Nissan DeltaWing: The Next Chapter

PARIS – There's nothing quite like the Nissan DeltaWing anywhere else at the Paris motor show.

Black with a nose that swoops to a narrow point, the dramatic lines part of a design that enables this race car to run with half the fuel of its competitors.

The aim of the DeltaWing is to prove that fast can be frugal.

The car is back in France after competing at Le Mans earlier this year.

All went well for the Nissan DeltaWing for the first six hours of the 24 hour endurance race.

The car's startling appearance meant the innovation was clear to see, and it won the hearts of fans.

But then a disaster. A collision knocked the team out.

That wasn't the end of the Nissan DeltaWing story.

The car will be heading to the Petit Le Mans in the United States to race again.

"One of the things I was joking about was when I was asked what we 've done to avoid being crashed into again by one of the cars," said Ben Bowlby, designer of the Nissan DeltaWing.

"I said, to be honest, I don't think anyone wants to be the second person to knock the DeltaWing out of a race because the first guys got such a bad rap for it."

Nissan is not just challenging assumptions about race car design, but about who should drive them too.

In Paris on the company's stand gamers were trying their luck at the GT Academy, and for the best, to win the opportunity to turn computer game fantasy into race track reality.

"Five years ago nobody thought you could take a PlayStation gamer and make them into a racing driver," said Darren Cox, general manager of Nissan in Europe.

"Today we're at the Paris motor show and as you can see there are people trying out on our GT Academy pods here because we proved it could be done."

Once the fans have had the chance to see the Nissan DeltaWing in Paris it will be time for the next chapter in the DeltaWing story to begin.

The circuit for the race in the United States is twistier, new challenges.

But the hope is this time the car will get to the finish and continue to show that fuel efficiency has a place in motorsport.

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