 

B)

 

After hearing them at the Nissan HQ Day, they were going in with an open mind come first, last or fail to finish for any reason :thumbs:

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I can't help feel that the Deltawing is a great piece of PR but a crap concept for a racecar.

Given that racecars have limited views behind due to bodystyles/mirrors etc, I should think the Deltawing is a difficult object to share a track with. It'd be easy to misjudge a move by seeing the front of the Deltawing and assuming that you have some space to move over, only to smack the wider rear.

I think it's doomed :surrender:

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I can't help feel that the Deltawing is a great piece of PR but a crap concept for a racecar.

Given that racecars have limited views behind due to bodystyles/mirrors etc, I should think the Deltawing is a difficult object to share a track with. It'd be easy to misjudge a move by seeing the front of the Deltawing and assuming that you have some space to move over, only to smack the wider rear.

I think it's doomed :surrender:

It's got a couple of mahoosive lights on the rear quarters, there's no mistaking how wide the vehicle is.

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It'd be easy to misjudge a move by seeing the front of the Deltawing and assuming that you have some space to move over, only to smack the wider rear.

I think it's doomed :surrender:

It's got a couple of mahoosive lights on the rear quarters, there's no mistaking how wide the vehicle is.

True enough, but if a driver looks to the side and sees the front wheel of the Nissan, he'd easily assume that he has a few feet to move across - then he'd hit the wider rear quarter.

The rear quarter would probably be in the blind spot of his mirrors too.....

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Nah, I don't buy it. Racing drivers don't drive that close to vehicles they're overtaking unless they're being complete idiots, as they're likely to take themselves out too. Enough cars overtook the DW at the weekend safely to prove that the shape is perfectly safe enough to go racing with.

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Fair do's I'm not a race driver so wouldn't claim to know.

I'm trying to think of the last time I saw a racecar get within a few inches of another - silly me, it was the last (and every) F1 Grand Prix and those fellas really don't want to be rubbing wheels. Most races, from Karts to F1 and LMS result in cars shaving pieces of carbonfibre off each other or worse :bangin:

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Fair point, but F1 is a bit different to LM where you get massive speed and braking differentials between cars, and the race is set over 3000 miles not just 180.

 

I guess I just feel that while the DW is not the perfect race car for many reasons, it's shape with regards to overtaking isn't one of them.

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You're miles off the pace if you think that the Deltawing was getting more attention than the Toyota hybrids.

 

You say that, but you couldnt get near the car itself on the parades, the crowd were clearly more interested in that than anything else, and Radio LM reported a 40% drop in online audience after it went out. The crowd actively perked up when it came round each time and EVERYONE I spoke to down there was gutted when it got Nakajima'd. :(

 

Lets be honest here, while due to its shape it will probably only ever work in a single marque series, it was a first year car thats totally different from anything thats been before it, it was put together in less than 6 months, its running a 1.6 litre engine putting out only 300hp, but despite being 30mph off the pace down Mulsanne was still putting in decent LMP2 times. Thats absolutely astonishing, no question.

 

Ill admit I thought it was a gimmick, but after roughly timing it on one practice lap and seeing a 3.40 on my watch I realised it wasnt there too **** about. And it didnt :)

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