Nissan Deltawing crashes
 

this is just heartbreaking if you are a nissan fan... look how badly the driver wanted to continue regardless:

been watching since this morning... was sad to see

the driver was motoyama he is one of the NISMO drivers for the Super GT GTRs

Sucks. Lots of these drivers are not very good with negotiating traffic. Have you guys seen the Toyota hybrid crash yet? Wow!

yea that **** was crazy. he tweeted something about a broken back, not sure if that was hyperbole or not though...

Just watched the Motoyama vid. Heartbreaking. It really shows what Le Mans is all about... giving everything you can give just to try and finish. What a shame!

that really sucks. very sad to see :(

That sucked. Brutal move from the Toyota.

If they allowed me to take part in my 370.. I think I could be a contender and possibly have a (long)shot at winning the thing.

edit - might have to install an oil cooler first though..

watching those videos , especially the first one, really pulled a heart string inside. wanted to jump right in out of nowhere and continue as the driver.

I think it's hilarious that Japanese driver in the Toyota took out the Japanese driver in the Nissan. classic! ...oh the shame. Lol!

I suspected the delta wing would get taken out before end of the race. It's an awfully delicate little car. Also it was butt slow prior to crash as well. It was hanging in back of the pack all of the race.

That's rough :(

Its a bad day for the Japanese teams in Lemns the Euro cars are still a tough wall to climb!
But in time with Asian market booming we will see great innovative super cars coming this way.
Big Euro players partnering with Japanese automakers just to survive.

Nissan partnered with Mercedes Benz

I propose a new rule for Lemans: If you make a blatant error and end another cars race you get banned as a driver for at least 2 years.

Also if my family sedan can have "blind spot monitoring" then why in the hell can't a P1 car have it.

What? Nissan and Honda dominate LMP2 and Toyotas did decent in LMP1.

The Delta Wing car really isn't even a Nissan. It was developed by California company and Nissan only entered as sponsor earlier this year.

Would love to see Nissan enter GT car though!

Renualt, the 36% owner of Nissan actually started alliance with Mercedes. Actually Nissan was in trouble and was rescued by European manufacturers. Not other way around lol! Mercedes, Audi, VW, Porsche are all very healthy in Asia as well.

Slow? It was matching the LMP2 times up until it crashed, which is what most projected it to compete at and it was putting down top speeds almost equal to the Audi R18 cars.
It really shows what can be done with modern technology in a little package.

No it was lagging behind most of LMP2 field including GT cars. It's fastest lap time was a 3.45.7 the LPM1 cars were turning fast laps of 3.25 and fast LMP2 cars were turning 3.39 laps.

http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers/...-after-24h.pdf

You can see where it was by hour before the crash. It was lagging most of the race. They had drivetrain issues that didn't help either.

24 Heures du Mans 2012 − Live 2012 − Results

Are you even reading what you are posting?
The LMP2 were running 3:39 to 3:47 throughout the race, rough estimates puts the average around 3:43 for the whole LMP2 teams. The Deltawing was running 3:45 with constant issues, even the drivers said after the race they knew a sub 3:40 time was going to happen if they could have been in for the full 24 hours. The car was showing up the LMP2 cars and was creeping with some of the LMP1 cars in early practice runs.

Unfortunately the hourly statistics don't support that. Well guess we will have to wait until next year to see if they can improve reliability of the car and work out more of handling issues. It does look cool however!

Not sure if the Delta Wing will be back next year. There is only one "Garage 56" slot for experimental cars, and this is the one that has it for 2013:

Hydrogen-electric racer set for Le Mans - BBC Top Gear

Here's a photo of the Delta Wing I took at the Ganassi shop this winter. I think that this was the first one.

For maybe 5 or 6 years, there was this guy I'd see at the kart track. We'd talk / chat occasionally. He was wrenching for his son. One of those relationships where you just know his first name - Ben. So then on the day of the Delta Wing unveiling I'm watching the video and see the guy from the track standing there - the guy I just know as Ben. It was Ben Bowlby - the Delta Wing Designer...

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/Ganassi5.jpg

There has already been talk to try to bring it back as soon as possible.
I think though they are going to have to bring more to the table though. Maybe some new hybrid/electric setup with the KERS system. :tup:

The DeltaWing should fit right in with the new regs - which I think go into effect in 2014. Essentially a 'run what you brung' approach - but you only get 'X' gallons of fuel.