It’s been a busy year for Lucas Ordoñez. We’re never quite sure what car he’s going to sit in next as he hops from 370Z to GT-R GT3 to LMP2 to Altima V8 and even Super GT – but the latest ride is unique in every sense.
The Nissan ZEOD (Zero Emissions On Demand) was unveiled in front of fans – including GTPlanet – at Le Mans this year, part of Nissan’s #fansfirst ethos. Those with a keen eye will note it looks quite like the DeltaWing 2012 Le Mans entry for garage 56 from Nissan – and with good reason. DeltaWing’s chief designer, Ben Bowlby, is the man behind ZEOD.
ZEOD is planned as Nissan’s 2014 garage 56 entry for Le Mans and comprises a coupe version of the DeltaWing with two powerplants. The first is a conventional 1.3 litre, turbocharged 4 cylinder that should propel the car around the Circuit de la Sarthe at up to 186mph. The second is an electric motor, the batteries for which take around 6 laps of La Sarthe to fully charge through regenerative braking, allowing ZEOD to run a seventh lap completely on battery power – with no change in pace – for the first time in the race’s history.
Of course Lucas is something of an obvious choice to pilot the car, being a Le Mans veteran (3 races and 2 class podium finishes in the last 3 years) and driving the DeltaWing itself at Petit Le Mans last year and it’s come as little surprise that he’s the first officially announced test driver. Additional drivers have yet to be announced, though further Nismo Athletes and 2013 Le Mans teammates will come as no surprise either.
With DeltaWing proving its doubters wrong at Le Mans and Petit Le Mans last year, ZEOD stands to be an interesting entry for 2014.
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I don’t know why but it reminds me of Michael Keaton batmobile.
Needs more cowbell.
I watched the Lucas interview about the Zeod RC. Nissan and GTA/PD. are giving back. It all started with Kaz and his love of the automobile. Thumbs up to this program and making dreams reality. Good stuff.
The only bad thing I see with this car is that you are driving it almost clear in the back. It will probably have soo much under steer unless they can get A LOT of downforce on the front end. But I think if they have too much, it will shove it to the ground and won’t do well in Porsche (presuming that it is only ran at Le Mans)
I know the original delta wing and this are very similar, but since it is a closed cockpit, there is a lot of bulkhead that will slow it down… It’s not like an open where the air is hit from the front and only goes into the intake ports…
One other problem with the car, I would just like to note the lack of mirrors, lol
500, I reckon the mirror/s would affect the aero properties and adversely disrupt the air flow due to the width required to be of use. So I think you will find like the Audi R18 the use of rear cameras to cover this.
Well yeah I would hope they would use something, haha. A lack of external mirrors is quite strange though. External mirrors have evolved to a point where they are used as their own aerodynamic elements, like little wings for more downforce.
This thing should have a camera with sensors. Rear mirror is so 1800s!
What the hell is that thing?! I want it in the game, now!
If this one makes it in, it should make for some interesting electric car racing FINALLY.
I could not agree more!!
Would this now give us the option to switch between gas and electric motors during a race? Not sure if any cars are already in GT5 like that.. If there is, does it just have a cumulative fuel gage?
Still, I completely agree! I am glad you pointed that out.
Never mind some interesting EV racing how about this thing vs the delta wing? Should be fair since this car is only a delta wing with a closed cockpit and electic power.
I’m glad too see the Deltawing in GT6. I would be happy too see the ZEOD in GT6
I do love how this cars design rips of the DeltaWing so hard. It’s also sad that Nissan is doing another cheap badging exercise that won’t be very expensive for them to do and get then all the attention rather then stepping and competing against their peers like Audi, Porsche, and Toyota. Beside, next year you can run whatever power plant you want. Ball up and get in the LMP1 class if you can make an electric engine work, because you’re aloud to use it there. I think Nissan is cheating the Garage 56 system because I don’t think it’s intended to have 1 car company using it over and over as a badging exercise. Come on Nissan, play with the big boys or don’t play at all.
It’s not exactly a rip off design, since they were both designed by the same guy.
As for a badging exercise, it’s slightly more of a Nissan than the LMP2 car Lucas, Jann and Michael drove to the podium this year. That was a Zytek tub with a Nissan engine and run by Greaves Motorsport. This is a modified AMR tub, with two Nissan engines and full Nissan factory backing.
Besides, I’d rather see Nissan populating Garage 56 every year with cars that can actually run the race than promised entries that are so fragile they wouldn’t even make the first hour and then eventually not show up at all – as with this year’s race. I’d have loved to have seen DW get a second crack at it this year – instead we got hydrogen vapourware which was eventually replaced with a GTE Porsche.
No no no, don’t be confused, it is not designed by the same guy. The DeltaWing was designed by Dan Gurney’s All American Racers, not anyone from Nissan. The engine in the DeltaWing was the Cheverolet engine developed by a German engineering group and Nissan than bought the motor and slapped their badge on it. So Nissan keeps taking the spot light of DeltaWing marketing and talking about it as their thing, but fans of the DeltaWing should note that the car has nothing to do with Nissan and the DeltaWing is still in fact racing with an Élan power plant from Don Panoz’s group, who teamed up with Gurney’s AAR to run the car after Nissan’s contract was up.
By badging exercise I don’t mean exactly like that, I think I’m trying to say its more of a marketing gimmick compared to the an actually dedicated program.
As far as Garage 56 goes, for 2013 I was happy it was a GTE Porsche because the car with hydrogen tanks mounted on the sides was deffinently a rolling bomb, haha. But the purpose of Garage 56 was to showcase new green technologies and such, but with the new 2014 LMP rules it kind of defeats the point because any hybrid system that would be showcased in a Garage 56 car can be used in an LMP1 car and actually contend for a class. Therefore I think the 56th stall should just go to an actual classified entry and if Nissan can actually make and electric car run around the track then they can put it in the LMP1 class so that consumers can actually compair it’s results to the efficiency of a diesel or naturally aspired engine with what ever combination of hybrid drive. There is a reason why Le Mans sells more street cars then any other race in the world and it seems that Nissan is definitely taking a short cut by not competing against anybody.
Wait! I missed then Ben Bowldy part! Still, I don’t like that they are taking the DeltaWing and marketing it as their own creation with disregard for AAR and all the other names and groups originally evolved in this cars, such as Chip Ganassi, and everything I said about Nissan’s use in Garage 56 I still stand by.
They aren’t. DeltaWing carried Highcroft, AAR and Panoz logos alongside the Nissan ones. But that’s how Le Mans prototype racing works – the car is known as team-chassis-engine. See “Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan” (team-chassis-engine) or “Rebellion Lola-Toyota” (team-chassis-engine). In 2012 it was the Nissan Deltawing (team-chassis) as the fact it was a Nissan factory team rendered the extra Nissan for the engine superfluous and I don’t really see the problem with calling it a Nissan when it’s a Nissan factory backed team with a Nissan engine and Nissan’s drivers.
Fact is that Nissan saved the Deltawing chassis after its original purpose as the next-gen Indycar fell apart when the more conventional Dallara chassis was selected. Without that run at Le Mans (and as a concept to drive just as fast but use half the fuel and tyres, it meets Garage 56’s green requirements) chances are we’d never have seen it again. Now it has three endurance races to its name and ZEOD is to drive a fourth (though I’m sure the AAR coupe will race again too).
Well the question is whose payroll Ben Bowldy is on this time. Is it being developed with AAR or did Nissan take Ben Bowldy from AAR to design this project under Nissan?
The thing with the Zytek and Lola chassis is that they aren’t just called a Zytek Nissan or Lola Toyota, for cars that aren’t a factory R18 say, the engine and the chassis are entered separately. It’s entered as a Lola B12/60 Coupe with a Toyota RV8KLM and a Zytek Z11SN with a Nissan VK45DE. In the DeltaWings case the engine and the chassis were not entered as seperate entities. It’s entered as a Nissan DeltaWing and did not denote AAR on the entry. They entered it in the same way as Audi would enter an R18. The engine was also not a Nissan engine. They rebadged a Chevy WTCC engine as a Nissan, an engine that was already proven on track and who’s creator won Race Tech’s Engine Designer of the year for. The engine was ready to go, no development required, they just popped a Nissan badge on it and let it go. So in reality, what the DeltaWing should have been entered as was an AAR DeltaWing with a Cheverolet engine and Nissan crew members, because that’s essentially what it equated too.
As far as saving it, it was entered for Garage 56 before Nissan ever got involved. Nissan didn’t get involved until about 3 months before the race. Until that time it was 100% the AAR engineers driving the project so to say that Nissan saved the DeltaWing might be a bit near sighted. The car did have promote going just as fast with half the fuel and all that, but hear me out on this, does it matter? The weight saving solutions were creative but secret to it was the aerodynamic and its heavy use of the undertray portion of the aero. I think we can both agree that the ourpose of Garage 56 at Le Mans is showcasing a technology that can ultimately make road cars more efficient. The DeltaWing’s aero solutions to energy efficiency aren’t valid to a road because the second it translates to a street car the precise aero techniques the car uses are gone.
Still, it’s fine with me that it ran Garage 56 in 2012, I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with, which is more online with my main point, is that 2 years later they are doing Garage 56 again when the rulebook allows for them to do that same project in an actual category. While all Nissan’s peers are showcasing their latest technologies by competing against each other in LMP1, Nissan showcasing theirs in its own class where they have no standards to beat. The point is that technology from Le Mans should be used to sell road cars and if Nissan can truly make the technology viable, than they should be squaring it off against their competitor’s. By using Garage 56 they have no standards to live up to because it only has to go around the track, not actually be competitive. Yet by taking this route they will hog the media spotlight over technologies that are actually being proven by competition.
Also, like I said, the DeltaWing has more than 3 races to its name. It’s been running all year in ALMS with a Panoz engine.
According to Nissan, the engine was the MR16DDT from the Juke – though I have little doubt it was significantly worked over to shift the redline that much.
I think you misunderstand what the “DeltaWing” means in the context of “Nissan DeltaWing”. In the Greaves Zytek-Nissan used by the Nismo Athletes this year, Zytek is the company the supplies the chassis. With the Rebellion Lola-Toyota it’s Lola that are the company that supply the chassis. Strakka HPD-Honda? HPD. Oak Morgan-Nissan? Morgan.
In this context, “DeltaWing” means “DeltaWing Racing Cars”. Who are DeltaWing Racing Cars? They’re designer Ben Bowlby, constructors All American Racing and Highcroft Racing and Don Panoz. The name “Nissan Deltawing” means “DeltaWing Racing Cars chassis entered by Nissan”… AAR and Highcroft got their credit in the name and on the decals – the car only ran six different decals on it for the race, for Nissan, AAR, Highcroft Racing, Panoz, Deltawing Racing Cars and Michelin, the latter of which was a key driving force in getting off the ground and getting Nissan on board to supply the engines back in October 2011.
Personally I’m glad the guys all worked together and got it going.
In the press releases they compared it to the Juke because just like the Juke it has a turbo charged 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine, but it is not the same engine, there were articles on all the racing coverage and technology sites about them rebadging a Chevrolet engine and I can site a source if you want.
Oak Morgan-Nissan: Oak chassis, and Nissan engines (was Morgan but they couldn’t do it so Nissan provides the engines and the team is badges as Morgan). Nissan is credited with the engine on the entry list, Morgan is the team.
Rebellion Toyota Lola: Revellion is the team, Lola is the chassis, and Toyota is the engine.
Greaves Zytek Nissan: Greaves is the team, Zytek is the chassis, Nissan is the engine.
Etc.
In those entries it’s a team, engine, chassis pairing. In the DeltaWings case the chassis provider is AAR, ran with Highcroft, and the engine, all though its technically a Chevy engine, Nissan is the provider.
What I’m criticizing is the credit Nissan is taking for the car because, unlike AAR and Highcroft who developed the car the whole time, Nissan came in during the 11th hour with a rebadged already proven Chevy (because their 1.6L 4cylinder Turbo wasnt race tested and they weren’t able to test their layout) and took credit for the project. Yes Highcroft and AAR and such got a decal on the car but all the entry list just said Nissan and DeltaWing, a car which was being seen for the 1st time to a global market. The mass public doesn’t see those decals. Nissan was marketing it as their innovation when in reality they barely touched the car. You see the comments of users here on the website, Nissan and DeltaWing go hand in hand. People don’t realize it as a different entity, they think the DeltaWing is a Nissan car. You can see the comments for the artical, people are excited because the DeltaWing is back. Yet this car is not called the DeltaWing and is not associated with AAR and Highcroft and Panoz. There is a DeltaWing coupe already designed for Panoz to run, but that is not the car. This car isn’t called the DeltaWing either, it’s the ZEOD. See what I’m saying? Nissan is adopting the entity of something they had virtual no role in.
My main point of course is still that Nissan could be doing this is LMP1 and its cheap of them to do this in a class with no competition and a project they really won’t have to put too much effort into. Is there any objection to that my original point?
Well, no. The chassis supplier is Deltawing Racing Cars – an entity made of Ben Bowlby, AAR, Highcroft and Panoz. Nissan didn’t take it as their own chassis, it’s right there in the name.
What the ZEOD entry will actually be called is up in the air – ZEOD is merely the term for the engine technology (drawing on the Renault, of Renault-Nissan, electric engine technology called ZE), so it may be termed Nissan [chassis] ZEOD. Since Ben Bowlby, chief designer of Deltawing Racing Cars, has designed the chassis it may well be another Nissan Deltawing entry.
Furthermore, it wasn’t exactly the “11th hour”. DW was a failed proposal for the next generation IndyCar (235mph from 300hp!) converted into an endurance racer. From the moment DW was granted entry by the ACO to garage 56 in June 2011, Michelin were on board. Nissan joined the project in October 2011 and supplied the first engines (and they still say it was a reworked MR16DDT from the Juke – though Chevrolet internals are mentioned) for the Sebring test in March 2012, 3 months ahead of Le Mans in June 2012.
Remember, it was only due to the Le Mans and Atlanta races, with Nissan, that gave the DW chassis sufficient credibility to get Deltawing racing in Le Mans Series events. And even then it’s Don Panoz’s car running in his own ALMS series.
Incidentally, you’d be better off calling Morgan cheap for simply sticking its name on a Pescarolo chassis and running it in LMP2 – chuffin badging exercise. But then the Pescarolo chassis is just an AMR-One tub anyway (like Deltawing – imagine that)…
I would have to read your artical but what it sounds like happened was Nissan purchased the Chevy WTCC engine and put its parts on a MR16DDT block, since I’m assuming the blocks are the same size, which is how they would call it a Juke engine, even though its just Chevy’s WTCC engine with a swapped out block.
As far as Morgan goes I would call them even cheaper for putting a Nissan engine in it. I don’t like how they can make neither the chassis, or the engine, and call it their car. It’s like the Infiniti badge on the Red Bull Renault.
What still happened with the DelatWing that AAR, Panoz, and Highcroft were paired together with the car already designed by Ben Bowldy and gained the approval of the ACO for Project 56. Nissan didnt have any part in developing the car until that Sebring test on March. The problem with entering the car as “Nissan DeltaWing” is in the naming. A factory team like Audi with an R18 it’s the car manufacturer and a model name. In a car like the Rebellion Toyota it is not called the Toyota Lola, it a Toyota Lola B12/60. When it is just 2 titles its a manufacturer and the cars name. If DeltaWing was being recognized as its own chassis group it would say Nissan DeltaWing ???? for the car title. Seeing that the entire concept of what made the car the energy efficient entity that got it Garage 56 was the part of the car Nissan had nothing to do with but Nissan going ahead and marketing to show their efficiency in technology is also wrong to me.
Also by the sounds of it Panoz has completely purchased the DeltaWing group so this car will not be a DeltaWing
The Rebellion Lola-Toyota was called that because the team running it were Rebellion, the chassis suppliers were Lola and the engine supplier was Toyota.
The Strakka HPD-Honda was called that because the team running it were Strakka, the chassis suppliers were HPD and the engine supplier was Honda.
The Nissan DeltaWing was called that because the team running it were Nissan and the chassis suppliers were DeltaWing.
The additional name for the engine supplier is superfluous and skipped for reasons of scansion – like the Audi/Toyota entries aren’t called Audi Audi-Audi and Toyota Toyota-Toyota (and in F1 you have Red Bull Renault and McLaren Mercedes, but not Ferrari Ferrari – though the official entries are called that). It’s no more complex than that. The car was a DeltaWing-supplied chassis entered by the Nissan team – and DeltaWing Racing Cars were Ben Bowlby, AAR, Highcroft and Panoz.
Quite what ZEOD will be actually called with the political shenanigans I don’t know, but the chassis is clearly similar to but not the same as the 2012 DeltaWing chassis. There are differences to the 2013 DeltaWing coupe chassis too – particularly on the nose and the, for want of a better word, sidepods.
But as Bowlby’s car, perhaps Panoz will licence the DeltaWing name to ZEOD and it’ll be called “Nissan DeltaWing ZEOD”
No no no, with the chassis I’m talking about the name on the actual entry list. On the actual entry list for the Rebellion team it says its a Toyota-Lola B12/60 Coupe. What I’m talking about is the B12/60 part. When the engine and chassis providers are seperate entities it is entered as a car a, a chassis provider, and the name of the chassis. If the DeltaWing is treated as a supplier of the chassis then it should give a model name. When they don’t do that and only enter it as Nissan DeltaWing it becomes a purely Nissan car. Like with Audi it’s 100% their car so it’s an Audi R18 and for Toyota its a Toyota TS030. See the difference? When it’s strictly a manufactorer factory car it’s the company and the model. When it isn’t the factory effort it’s the engine provider, the chassis supplier, and the name of that supplier’s model. For DelatWing to be treated as a provider it should have a name for the chassis entered on the entry list. See what I’m saying?
No way! When I was writing my comment on the GT movie I had typed, “Will our main character dream of a class win at Le Mans only to get stuck in an unclassified badging exercise?” And then I got rid of it because the comment looked too long. Haha, guess I was right!
Delta wing has come back nuttered and ready to race!!
I can’t wait to drive the Delta Wing in GT6. That’s gonna be great.
it looks like the chief designer of the ZEOD, Ben Boulby watched the 1989 Batman right before he thought of this car because it looks alot like the batmobile to me :P
Then by your logic he was thinking the same thing when he designed the Original DeltaWing, as the 2 cars are remarkably similar in design.
+1 Pit Crew, lol
Wow… that is an amazing privilege for the GTA winner so the best of luck to all involved. Crazy looking car which I am really looking forward to seeing in action.
Such an honor. Nissan really knows how to take care of their drivers.
I really wish the best of luck for Nissan for their big challenge of 0 charging in the 24 hour race.
porsche… this… maybe a new proto for audi as the R18 is getting to its ages… peugueot i think were coming… now a kid from a ps3 is going to… I just cant finish it. FREAKING AWESOME!!
It is exciting times for endurance racing. Audi and Toyota are developing totally new cars to comply with the new 2014 regulations which Porsche are preparing for. Actually, the Lotus T128 LMP is virtually 2014 ready with it’s new higher cockpit dimensions.
2014 WEC and 24h du Mans should be fantastic.
Ferrari is talking about a 2015 return. It has been confirmed that its a hot topic of conversation in the Maranello right now. An executive did an interview with Top Gear.
WOW!!!!