Don Panoz outlines plans for DeltaWing-based GT racer

The DeltaWing Technology Group is aiming to start manufacturing road cars that retain the architecture of the DeltaWing prototypes, which have raced at Le Mans and in the US, in the name of performance and fuel consumption.

Panoz said that he wanted to develop the road cars in a racing environment.

He has yet to reveal where the first DeltaWing sportscar would race later this year, but Panoz admitted aspirations to take the car to the Le Mans 24 Hours at some undisclosed point in the future.

DeltaWing has recruited former Panoz designer Brian Willis to head up its road car programme, which would include the two-seater GT and a four-seater saloon.

Panoz said: "We want the first prototype road car done by the late summer or early autumn; we will do the GT first because we want to race it before the end of the season.

"The rulemakers will want to have a look at it so they can judge its performance, and then we can begin the necessary certifications."

Asked if the DeltaWing GT could eventually race at Le Mans, he said: "Why not? I have always been a fan of Le Mans and they are always talking about encouraging new technologies."

Willis, who worked at Panoz in the early 2000s, added: "We are eventually looking at either GTE or GT3, but we can't say where we will race yet because we don't know how the rulemakers will respond."

He said that the car would initially have to race on an invited basis outside the general classification in the same way as the Panoz Abruzzi Spirit of Le Mans did in two American Le Mans Series races in 2011.

The likelihood is that the DeltaWing would go in the GTE direction, because low-volume manufacturers are allowed under the current regulations to compete once 25 road cars have been built.

The DeltaWing GT will be built around an aluminum chassis and will be powered by a transverse-mounted four-cylinder turbo engine of an origin that has yet to be decided.

Willis, who took up his new position of vice-president for engineering and design in late February, said that there were some "aggressive development goals to meet" to get the first GT car up and running by the autumn.

The programme for the DeltaWing-Elan/Panoz DWC13 to race in the Prototype class of this year's Tudor United SportsCar Championship will be unaffected by the GT plans.