Engine and Transmission
The back end sees a space frame which holds the back end of the car to the Carbon survival cell. Here the engine, transmission, pick up points and cooling system are all mounted, of which see the cooling package being compromised by its positioning as Stefan explains.:
“It will always be preferable to have the weight as low as possible, but we do believe that this is the best package as allowing more air to the intercooler gives us more power, which we believe is more important for the performance of the car. The placement outweighs the compromise.”
Moreover, the suspension is also packaged in a different way to what is seen in the back of an LMP2 chassis,.
“The suspension is actually mounted onto the rear of the chassis on the adaptor plates for the bell housing with bolt on clevises. This is adjustable for different roll centers and we’ve designed it this way so we have more options for set-up at different tracks” says Paul Taylor.
While the design entices for an easy and quick set-up change, the geometries involved are not optimum.
Moreover, the DW uses some innovative skills both on the engine and transmission side of things. With the engine block. The engine is a direct-injected 300-horspower 2.0-liter 4-cylinder turbo made by Elan Motorsport Technologies. The block is billet aluminum and the cylinder head is cast aluminum based on Mazda MZR concept. The crankshaft and connecting rods are made from steel. The pistons are billet aluminum made by Mahle.
To add, the engine sees designed components by Windform. “Windform was recommended to us to make the intake
manifold. CRP Technology did an outstanding job of making the intake manifold in three days from our model at the very beginning of the DeltaWing program in 2013. We’ve tested it up to 25psig and 200F and it has proven to be particularly reliable” says engine program manager Chris Smith.
With the transmission casing, DW designed it in-house along with Ben Bowlby. The case is manufactured from Aluminum with a six-speed sequential, with the gears made from high-grade hardened steel and the casing is cast aluminum.
Ongoing Battles
Before the car was discontinued at the end of 2016, R&D was still very much a thing, with regards to the cooling package and the carbon monocoque, off which was going to be improved to improve driver changes.
With the radiators being mound wither side of the engine, as well as above, the team looked for a new direction as Paul Taylor explains:
“The car cooling is something we have been working on. We have a water cooler on the left-hand side and an engine oil and gearbox oil cooler on the right-hand side, just like any other race car. We also have the intercooler for the turbo on top of the engine”.
Future prospects
The DWC13 was planned to run in the IMSA series with the all new Dpi and LMP2 prototypes races. And while the car doesn’t really comply with both of these categories, the car was deemed acceptable to race from the ACO. The plug was pulled on the program in early 2017, with the car now currently up for sale to the general public.