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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Inside The Delta Wing Project
SPEEDtv.com's Robin Miller grabs an exclusive and insightful interview with Ben Bowlby, designer of the newly proposed Delta Wing 2012 IndyCar.
Ben Bowlby has spent the past 24 years designing, engineering and tweaking race cars – primarily the open wheel version. A graduate of the University of East London, he went to work for Lola in 1991 and stayed with that company through 2002.
He created arguably one of the most durable and successful chassis of all time with the 2002 Lola in its five years of operation in CART and Champ Car. He left Lola for Chip Ganassi’s team in 2003, where he helped tune Scott Dixon’s title-winning Panoz.
Early in 2009, Ganassi told his chief of engineering that a new car was needed so Bowlby has spent the past 11 months not only creating a radical design for 2012 but a new philosophy he hopes will be embraced by the IndyCar series.
Here’s a Q&A with the man behind the Delta Wing project:
SPEED: Your new car looks a little Bonneville Salt Flats and a little Star Wars, how did you come up with it?
BOWLBY: “Looking radical was never the objective – the Delta Wing shape is simply the outcome of addressing performance targets. Approaching it as an engineer I was most aware of safety, performance and efficiency and its relevance to the auto industry and also cost. It’s not about making a cheap race car, but there is the issue of cost vs. value for money. This car is high-tech but simple. The parts count is way down and that helps keep it inexpensive and easy to maintain compared to the cars of the last 20 years – and we have a great deal of visible signage area!
“It’s an integrated approach. It’s not JUST the car. It’s the technology, spectator and industry appeal and engagement, combined with the car. What we have proposed for the car is not a styling exercise…. Form has followed function.”
SPEED: Why the wide to narrow shape?
BOWLBY: “The breakthrough was bringing the front wheels close to the center line of the chassis. This avoided the sports car look when shrouding the wheels for drag reduction and necessitated both the center of gravity and the center of aerodynamic pressure to be moved much more rearwards towards the widely spaced rear tires and away from the much narrower front track. Everything started to fall into place and the car had the look of a single seater aircraft – hence the name (although I didn’t come up with that).”
Download the Delta Wing photos in SPEEDtv.com's gallery.
SPEED: Why no wings?
BOWLBY: “Wings are fragile, expensive, draggy and very turbulence sensitive. The geometry (shape) of this car’s bodywork and aero behavior is designed to allow better overtaking and closer racing.”
SPEED: Why cover most of the tire/wheel?
BOWLBY: “The biggest resistance for an Indy car is the drag of the exposed wheels and tires. At Indianapolis, 54 percent of the drag is the rotating wheels. By fairing the wheels there’s a huge gain in efficiency and a fantastic safety improvement from a contact standpoint.”
SPEED: in recent years teams have had to have road course and oval track configurations, long and short track suspensions, will this be prevalent with the Delta Wing?
BOWLBY: “The aero layout of the Delta Wing allows us to double the downforce by changing the height of the wicker on the top surface of the bodywork. And that can be achieved with $10 worth of aluminum."
SPEED: What have your SIM tests shown?
BOWLBY: “What we’ve found is that we have better acceleration because of the dragster like layout and low drag and weight. We’ve also got better stability under braking because we can keep more of the braking on the rear wheels behind the center of gravity. The drive-ability envelope has been expanded. Our simulations show it’s going to be a lot of fun to drive. We have targeted maintaining aerodynamic performance at high yaw angles so that drivers can recover from over-cooking it.”
SPEED: Will it be harder to drive, hopefully?
BOWLBY: “It’s going to make the performance envelope bigger so bolder drivers can use more track.”
SPEED: Why the turbo 4-cylinder?
BOWLBY: “In January of 2009 I attended the MIA’s Cleaner Racing Conference at ASI in the UK as part of my research for what we could do for a new Indy car. There was a lot of talk about a world engine and the trend to do away with the V-6 and V-8 in passenger cars. Having smaller capacity, lighter weight and a turbo leads to greater efficiency, and I recon that’s what motorsport needs in order to be relevant on a global scale. I was struck by what the MOTO GP guys were achieving in terms of power to weight ratio and how that converted to top speed and lap times."
He created arguably one of the most durable and successful chassis of all time with the 2002 Lola in its five years of operation in CART and Champ Car. He left Lola for Chip Ganassi’s team in 2003, where he helped tune Scott Dixon’s title-winning Panoz.
Early in 2009, Ganassi told his chief of engineering that a new car was needed so Bowlby has spent the past 11 months not only creating a radical design for 2012 but a new philosophy he hopes will be embraced by the IndyCar series.
Here’s a Q&A with the man behind the Delta Wing project:
SPEED: Your new car looks a little Bonneville Salt Flats and a little Star Wars, how did you come up with it?
BOWLBY: “Looking radical was never the objective – the Delta Wing shape is simply the outcome of addressing performance targets. Approaching it as an engineer I was most aware of safety, performance and efficiency and its relevance to the auto industry and also cost. It’s not about making a cheap race car, but there is the issue of cost vs. value for money. This car is high-tech but simple. The parts count is way down and that helps keep it inexpensive and easy to maintain compared to the cars of the last 20 years – and we have a great deal of visible signage area!
“It’s an integrated approach. It’s not JUST the car. It’s the technology, spectator and industry appeal and engagement, combined with the car. What we have proposed for the car is not a styling exercise…. Form has followed function.”
SPEED: Why the wide to narrow shape?
BOWLBY: “The breakthrough was bringing the front wheels close to the center line of the chassis. This avoided the sports car look when shrouding the wheels for drag reduction and necessitated both the center of gravity and the center of aerodynamic pressure to be moved much more rearwards towards the widely spaced rear tires and away from the much narrower front track. Everything started to fall into place and the car had the look of a single seater aircraft – hence the name (although I didn’t come up with that).”
Download the Delta Wing photos in SPEEDtv.com's gallery.
SPEED: Why no wings?
BOWLBY: “Wings are fragile, expensive, draggy and very turbulence sensitive. The geometry (shape) of this car’s bodywork and aero behavior is designed to allow better overtaking and closer racing.”
SPEED: Why cover most of the tire/wheel?
BOWLBY: “The biggest resistance for an Indy car is the drag of the exposed wheels and tires. At Indianapolis, 54 percent of the drag is the rotating wheels. By fairing the wheels there’s a huge gain in efficiency and a fantastic safety improvement from a contact standpoint.”
SPEED: in recent years teams have had to have road course and oval track configurations, long and short track suspensions, will this be prevalent with the Delta Wing?
BOWLBY: “The aero layout of the Delta Wing allows us to double the downforce by changing the height of the wicker on the top surface of the bodywork. And that can be achieved with $10 worth of aluminum."
SPEED: What have your SIM tests shown?
BOWLBY: “What we’ve found is that we have better acceleration because of the dragster like layout and low drag and weight. We’ve also got better stability under braking because we can keep more of the braking on the rear wheels behind the center of gravity. The drive-ability envelope has been expanded. Our simulations show it’s going to be a lot of fun to drive. We have targeted maintaining aerodynamic performance at high yaw angles so that drivers can recover from over-cooking it.”
SPEED: Will it be harder to drive, hopefully?
BOWLBY: “It’s going to make the performance envelope bigger so bolder drivers can use more track.”
SPEED: Why the turbo 4-cylinder?
BOWLBY: “In January of 2009 I attended the MIA’s Cleaner Racing Conference at ASI in the UK as part of my research for what we could do for a new Indy car. There was a lot of talk about a world engine and the trend to do away with the V-6 and V-8 in passenger cars. Having smaller capacity, lighter weight and a turbo leads to greater efficiency, and I recon that’s what motorsport needs in order to be relevant on a global scale. I was struck by what the MOTO GP guys were achieving in terms of power to weight ratio and how that converted to top speed and lap times."
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