History of the Deltawing

The Deltawing is perhaps one of the strangest looking modern racecar, the idea for the Deltawing was thought up by Bob Bowlby as a design for the IndyCars series for the 2012 season.

The car was designed with the thought of minimising aerodynamic drag, it was only 2 feet wide at the at front and 5 feet 7” at the back. The car was in the shape of a delta wing hence why it had the name Deltawing.

The car was powered by a 300hp four cylinder turbocharged engine and had a very low drag coefficient. The car didn’t have any aerodynamic parts on the front or rear that generated downforce and instead generated downforce from the underbody. All of this meant that the Deltawing was better cornering, more efficient and lighter than the 2009-2011 IndyCars that it was meant to replace.

The project was backed by Chip Ganassi Racing but was unfortunately rejected as IndyCar went for a Dallara design.

Bob Bowlby then teamed up with Don Panoz presented the idea to the representatives and organisers of the 24 Hours of LeMans, they managed to successfully get an entry and got assigned with Garage 56, a garage meant for prototype and experimental vehicles.

The LeMans version of the Deltawing featured a 40 litre fuel tank and very light breaking system that weighed only 13 kgs, the car also had a moveable Gurney flap at the back. Driven by Marino Franchitti, Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama the car qualified only 29th at LeMans around 18 seconds behind the leader and it would only run for around 70 laps in the race before it collided with a Toyota TS030 ending the race for it.

The Deltawing was then entered for the 2012 Petit LeMans where it managed to finish in 5th place, 6 laps behind the leader.

The Deltawing would then enter the American LeMans Series as a classified entry in the P1 class in 2013. The car would use a Élan chassis and a 1.9 litre turbocharged engine producing 350hp built by Élan.

At its first race at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the car would qualify last in the P1 class 10 seconds behind pole position. The disaster would continue with the team being forced to retire the car two hours into the event due to a overheating problems. The rest of the season wouldn’t be any better with the car being constantly beaten by P2 cars and scored points only twice. Its best finish being 5th at Road America which was still last in the P1 class and behind 2 of the P2 class cars. The car wouldn’t race at any of the street circuits on the calender since the team thought that it wasn’t suitable for them.

The coupe version of the Deltawing would debut at the Circuit of the Americas however it wouldn’t be much of an improvement as the car qualified behind all the P1 and P2 cars and would finish the race in 29th, 17 laps behind the leader.

In 2014 the Deltawing would enter the United SportsCar Championship in the prototype class where it would struggle to get good results.

The car retired at the first race, the 24 Hours of Daytona. The car managed to score points only twice, the first at Watkins Glen with a 6th and second at the Petit LeMans where it recorded its highest ever finishing position of 4th.

The 2015 season proved problematic for the Deltawing team with them having to miss most of the early races due to a gearbox problem. After sorting out the problem, the car managed an 8th place at the Canadian Tyre Motorsports Park, a 6th at Road America and a 7th palced finish at the Circuit of the Americas, taking only 3 points finishes in the entire season.

After Petit LeMans however, Don Panoz revealed a road going version of the Deltawing, called the Panoz Deltawing GT. The car in all its ugliness never made it to the road.

The 2016 season of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship would be the most competitive season for the Deltawing, now running under the team name Panoz DeltaWing Racing.

The car managed to top a practice session at Daytona and in the 24 Hours of Daytona, it was in the lead for the first few hours before unfortunately having to retire.

The car then showed consistent pace and good reliability managing a 5th at Mazda Laguna Seca and multiple points finishes over the season and a fastest lap at the Petit LeMans at Road America. The Panoz DeltaWing Racing Team managed to finish 8th in the manufacturers championship.

The Deltawing would be unable to race in the 2017 season of the IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car Championship due to changed restrictions but Don Panoz did have plans to enter the car in the 24 Hours of Daytona under the DPi/LMP2 category however this never happened and the Deltawing was not to race again.

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