Gran Turismo

[Phoenix701220]

While technically not a GT5 related issue, the biggest race of the WEC calender starts today and for those of us watching the Le Mans 24hrs today and tomorrow I was wondering who will you be giving your support to?

Will it be the regular winners of Audi with either their new E-Tron Quattro or the Classic Ultra, or maybe the new boys Toyota. Maybe it won't even be one of the P1 teams, maybe it'll be a P2 or GTE team such as Lotus, Aston Martin or Corvette, so who is it?

Me, while they can't score points or even be classified (regs of Garage 56) I am actually hoping the Nissan Deltawing will do well, as much as anything else, simply for daring to try something truly revolutionary. I've been looking forward to this car since I first heard it was going to be at Le Mans this year, and having seen it running similar times to the P2 cars, (in practise and qualy sessions) with an engine less then half the size and no wings I say very best of luck to them.

As an aside and giving this thread a GT5 relevence, I am hoping IF it does do well, maybe the team at PD will PLEASE create a DLC including it, I would absolutely buy it.

[GothicCard]

I am following Greaves Motorsport as it is Martin Brundle, his son, and the guy that won GT Academy 2008.

Have kept looking in at the live feeds online, and I also hope the Nissan Deltawing does well

[ProjectVRD]

Yay! Potentially another Nissan for the game! 

Anyway, I will be supporting Aston Martin because they are looking for examples that justify their return to motorsport. The disastrous start to the Ring 24 must have hurt badly considering the cars 006 and 007 cars performed really well when they got back on the track.

[fets81]

anyone catch davidsons crash?

apparently he's fine just suffering from shock & back pain, looked like one of them thats gonna hurt in the morning

[davey23]

I'm sad to see the Deltawing go out. I have to say that it was impressive to see Anthony Davidson get away relatively unhurt - i was watching live when it happened and feared the worst. It made a mess of the ferrari as well. I don't really have favourites although I do like Aston Martins just because of their English heritage and I'm always impressed by technology like the hybrid cars.

[Phoenix701220]

I was gutted to see the Delta Wing go out, it was an accident BUT, having seen Nakijima and his driving in F1 I can't say that I am surprised he was involoved. I think part of the problem was not just, as the commentry said he was unsighted so didn't see the Delta Wing but also alot of drivers seem to forget that Le Mans is a marathon and not a sprint and at the point of the incident between the Toyota and Delta Wing there was still about 2/3's of the race less, but Nakijima had just lost the lead and was in too much of a rush to get it back again, very careless, very avoidable accident.

I did see the Anthony Davidson accident and while not as scarey as McNish's last year it was a real doosie. Originally it was reported he was aching but uninjured but it has now been reported he has injured his 10th and 11th vertabrae and will be out of action for the next 2-3 months. Best wishes go out to him and get well soon.

[Garfie489]

Where was the Deltawing when it went out today?

[Phoenix701220]

Hi Garfie.

When it went out the Delta Wing was in 47th. It had had technical problems, ironically caused by one of the few NON in house sourced parts (the gearbox actuator) that had dropped it down the order to the 50's, however, prior to it being hit the Delta Wing had been catching up and cutting through the lower placed cars quite quickly and was showing excellent pace, and in my personal opinion it looked great going round the track, that is when the director decided to show it.

The support shown for the car was pretty much excellent by all, it has apparently already been invited to attend some forth-coming endurance events by the organisers and I for one am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this car.

If you're interested this is the addy for the official Nissan Delta Wing Site. 

http://www.deltawingracing.com/

The only irony for me is the No 7 Toyota which is the one that took the Delta Wing out failed to finish itself so there was kind of a karmic justice to it, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.

The good thing is that in the limited time it did run it showed great potential.

Hope that helps.

[Garfie489]

Thanks, didnt get to catch le mans but i was interested in the deltawing. I find it as almost an act of Sportsmanship, not many manufactures would enter a car into le mans just to show a different way of thining. Why Nakajima is even allowed to drive is beyond me, theres just some drivers that provide nothing but money (Narain Karthikeyan, so on).

[Phoenix701220]

Glad I was able to help Garfie.

Yes Nakajima's reputation is long established, but remember despite most of the Toyota's Le Mans work being done in Europe it is still a Japanese company and they love to have a least one Japanese driver, which is probably how he got his drive, even as a crasher, having been in F1 would go a long way to seal that deal.

One thing that was interesting to see just after the accident it went to a replay shot inside the Toyota garage at the time of the accident to show their reactions, and more than one of the mechanics was, well, how can I say this without putting profanities in?, their thumb tips met the forefinger tips and were making an up and down movement if you take my meaning.

Given that the only way the Delta Wing could have got any more out the way would be for it to got completely onto the grass I doubt the hand signals were aimed at the Delta Wing driver, pretty much says it all.

If you go to the Delta Wing site with the link I provided they actually have a 2 minute video posted that shows the damage done to the Delta Wing and Motoyama-san trying (unsuccessfully unfortunately) to get the car in a state so that he could drive it back to the garage. It was a mess putting it mildly.