Here’s something interesting that they’re not talking about at the New York Auto Show. The people behind the Delta Wing race car are deep into the design and engineering phase of a two and four seat road-going version of the weirdly awesome Delta Wing race car. According to a television interview with Panoz, he said that they are “95%” complete with the design phase and lining up vendors for stuff like glass and other components of the car. The goal is to build something that gets 70mpg and takes advantage of all the benefits of the Delta Wing design in terms of aerodynamics, stability, etc. When asked how closely the street cars will resemble the race cars, the interviewer was told that while there would certainly be changes, it would retain the needle nose design of the race car, so now we’re trying to visualize exactly what one of these things will look like and we’re seeing a pregnant version of the racer.
The Delta Wing as a race car has not been a winner but it has been a solid proof of concept for the design as the car is capable of turning lap times within striking distance of the leading machines and it uses far less fuel and relies on far less horsepower to achieve virtually the same speeds as the current leading crop of sports cars it is competing against. The critics who claimed that the car would be unstable and prone to flight at speed have been proven wrong and the Delta Wing stands as the most out of the box and bold race car design of the last 50 years at least.
As you would expect out of the Panoz and Delta Wing operations, these will be expensive and limited production cars. It would be foolhardy to believe anything different as trying to mass market what will surely be one of the weirder (to us, in a cool way) looking new cars ever produced would be a complete disaster. Panoz talks about positioning the two seater GT model of the road going Delta Wing against cars like the Aston Martin and others, saying that it is 35% lighter and therefore requires 35% less horsepower and 35% less fuel to keep pace with those type cars.
If this ever sees the light of day and we hope that it does, it will be riotous to see what the general public’s reaction is because such a small percentage of people even know that the Delta Wing race car exists so when they see a street version they are going to think aliens have landed and are selling their space ships. Seriously, we bet if you polled 100 hot rodders RIGHT NOW and asked them what the Delta Wing was they’d tell you it was some model of faucet. The one thing that Panoz and the Delta Wing organization have going for them will be the bomb-like impact of the car when renderings and photos are released. Good, bad, or otherwise people are going to freak.
We’ve got a link to the video interview with Panoz below, hit the link and hear the latest on what’s up with the Delta Wing and Panoz cars –
Street legal maybe but street practical? It looks as wide as a “dually”. Who would like to drive this in traffic? ” Oops! there goes one fender…sorry!
” Most of the weirdness intact ” and most of the stupidity as well
This thing was a ludicrous joke from day one . Answering the questions nobody was asking nor ever wanted to know . The drivers hate it . The other racers on the track hate it even more [ they can’t see the damn thing ] Its performance never living up to the hype .
Technology for technologies sake and living proof of the age old axiom ;
” Just because you can .. doesn’t mean you should ”
And now these idiots want to sell them for ‘ street ‘ use ?
Yeah … what the heck . Lets kill off a few More Money than Brains [ or driving ability ] types …. and just hope they don’t take anyone else out in the process
Good lord ! I just caught on that Don Panoz has now taken this thing over . Jeeze ! That man sure is a glutton for punishment [ or the epitome of ” More Money than Brains” ] Is he not ? First the failed Roadster . Then the failed sports car . An even larger fail with that LeMans front engined project . All while failing miserable at making wine [ Wine ? Hell … plonk from the bowls of New Mexico barely resembling wine tastes better than Don Panoz’s swill ] And now the next inevitable failure with a road going version of the already failed Nissan Delta Wing [ there is a good reason why Nissan dumped it Mr Panoz ]
So how did Don Panoz make his fortune in light of his constant string of public and very abject failures anyway ? Oh wait . I just looked it up . Don Panoz is the prototypical Trust Fund Baby fully intent on blowing his entire inheritance on futile , ego indulgent and very expensive vanity projects .
By the Way ….
Oh Mr Lohnes @ Bangshift !!!
Check the record books ! The Nissan Delta Wing never won so much as a single solitary race during its entire racing tenure . So how in the hell can y’all possibly call that abject failure in any way shape or form …. a winner ?
Look it up first Mr Lohnes before simply Copy & Pasting someone else’s propaganda infused press release . Not doing so having the distinct ability to make one look more than a bit foolish to ones fan base .
It won’t fit in my garage…THANK GOD!!!
I for one want to see what the road going version looks like. I really like the idea and I’m sure they are going to make the track width something that fits lanes, parking spots, and the like as well as any other GT car does if not narrower. The front end is weird looking but for the engineering trade offs I’d take it if they make the rest look good and the interior practical for 2 adults.
I’d be interested to see if you pulled through in a normal parking spot if some motorcycles didn’t try to squeeze into the extra space or something.
Are we there yet?
Yup … we’re there … most assuredly …. we’re there alright
Stupid
FLUFF … !
I am proud of every car I have ever owned all of them were cooler than this. I want to
see Top Gear UK test this car and listen to thier review of this monstrosity.
Just sick AND wrong!!!!