Revolutionary DeltaWing and new Pescarolo ready for Le Mans ...

[Wouter Melissen]

Following its disastrous Le Mans debut last year, we thought we had seen the last of the Aston Martin AMR-One. Strictly speaking we have but its carbon-fibre monocoque chassis has been used to form the basis for two distinctly different entries into this coming weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
By far the wildest of these is the Nissan DeltaWing, penned by British designed Ben Bowlby. It is entered under the 'Garage 56' experimental banner and will not be classified. Literally unlike anything else on the grid, the DeltaWing has been designed to achieve the same results with half the weight and half the power. The highly unusual arrow shape is the result of a quest to reduce drag to an absolute minimum. The most striking feature is the very narrow nose, which prompted some doubters to question if it could even go through corners. Following many private sessions, the Nissan DeltaWing finally made its public debut at the official Le Mans Test last week, where it proved all critics wrong with a very strong performance. We used the opportunity to capture every angle, resulting in a 12-shot gallery to illustrate our in-depth article on this revolutionary racing car.
Also making its debut during the Test was the 'new' Pescarolo 03 Judd, which bore a much closer resemblance to the Aston Martin it was also based on. Having had a particularly bumpy road to completion, the car was barely ready for the test. This also explained why oxnly the most necessary changes were made compared to the AMR-One. Among the most vital of these modifications was the replacement of the troublesome Aston Martin straight six engine with a Judd supplied V8. Although the Test was far from trouble-free, the new Pescarolo still proved faster than the car was based on. In our detailed article we have taken a closer look at the new Pescarolo and its difficult start.
In the coming days you can expect more features from Le Mans, culminating in an all-encompassing report and gallery after the weekend.

Enjoy the links:

2012 Nissan DeltaWing - Images, Specifications and Information

2012 Pescarolo 03 Judd - Images, Specifications and Information