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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Gunnar Jeannette, Driving The DeltaWing
I’ve been very fortunate in my career to drive lots of very different cars but nothing as revolutionary or different as the Nissan DeltaWing...
Gunnar Jeannette got his first taste of the Nissan DeltaWing in a test at Road Atlanta last month. (Photo: Highcroft Racing)
I’ve been very fortunate in my career to drive lots of very different cars, from historic Porsches like 917’s & 935’s, to the Panoz LMP1, front wheel drive Touring cars, to the Strana Semi Trucks, but nothing as revolutionary or different as the Nissan DeltaWing.
I’ll admit I was one of the naysayers when the car was originally launched. How could “that” work? It simply looked like it was attempting to break the laws of racing physics. I watched intently the first Internet video of the car testing in California and was very surprised by the first accounts that yes it did in fact go round the corners.
This year has been a tough one for me, choosing to pursue a rides in the WEC & Continental Tire Challenge instead of what I consider my “home” the ALMS. Unfortunately after only a few races our WEC campaign was derailed when the team pulled out of the remainder of the season.
So, when the opportunity arose to join the Nissan DeltaWing program for Petit Le Mans I jumped at the chance.
It is very interesting to look at all the details of how Ben Bowlby & the design team have defied logic to create this unique racing car. Once you climb in the cockpit, it feels like any other racing car, other than the fact that there are two very large mirrors in close proximity to each other (a rule from the ACO).
From the driver’s perspective it’s difficult to even see that the front of the car is not in fact a normal width.
Once you flip the ignition & press the starter the little 1.6 liter Nissan engine spins into life with a raspy mean little sound. The car gets rolling easy enough & soon I was depressing the pit speed button as I left the box at Road Atlanta, ready for whatever would come.
At the top of turn one I gave my first steering inputs & the car responded just like any other would… a good start to the driver/car relationship. The rest of the lap I cautiously began to give it larger inputs both on the steering and the pedals and was very pleased that in fact it was a racecar!
After getting a few laps to get an initial impression of my new wheels, I returned to the pits for the guys to have a look at everything and ready myself for what would be my first proper run at speed.
I was briefed beforehand by Ben that the car required a bit of a different driving style due to the fully open differential. Sidenote… the car was designed for a unique torque-vectoring differential which unfortunately has yet to be fitted, thus a completely open diff on both the accel & decel sides.
Back out of the pitlane for the second time and I was anxious to start pushing the car towards it’s limits afraid that it might bite me in a way that no other racing vehicle has tried before.
However, lap after lap I pushed harder & harder and was rewarded by a car that was an absolute hoot to drive and was quite benign at its limits. The hardest thing to get my head around was that trail braking currently is not the fastest way to drive the car.
If you charge hard into the corner on the brakes it’s very easy to lock up the inside rear wheel on the way into the corner. In a normal racecar this would result in a very large instability and possibly a spin. Not in the DeltaWing though, the car is so stable that treating a locked rear is more like a locked front in a normal car, release the brake pressure ever so slightly and job done.
Over the next few days both Lucas Ordoñez & myself got a lot of laps and tried many changes, improving the car a good deal from where we started. We’ll need to wait until Petit week to see where we are going to stack up come race time, but I know that regardless of grid position I will be wearing a very large grin!
~Gunnar
A former American Le Mans Series class champion and the youngest driver in history finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gunnar Jeannette takes on his latest challenge with the Nissan DeltaWing in the 2012 Petit Le Mans. Follow Gunnar on Twitter @GunnarJeannette
I’ll admit I was one of the naysayers when the car was originally launched. How could “that” work? It simply looked like it was attempting to break the laws of racing physics. I watched intently the first Internet video of the car testing in California and was very surprised by the first accounts that yes it did in fact go round the corners.
This year has been a tough one for me, choosing to pursue a rides in the WEC & Continental Tire Challenge instead of what I consider my “home” the ALMS. Unfortunately after only a few races our WEC campaign was derailed when the team pulled out of the remainder of the season.
So, when the opportunity arose to join the Nissan DeltaWing program for Petit Le Mans I jumped at the chance.
It is very interesting to look at all the details of how Ben Bowlby & the design team have defied logic to create this unique racing car. Once you climb in the cockpit, it feels like any other racing car, other than the fact that there are two very large mirrors in close proximity to each other (a rule from the ACO).
From the driver’s perspective it’s difficult to even see that the front of the car is not in fact a normal width.
Once you flip the ignition & press the starter the little 1.6 liter Nissan engine spins into life with a raspy mean little sound. The car gets rolling easy enough & soon I was depressing the pit speed button as I left the box at Road Atlanta, ready for whatever would come.
At the top of turn one I gave my first steering inputs & the car responded just like any other would… a good start to the driver/car relationship. The rest of the lap I cautiously began to give it larger inputs both on the steering and the pedals and was very pleased that in fact it was a racecar!
After getting a few laps to get an initial impression of my new wheels, I returned to the pits for the guys to have a look at everything and ready myself for what would be my first proper run at speed.
I was briefed beforehand by Ben that the car required a bit of a different driving style due to the fully open differential. Sidenote… the car was designed for a unique torque-vectoring differential which unfortunately has yet to be fitted, thus a completely open diff on both the accel & decel sides.
Back out of the pitlane for the second time and I was anxious to start pushing the car towards it’s limits afraid that it might bite me in a way that no other racing vehicle has tried before.
However, lap after lap I pushed harder & harder and was rewarded by a car that was an absolute hoot to drive and was quite benign at its limits. The hardest thing to get my head around was that trail braking currently is not the fastest way to drive the car.
If you charge hard into the corner on the brakes it’s very easy to lock up the inside rear wheel on the way into the corner. In a normal racecar this would result in a very large instability and possibly a spin. Not in the DeltaWing though, the car is so stable that treating a locked rear is more like a locked front in a normal car, release the brake pressure ever so slightly and job done.
Over the next few days both Lucas Ordoñez & myself got a lot of laps and tried many changes, improving the car a good deal from where we started. We’ll need to wait until Petit week to see where we are going to stack up come race time, but I know that regardless of grid position I will be wearing a very large grin!
~Gunnar
A former American Le Mans Series class champion and the youngest driver in history finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gunnar Jeannette takes on his latest challenge with the Nissan DeltaWing in the 2012 Petit Le Mans. Follow Gunnar on Twitter @GunnarJeannette
Monterey
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