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" Here at the Buttonwillow Raceway in California, race driver Marino Franchitti struggles for something more descriptive, more dramatic, to describe what it is like to drive the DeltaWing, the car that could change racing. &amp;quot;It\u2026&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;\u2026it feels, like a car.&amp;quot;  This really is a dramatic assessment, however, because the DeltaWing certainly doesn&amp;#039;t look like a car. The bullet-shaped nose leads to a pair of Michelin racing tires each just four inches wide. The total front track is less than that of a go-kart. Front springs are smaller than a can of Red Bull. Front disc brakes are not much larger than what you&amp;#039;d find on a 10-speed bicycle. Continuing toward the rear, there&amp;#039;s a relatively wide driver&amp;#039;s compartment with a small steering wheel of the sort used in open-wheel cars. Beneath the driver, the body begins to flare out to regular race-car width, covering a set of big Michelin slicks. At the rear, there&amp;#039;s a vertical fin\u2014a finishing touch that makes the all-black DeltaWing look like a Batmobile.  Just behind the driver sits the four-cylinder, 1.6-liter turbocharged, race-prepared, 300-hp Nissan engine,. It&amp;#039;s small enough for one strong man to cradle in his arms and lift. Behind that is the five-speed Emco transmission. Holding it all together is a series of thin, plated rods; before the engine and transmission are bolted in, it looks like a bird cage. When you explore the underpinnings front to rear, the whole project has a rather delicate look, with small nuts and bolts where you would expect much larger ones to hold a car together during a race.  From Losing Out to Running Le Mans Project chief Ben Bowlby, a 45-year-old Brit who was the chief designer for Lola race cars, is exhausted, as is his crew. They have been leaving the track at 1 a.m., heading to their rooms at the Buttonwillow Motel 6, then returning to the modest Buttonwillow Raceway near Bakersfield by 5 a.m. There is so much to do, so little time. The DeltaWing first appeared, unheralded, at the Chicago Auto Show in February of 2010. Bowlby&amp;#039;s then-employer Chip Ganassi was there, as was outgoing IndyCar head Tony George and incoming head Randy Bernard, at the time still the CEO of the Professional Bull Riders association. The DeltaWing on display then was larger, with a smaller driver&amp;#039;s compartment and no provision for headlights. It was, after all, making a bid to be the next platform for the IndyCar series, which was looking for a new car. No one\u2014no one\u2014knew what to make of it. Half those in attendance seemed to smile with polite amusement. The other half seemed intrigued. It was, in the end, too radical for IndyCar. Bernard assembled a team of experts to help him select a new car from multiple candidates, &amp;quot;and some people loved the DeltaWing. They wanted to choose it, and swing for the grandstands, either getting a home run or striking out.&amp;quot; But the team decided that the DeltaWing wasn&amp;#039;t far enough along in development to select as the one lone chassis to take IndyCar into the future. Had the DeltaWing had another year of development, Bernard said, the sanctioning body might have been willing to take a chance. They chose the less radical Dallara, which will run for the entire 2012 IndyCar season beginning in April.      Most thought this was the end of the DeltaWing. But the American Le Mans Series, and the ACO, which sanctions the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was intrigued. Might the DeltaWing be adaptable for road racing? Bowly said yes, so the ACO offered the DeltaWing the 56th entry in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, a slot reserved for innovative race cars which compete on a demonstration-only basis. So is it good that the IndyCar series didn&amp;#039;t choose the DeltaWing? &amp;quot;I guess we&amp;#039;ll never know now, will we?&amp;quot; Bowlby says. The fact that DeltaWing is a demo car does not mean Bowlby plans to circulate the futuristic vehicle for a few laps in France and then pull to the pits. The car can compete, he says, with the absolute top-line Le Mans teams in the LMP1 class, including the blisteringly fast Audis. It would do so with half the power, and half the weight; with full tanks and a driver, the DeltaWing weighs less than 1300 pounds. Consequently, fuel mileage while running on racing gas, tire wear, and brake wear would be outstanding. Could it run in the rain? &amp;quot;No problem,&amp;quot; Franchitti says. &amp;quot;I think it would be excellent in the rain.&amp;quot; Michelin already has rain tires ready. If this strange-looking car does well, then what? &amp;quot;We are definitely interested in seeing the DeltaWing compete in the ALMS, in a prototype class,&amp;quot; said Scott Atherton, head of the sanctioning body. &amp;quot;I think we can find a place for it.&amp;quot; One possible scenario could be a bunch of DeltaWings battling it out on the track, but that&amp;#039;s not what Bowlby wants to see. &amp;quot;Not at all,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t much like any kind of spec racing.&amp;quot; Bowlby&amp;#039;s goal for the DeltaWing is to show that alternative technology can work, and to encourage other designers who are handcuffed by the rules of Nascar, IndyCar, or Grand-Am to imagine next-generation racers that aren&amp;#039;t just marginal improvements on what already exists. The project reportedly cost $15 million, but once the design is perfected, a DeltaWing car could be built for far less money. And let&amp;#039;s face it: What manufacturer doesn&amp;#039;t have a 300-hp four-cylinder engine that could power one?  A Chance to Make Some History  Back in the shop at Buttonwillow, the DeltaWing chassis has been stripped of its carbon bodywork, its tires, wheels, engine, and transmission. Two people can lift what&amp;#039;s left of it\u2014with one hand each. During our visit the team in tinkering with the troublesome five-speed Emco transmission. The trans, and some electrical issues, have been all the roadblocks the team has faced, and those were relatively minor issues.  The car goes back together in an hour. Franchitti buckles in. The little engine sounds like a machine gun when it&amp;#039;s turning over, then settles into a quiet idle. On the track, the Nissan powerplant sounds barely stressed as Franchitti laps faster and faster. Critics have said the DeltaWing&amp;#039;s narrow front end would cause a push, an understeer, so severe the car would run right off the turns into the grass. But the DeltaWing sticks to the pavement like a slot car and Franchitti zips around the California track. No tire squeal, no drama, no body lean as he rips around a right-hander. Franchitti insists the turn-in line is conventional enough that he will be able to race with conventional cars. Though Buttonwillow is a short track, and the DeltaWing has Le Mans-length gearing, acceleration appears impressive and linear. The DeltaWing&amp;#039;s success during these early laps has only enhanced the energy percolating around this project. Dan Gurney of Dan Gurney&amp;#039;s All-American Racers is building the car. His company has kept busy lately with semi-secret government contracts, yet, he says, &amp;quot;This may be the most exciting project we&amp;#039;ve worked on. It could be a real game-changer.&amp;quot; Highcroft Racing, owned by businessman and former driver Duncan Dayton, is charged with developing the car for the track, and racing it. Highcroft, with Marino Franchitti, raced prototype Acuras in the ALMS until Acura suddenly and unexpectedly pull the plug on the program, and the team suddenly had the chance to help out on the DeltaWing project. &amp;quot;We have a chance to make some history,&amp;quot; Dayton said.  Michelin and Nissan are the only real corporate backers\u2014everything else the team is paying for. That could change as the car gets exposure, beginning with demonstration laps at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Sebring International Raceway, where the crowd is gathering for Saturday&amp;#039;s Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring. The following week, the DeltaWing will continue testing at Sebring. It would be a huge victory for the exhausted men who&amp;#039;ve been turning wrenches on a bizarre little car no one figured would ever see the race track. &amp;quot;The only thing certain,&amp;quot; Bowlby said, &amp;quot;is the possibility of failure.&amp;quot; Clearly, though, he has no intention of letting that happen. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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