Is there a stranger racing car in the world than the DeltaWing? Designed originally as the next generation of IndyCar, before racing at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the race's special 'Garage 56' for new technology and now competing regularly in the IMSA sportscar series, the arrow-shaped racer has had an unconventional history.
DEC 29th 2016
Video: How to drive the strangest racing car in the world
Driving a car so radically different from any other sportscar must take some getting used to. Driving most you'd expect that hitting an apaex with the front wheel would lead to the rear following suit, and going for that gap in traffic can be guided again by the width of the front axle.
But the DeltaWing follows no such design rules, the front wheels are packed tightly together and the front axle barely covers a third of the width of the rear. So pitch the fronts into a corner and expect the rest of the car to follow and you'll soon find yourself on the grass. Dive for that gap that the front will easily slip through and you'll be in front of the stewards for causing a collision before you know it. So testing is vital.
Let Andy Meyrick demonstrate the difference above. You can see that the nimble (twitchy at times) DeltaWing attacks Sebring in a much different way to most. Watch as the front skirts the apices by a few feet, allowing the more substantial rear to clip those all-important points, and check how fidgity the ultra-lightweight racer looks at times. What an astonishing machine.

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