TODAY we’re pleased to report that Nissan’s pioneering DeltaWing racing car has picked up another award. The American magazine Automobile has named the car its 2013 Racing Car of the Year.
And the magazine is unequivocal in its praise of the revolutionary racer. Announcing its decision, magazine writer Preston Lerner said: ‘We could just as easily have named it Racing Car of the Decade or even Racing Car of the Half Century.
‘Not merely because the revolutionary, Batmobile-like design explodes conventional wisdom about how race cars are supposed to look and perform, but because the very existence of the DeltaWing forces us to question some seemingly self-evident truths about racing.
‘Designer Ben Bowlby’s groundbreaking insight was realising that two tiny front wheels positioned close together would turn just as well as two large wheels spaced far apart.’
The mag wasn’t totally uncritical however. ‘Even its advocates admit that the DeltaWing is challenged in the looks departmnent,’ Lerner admits.
This year has been a great one for DeltaWing, with participation in Le Mans and Petit Le Mans among the highlights. Designed along pure-driving principles, it uses half the tyres and fuel of a typical racing car and is half as heavy.