A Driver's POV with Louis Delétraz and Jordan Taylor

How does racing influence design, and what excites the racers when it comes to design (engineering)? Sure, any PR rep from any OEM will testify until the cows come home that the racing budgets are moneys well spent. But what about those in the field, or more accurately, those on the track. At the 2024 AGPLB, we ponder, how do they see this? Louis Delétraz and Jordan Taylor of WTRAndretti Autosport (piloting the #40 Acura ARX-06 in the IMSA GT Prototype series) shed some light on the subject.

Interview and images by John Grafman

Louis Delétraz: I think in general, from race cars, a lot of stuff that we do ends up on road cars. It’s very interesting for us, especially when the new GTP cars arrived. And, with the new era of race cars developing those technologies, [we’ll] be able to, hopefully, see it in a few years on the road. Because obviously, these have batteries, electricity, and it’s a hybrid car, so all the software I’m sure will be very useful in the future.

Jordan Taylor: Yeah, I think there’s obviously a lot on the performance side that can be transferred from the track to the street, you know tech transfer. But I think the bigger thing is the safety aspect, where in racing you’re in such extreme conditions and racing extremely fast and having these massive accidents. You can really pick apart a lot of stuff that’s going wrong and what’s going right in the accidents and can improve safety. I think a lot of that safety, not just on the race car, but the racetracks with walls and safer barriers can be transferred over to the streets and keep people safe, you know, in the public.

ADO: Of course, the Acura ARX-06 does the job for Taylor and Delétraz on the track. But the natural question we pose is, “what car excites you in terms of production cars”?

Jordan Taylor: I’m more of an old school guy. I like the old cars, like a 90s NSX. I think those are pretty rare these days. I like the old 60s Corvettes, I like the old American muscle [cars]. I’ve always been more of an old school guy. Yeah, the new stuff is obviously nice, but there’s so much technology on [modern cars] these days.

Louis Delétraz: Actually, yesterday in the airport, we picked up an Acura TLX, and it was very cool to drive, very comfortable. That’s something I could definitely use every day. I’m also a big fan of sports cars, so any supercars that have some history on the road. I see the McLaren F1, which is obviously has raced in Le Mans. There’s something that I could dream of one day… maybe!

When it comes to the interplay of racing and design (styling) and production cars, hear what Dave Marek, Bill Yex, and Wayne Taylor have to say about this at the Driven Design program on the same day.

Editor’s note: Perhaps it’s time to start a GoFundMe page to help get Louis that F1 that he’s been dreaming of. Why not?

The following exclusive slideshow produced by John Grafman and The Image Rocks for AutoDesignO summarizes the 2023 AGPLB. Just like today, there’s excitement around every corner.