On Friday, January 8th, the 2016 IMSA season began with the three-day practice session at Daytona International Speedway known as The Roar Before the Rolex 24. And, MINI is there in preparation for the pre-24 Continental race. On Saturday, both cars were running well and posting good times - ahead of some of the Porsche Caymans and all but one of the BMW 328's. Two Ford GTs are preparing for their inaugural race, posting good times as well - 2nd and 4th in class during one practice session. Some new and different cars were atop the fast time board - Honda first in Prototype with Mazda in second - Lamborghini posting fast time in GTD. May see some new faces on the podium in two weeks.
Many Things to See in the Pits The Roar at the Rolex 24 has many new sights in the garage. Seems that diffusers work for creating down force, if you make them big enough and you are traveling fast enough. Steering wheels have changed a bit in race cars since the day of aluminum spokes and wood rims. I like the drink button so you don't have to take your hands off the wheel to enjoy your favorite beverage. Ganassi also has mechanics that are easy on the eyes. A lot of innovations in one garage.
More Thoughts at Daytona Rear brakes on a Corvette Daytona Prototype. Like the carbon fiber rotors. Would be nice if they could be squeezed inside the front wheels on the MINI. This team must have something new in the transaxle as they kept it covered with a blanket. One of the cars in the Rolex 24 is more Not Normal than a MINI. The DeltaWing, powered by a 2.0 L engine, posted the fastest and second fastest times in a number of the practice sessions. These were overall fastest times in a class with the Corvette prototypes and the Gannasi Ford prototypes. The new Turner BMW M6 is behind the DeltaWing in this shot. Should be a very interesting race this year and the MINI Hospitality Patio will make the event more enjoyable this year. MINI Patio Hospitality @DIS info on Jan 29, 2016 (093784) | MotorsportReg.com
The Deltawing's new livery is a bit clever in at least one respect. I assume those are just reflective stickers.
Great pics!! LAP Motorsports were posting times and pics on Facebook. I hoping to go down for the race.
All that money on the CF steering "wheel" with all the fancy switches and the grips are cheap rubber wrap held on the electrical tape.
Fast and Innovative The technology and innovation of racing is one aspect that makes the sport interesting. With so much of racing moving to identical cars with the only difference in the paint job, it can get a bit boring. Dr. Panoz and the DeltaWing team are trying a very different approach to car design and are running an engine they design and build.
Never met you so I'll take your word on the ugly part. The older I get the faster I was. Back on topic: Cars that look like a missile.
I don't think it looks ugly. On the other hand, I also wouldn't call it pretty, and the street car version they claim they're going to sell may take the place of the Aztec atop the list of ugly street cars. But the track version looks, to me, interesting and not much more strange than the other prototypes. It's definitely one of those cars that looks very different depending on the color scheme and I'm glad they finally dropped the chrome wrap.
Well by saying ugly I guess I mean really interesting.:wink: Not all race cars win beauty contests, but all race cars are beautiful to me. Now a Delta Wing street car will make the Aztec look quite nice. Edit.... Just saw that picture. Oh my farkin God!!! Much worse than ugly Fugly it is. :frown2:
DeltaWing and Time Sheets Roar Before the 24: DeltaWing shocks field with fast time for IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona | Autoweek Above is a link to an article in AutoWeek about the DeltaWing's speeds being a shock to the other entrants. It does look quick out on the track. The article also has speed charts from two practice sessions - one for the 24 Hour cars and one for the Continental cars. Anyone out there planning on being at the Daytona race?
Delta wing has the speed, that is great. The reliability to carry that speed for 24 hours is something else. Hope they can manage a finish & learn more about their car.
Reliability Last year the DeltaWing dropped out of a number races due to transmission failure. Hope they have installed a different transmission this year.
I hope they aren't making all their improvements at the expense of the original reasons for building the thing. It was supposed to be competitive while efficient on half the fuel and tires, thus less stops, etc, etc, but without any hybrid batteries or flywheels. On the other hand, I suspect they've been sliding down that slope all along and if they're learning that what it takes to do well is to drop those ambitions then it's still a good experiment.