DeltaWing’s new Indy Car for 2012

I have complained a lot about the lack of technical innovation being visible in the IRL or Indy Racing Series for quite a while now.  I’ve pined about the days when Indy cars were a showcase for new ideas and technology.  I looked back on the all-wheel-drive cars, the turbine cars, the cars with dual axles.

Now along comes a car that just about has me at lost for words.  The DeltaWing proposal for a new Indy Car is just mind boggling.  It looks like something that you would expect to see on the Bonneville salt flats not on a race track or road course.

I think I saw cars like this back in the early 1960’s as dream cars from General Motors. 

If you can get past the radical looks you should find the specifications interesting.  Power and fuel consumption is supposed to be half of what it is with today’s cars, yet speeds are project to be at least 235 mph.

Unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show this past week it was designed by Ben Bowlby of Chip Ganassi Racing.  Ben had formerly been Lola’s chief designer. 

The car is proposed as the 2012 Indy Racing new vehicle and that it be powered by a 2.0 liter four cylinder turbocharged engine that should easily produce 300 hp.  I guess that is where all the Mitsubishi 4G63 engines are going.

Who knows if this is really what we will see, but check out the DeltaWing web site and just imagine.