20/24 #9: DeltaWing
Chosen by: Darren Cox
Best finish: None
Team: Highcroft Racing
Driven by: Marino Franchitti, Michael Krumm, Satoshi Motoyama

Yeah, it’s a weird looking thing. But science is weird, and thus the Deltawing is as fast as an LMP2 car, using half as much fuel and barely ever changing tyres. The science itself is baffling, but the short version is that all the downforce, and all the weight, and all the grip, goes to the rear axle. That means the front can be teeny, and there’s a huge drag, and weight, reduction. Thus, efficiency.

“I’ve chosen the DeltaWing because it exemplifies the attitude of what we delivered at Nissan in a glorious period of motorsport innovation,” says Darren Cox, head of the Japanese brand’s motorsport program at the time of the car’s race debut at Le Mans in 2012. “Its looks just scream innovation, and the project was one of the most daring and left field things the sport has seen.”

Daring and left field is accurate. The car was – is – absolutely nuts. Having entered the car as a Garage 56 special for Le Mans, designer Ben Bowlby needed to find a partner to help get the car on the grid, and Nissan was keen. The brand was in the middle of making GT Academy, another daring and left field idea, a reality, and Cox saw the potential.

“GT Academy gave me the juice to get agreement on the DW programme,” says Cox. “(Most of) the fans loved it! No spec formula here, just genius thinking from Ben Bowlby. And what a cast of characters behind the scenes. The Gurneys, Ben Bowlby, Ricardo Divilla, Chip Gannasi, Duncan Dayton and of course Don Panoz and I.”

Nissan supplied an engine, promotion and backing, and the car was racing, but on the track, Motoyama was taken out by another competitor, and heartbreak followed as the Japanese tried in vain to fix the car just a few hundred metres from the pitlane.

Will we ever see the likes of DeltaWing again!?

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