IMSA: New DeltaWing GT concept unveiling planned for Petit Le Mans

The competition debut of the production-based DeltaWing GT racecar has been pushed to a date beyond IMSA's season finale at Road Atlanta on Oct. 3.

"Our original press conference in March at Sebring was vague about the timing for the GT's debut, and [DeltaWing owner] Don [Panoz] then gave us a challenging timeline to try and meet by racing the car at Road Atlanta," DeltaWing director of communications Gary Fong told RACER.

"We will be showing a full-size DeltaWing GT buck – a concept of the street car, and also the GT racing chassis; we weren't able to develop an actual GT racecar in the timeframe Don wanted. It took longer to go from the concept drawing at Sebring – which was really all we had to show – to create all of the designs and drawings for everything that had to be manufactured."

Despite DeltaWing's desire for the GT to race at the team's home track in Braselton, Ga., the budding auto manufacturer will close the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season using its familiar DWC13 Prototype (ABOVE) at Road Atlanta. In lieu of racing the GT, Fong and other representatives from the company will showcase the aforementioned items to fans during Petit Le Mans.

"We'll have both on display up in the vendor village above the paddock where fans can see them all week," he continued. "So they'll have the frame to see and the road car mockup. We're also working on providing more details about the GT racecar chassis."

It's possible the DeltaWing GT racecar could debut before the first road-going model is produced. Panoz's desire to see the GT race in the TUDOR Championship, which he co-founded, is understandable, but gaining access to race in the manufacturer-rich GT Le Mans or GT Daytona classes could prove to be a challenge.

"It's important to note that we haven't brought the car to the [IMSA] series yet, although Don said he wanted it to run in IMSA," Fong said. "There's a lot of work to do before we're ready for that."

According to Fong, performance targets are expected to evolve after the GT is presented to IMSA for consideration in GTLM or GTD.

"We're looking at a total weight on the car of 1800 to 2000 pounds, which is below the minimum for GTs, so it would be wrong to speculate which class it would run in," he said. "Horsepower, we're looking at 350-400. It's an aluminum-intensive chassis; the safety cage is steel, obviously, and many of the substructures are actually from the current DeltaWing DWC13 coupe, like the suspension and things like that."

Due to the GT's increased curb weight, DeltaWing's designers expect to produce bespoke pieces for the car as its development continues.

"A lot of the sub components will likely change; those items were designed for a car with a 1500-pound minimum weight, so they'll have to be made to suit the higher weight of the GT, but it's still a car that's very light compared to other GTs," Fong added. "We're just working on developing a prototype that we can start testing at this point."

The DWC13 coupe will race this weekend at Circuit of The Americas during the penultimate TUDOR Championship round, and then look to improve upon the fourth-place finish it earned at Road Atlanta in 2014. And after Petit Le Mans, DeltaWing fans will have to wait and see if the DWC13 will return, and when or where the GT will be pressed into service.

"[It's] best to simply say 2016 is undecided at this time," Fong said.