Michelin to enter innovative Deltawing vehicle into 24h du Mans in 2012

Clermont-Ferrand, France -- Group

Michelin will team with DeltaWing L.L.C. to help develop the firm's

Project 56 DeltaWing racer, a radical departure from accepted racing car

design, for next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.

Michelin

will develop tyres specifically for the DeltaWing racer, which features

an extremely narrow front and a low aerodynamic drag design that the

project backers say will allow the car to race with just half the

horsepower of competing designs.

Michelin

and DeltaWing announced their partnership this morning at Road Atlanta

near Braselton, site of the Petit Le Mans race this weekend, the final

race in the 2012 American Le Mans Series championship.

For

Michelin, which has outfitted the winning car at the 24 Hours of Le

Mans for the past 14 years, partnering with DeltaWing for this project

will mean building front tyres that will be just 100mm (4 inches) wide,

or less than half the width of tyres normally used in this style of

racing.

Both

front and rear tyres will be 15-inch rim diameter, vs. 18-inch for the

standard Le Mans-style tyre. The car's front track is just 24 inches,

vs. 70 inches in the rear.

The

DeltaWing race car project is the brainchild of former Lola Cars Chief

Designer Ben Bowlby, who initially envisioned it as the next-generation

IndyCar design. When the IndyCar Series chose another, more conventional

design for its next-generation chassis, the DeltaWing backers looked

elsewhere for a venue for their vehicle.

That

search led them to the Le Mans endurance classic, which offers one spot

in the starting field for alternative technology-based cars.

The

project's initial backers found a number of other partners as the

project morphed into the Project 56 (for the 56th starting spot at Le

Mans) consortium. The team consists of: Highcroft Racing, which is

running the test and race program; DeltaWing Racing Cars; All-American

Racers, which will build the initial prototype; and ALMS Founder Don

Panoz's Panoz Auto Development Co., which is providing the lightweight

bodywork material and acting as a key adviser.

“The

DeltaWing presents exciting new territory for Michelin to explore,”

said Nick Shorrock, director of competition, Michelin. “Reducing energy

consumption and materials-while maintaining, or even enhancing

performance-is especially relevant in meeting the needs of consumers

worldwide. Project 56 takes fresh ideas and puts them into a dramatic

new package and we look forward to these challenges and opportunities.”

Project

56's efficiency targets will now include the tyres, where the goal will

be to cut the car's tyre consumption in half as well.

From

a numbers point of view, the car with driver will weigh just 1,030

pounds. The backers envision a turbocharged 2-litre, 4-cylinder engine

producing about 300 hp.

The

80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be June 16-17, 2012, at

the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe, approximately 90 miles southwest of

Paris.