The DeltaWing is a racing car designed by Ben Bowlby scheduled to debut at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans will be the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race. It will be held on 16–17 June 2012 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest . A pre-race test session will be held at the circuit two weeks prior...

. The entry will run under the Project 56 name, composed of Ben Bowlby's DeltaWing Racing Cars (design), Dan Gurney

Dan Gurney

Daniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...

's All American Racers (constructor), Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing

Highcroft Racing

Highcroft Racing is an American auto racing team based out of Danbury, Connecticut and founded by driver Duncan Dayton in 1989. Initially founded for Dayton's involvement in historic motorsport, specifically the restoration and preparation of classic automobiles, the team was expanded for Dayton's...

 (racing team) and International Motor Sports Association

International Motor Sports Association

The International Motor Sports Association is an American sports car auto racing sanctioning body based in Braselton, Georgia. It was started by John Bishop, a former employee of SCCA , and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France, Sr...

 owner Don Panoz

Don Panoz

Dr. h.c. Donald Panoz is an American entrepreneur who made his name in pharmaceuticals and has since become a successful owner of various motorsport ventures.- Early life :...

 (advisor).

2012 IndyCar

The project began in January 2009, when Bowlby started to design a new IndyCar Series

IndyCar Series

The IZOD IndyCar Series is the premier level of American open wheel racing. The current championship, founded by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George, began in 1996 as a competitor to CART known as the Indy Racing League . Citing CART's increasing reliance on expensive machinery and...

 vehicle meant to be field starting in the 2012 season

2012 IndyCar Series season

The 2012 Izod IndyCar Series season will be the 101st season of American open wheel racing. Its premier event will be the 96th Indianapolis 500, scheduled for Sunday, May 27.-The ICONIC Project:...

. With financial backing from Chip Ganassi

Chip Ganassi

Floyd "Chip" Ganassi, Jr is a former American racecar driver and current racecar owner.He is currently the owner and president of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates which operates teams on the IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series circuit...

, owner of major squad Chip Ganassi Racing

Chip Ganassi Racing

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates is an automotive racing organization with teams competing in the IZOD IndyCar Series and the Rolex Sports Car Series. It is owned by businessmen Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates. They have won 4 Champ Car, 3 Indy Racing League and 1 Grand-Am championships...

, the prototype was unveiled in February 2010 at the Chicago Auto Show

Chicago Auto Show

The Chicago Auto Show is held annually in February at Chicago's McCormick Placeconvention complex. It is among the largest auto shows in North America....

. In July 2010, IndyCar chose a Dallara

Dallara

Dallara Automobili is an Italian chassis manufacturer for various motor racing series, being most notable for its near-monopoly in Formula 3 since 1993...

 design instead.

Sports car development

In June 2011 it was announced that the car will get the 56th spot at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, reserved for experimental vehicles.

The DeltaWing was designed to reduce aerodynamic drag dramatically, to allow a marginally faster straight and corner speed than a 2009-2011 Dallara IndyCar on both ovals and road/street courses with half as much weight, engine power and fuel consumption. As the name suggests, it has a delta wing

Delta wing

The delta wing is a wing planform in the form of a triangle. It is named for its similarity in shape to the Greek uppercase letter delta .-Delta-shaped stabilizers:...

 shape, with an unusually narrow 0.6m front track and a more traditional 1.7m rear track. The car lacks any front or rear wings - downforce comes from the underbody. The model to run at La Sarthe will have a four-cylinder turbocharged 300 bhp engine, a 40 L fuel tank, a weight of 475 kg and a drag coefficient of 0.24.

The radical design of the DeltaWing is meant to attract leading technology companies back to motorsport to investigate on new ideas to tackle fuel efficiency

Fuel efficiency

Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is...

, and thus to gain attention from the public into the sport.