Entrepreneur Don Panoz is aiming to produce a DeltaWing GT chassis via all-electric propulsion. via a partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Panoz's Georgia-based company Braselton, is already months down the road into a project that combines compact direct-drive electric motors to the DeltaWing GT chassis with the stated goal of competing at Le Mans without an internal combustion engine.
"The prototype motor weighs 21 pounds, and can do different power outputs based on the size of the magnet, and runs cool with internal capillary cooling” Don Panoz told RACER. “Compared to this motor, the same thing would weigh 75 pounds to what's available now."
Panoz believes the unique aesthetics of the DeltaWing should provide ample space in which to house the batteries and perform pit-stop changes that could eventually rival conventual fuel-based pit-stops.
"On the Le Mans car, we have a lot of space on either side of the car where radiators and all of those systems normally go, and we're researching the best way to use that space to change the batteries rapidly”, Says Panoz. “My engineers are confident we'll get to 100 percent."
AN ELECTRIC DELTA?