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Photo credit: Nissan
May 24, 2012
By: CF staff

A look back at the experimental Nissan DeltaWing's first on-track test. Interviews with Marino Franchitti and Highcroft Racing team boss Duncan Dayton as they discuss this groundbreaking car.

About the Nissan DeltaWing
The Nissan DeltaWing features half the weight, half the horsepower and half the aerodymamic drag of a traditional Le Mans sportscar - with front tires that are only four inches wide.

With the famous Le Mans 24 Hours just two months away, the Nissan DeltaWing team gained valuable information about the ground-breaking car's performance in typical European track conditions, having conducted all of its development work so far in America.

Darren Cox, General Manager Nissan in Europe, said: "The whole Nissan DeltaWing team is still on a massive learning curve. Testing in the States was a stable, predictable way of doing the initial groundwork but this exciting car is going to be racing in the French countryside. Today, the whole team got a taste of the conditions they may well face on June 16/17, so it may not have been much fun in the Norfolk rain, but it's about the best thing that could have happened for a project and a car that will face an enormous challenge just to make the end of the race."

Franchitti conducted most of the morning running in conditions that ranged from damp to extremely wet weather - gathering valuable data as to how the car performs. Having only previously conducted some brief wet track running on an artificially damp track at Sebring, with the help of a water truck, today's on-track action was an important step in the development of the wet tyres for the car. Read more.







More photos of Nissan's DeltaWing here.