The name is Italian, the heritage is Scottish, and the future lurks in a wind tunnel.
So it is for Scottish sports car driver Marino Franchitti, at 32 he's the lesser known – but no less daring – younger brother of IndyCar master Dario Franchitti.
Marino has been picked as the first driver for the unique DeltaWing program that will debut at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans in mid-June. The DeltaWing vehicle looks part Batmobile car and part rocket – which bears testimony to its pedigree.
The transmission comes from Chicago-based EMCO Gears, a company that made gears for McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft. The body material uses a space-age polypropylene called Tegris, a U.S.-made bulletproof substance used in army vehicles and body armour "to counter fragment, projectile, and blast threats."
In theory, the DeltaWing is light and it's fast, and Franchitti tweets that he "can't wait" to get to the Le Mans endurance race and try out the prototype in June. But first it undergoes testing in a wind tunnel.
"My initial reaction was 'What is this?' " Franchitti said when he first saw plans for the arrowhead-shaped vehicle.
"It is so different from everything I have ever seen and everything that I have known a racing car to be. … It really takes your breath away."
Marino Franchitti's name was first published Thursday at an Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) press conference that announced the entries for this year's twice round-the-clock Le Mans endurance race. The DeltaWing program, launched last year at Le Mans, got Garage 56 for this year's 80th running of the race. For those familiar with Le Mans, that's the garage of experiments, reserved for an entry demonstrating new and innovative technology.
The Project 56 group assembled talents from all over: designer Ben Bowlby; American racing driving legend Dan Gurney and his All American Racers group (who will manufacture the prototype); the back-to-back championship-winning sports car team from Highcroft Racing and American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz – the nicotine-patch developer whose Elan Motorsport Technologies company will provide the unique recyclable REAMS material for the bodywork for the prototype.
REAMS is an acronym for Recyclable Energy Absorbing Matrix System – a combination of Tegris and some other films, bound together to create a strong material than carbon fibre but which doesn't shatter on impact like carbon fibre. It's light – the car can weigh 50 per cent less than if it were made of conventional materials – and it's recyclable.
A Highcroft statement said the DeltaWing's transmission is "a 5-speed (plus reverse) longitudinal design, featuring electrically actuated sequential selection via steering wheel mounted shift paddles." The technology is impressive, but so is the team for Franchitti.
"When you look at the people behind the program like Ben Bowlby, Don Panoz, Duncan Dayton and somebody like Dan Gurney, who is a hero of mine – if they have faith in this program, then that gives me a lot of confidence," he said. "I am so excited about getting the opportunity to drive the car. I have no doubt in my mind that it is going to turn, but I am really looking forward to finding out how it is going to feel and how it will work as a package.
"I have nothing to compare this against. Like the car itself, I will be going in with a clean sheet of paper and will start exploring the limits."
Franchitti drove for Highcroft in 2010 and 2011 – winning at Laguna Seca and taking second place at last year's Twelve Hours of Sebring. He also previously drove for Don Panoz in 2004 and 2005.
"It is not something that has been done before and it kind of feels like when the first rear engine F1 car hit the track, or the first car with a wing, or the first ground effects car – the DeltaWing will be so new and unique and I am really honoured to be given this opportunity," Franchitti said in a statement.
"In recent times, we really haven't seen major advances like this – great leaps and changes. Technological steps have been quite small and now it is very exciting to be a part of something this huge.
"Being somebody who loves the history of the sport, I am really looking forward to experiencing something that my heroes experienced.
The DeltaWing car is set to enter the Windshear wind tunnel early this month with the first test laps scheduled to take place soon after.