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DeltaWing Heads To Windshear Wind Tunnel

DeltaWing Heads To Windshear Wind Tunnel

Anne Proffit

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Anne Proffit has worked in the automotive field since - well, not telling you that. She's been a car salesperson (before it was popular to hire... More

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1,147 views Jan 31, 2012

Photo courtesy DeltaWing

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It has new Michelin tires, it has an EMCO gearbox, the bodywork is completed and an unnamed engine is installed, so it's time for the new DeltaWing prototype to travel from Dan Gurney's All American Racers in Orange County, California to outside Charlotte, North Carolina to undergo full-scale wind tunnel testing at the vaunted Windshear wind tunnel.

"The wind tunnel test is the next step in finalizing the aerodynamics of the design," said Ben Bowlby, designer of the DeltaWing. "We need to confirm the car will do exactly what we are expecting. We have already completed extensive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation testing and scale model wind tunnel work at AAR and the time has come to bring the real car to life.

"The first step is to run the car at Windshear at full size on a moving ground plane wind tunnel," Bowlby continued. "We'll have the real Michelin tiers, the real suspension, the real bodywork and cooling systems - everything that you see on the car at the race track."

Bowlby's plan is "to ensure the simulations we have done meet reality." For that reason, technical personnel from Michelin, from transmission partner EMCO Gears and a representative from the unnamed engine partner will be on site at the first track test, scheduled to follow the Windshear visit.

"We have an engine in place from a major OEM - we can't reveal details at this stage until the manufacturer is ready to make their announcement," said Duncan Daytona, owner of of Highcroft Racing, which is campaigning the Project 56 car in the final pit space at the 24 Hours of Le Mans reserved for a technological innovator.

"Our goal with the car is to use a small capacity modern powertrain. An ideal example of this is a 1.6-liter turbocharged direct injection inline four-cylinder engine," Daytona intimated. "We are very excited about what we have (in the car) as dyno-testing has shown the engine exceeds all of our expectations in terms of efficiency, weight and power."