The Complete A-X Of Hypercar & GTP: Action Express To XTrac

Action Express

See Cadillac

Acura

Started in IMSA GTP with two Oreca-chassis LMDh-rules cars in 2023 – one apiece from continuing supported Acura Customer/factory teams Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing.

Wayne Taylor Racing partnered with Andretti Autosports before start of 2023 season.

This team has made clear its intention to double up to two cars in 2024 IMSA.

The team is also evaluating full-season FIA WEC under the Honda brand as part of its aspiration to take the cars to Le Mans 24 Hours (see Honda).

Customer cars though are some way off yet.

The car scored the first GTP win at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

AF Corse

See Ferrari

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato has made it clear that the historic Italian brand, now part of the Stellantis group is considering a return to sportscar racing alongside an evaluation of how the brand might manage to continue in F1 after its partnership with Sauber is concluded at the end of 2023.

There are no other details available at present but the Stellantis group does have, via the Peugeot 9X8 programme, an LMH platform available that might have potential to kick-start an Alfa effort.

The plans for Glickenhaus to initially utilise a modified turbo V6 from Alfa Romeo deserve consideration here too. That plan had to be revised when the regulations were amended to accommodate the later cancelled Aston Martin Valkyrie.

The company plans to announce its future motorsport plans in the early summer.

Alpine

Renault’s sporting brand is set to be the first manufacturer to field two entirely different cars in HyperCar, both with the assistance of Philippe Sinault’s Signatech operation, after its two-season stopgap ex-LMP1 Rebellion, ‘grandfathered’ down in performance and re-badged as an Alpine A480.

The A480 scored a pair of overall wins in Hypercar in 2022 and took the championship chase down to the wire at the final round.

2024 sees the FIA WEC debut of its Oreca-based LMDh machine with a pair of cars set for World Championship competition. That car is set to test from July and could well be seen on display at Le Mans the previous month. DSC sources suggest that the first car is near complete.

Alpine has made clear its intention to market customer cars – the immediate opportunity in IMSA though seems to have disappeared with the Andretti organisation’s acquisition of Wayne Taylor Racing.

Andretti Autosports

See Alpine and Acura

Aston Martin

The VERY early adopter of the original Hypercar regulations with the Valkyrie then pulled out having forced the rules into a direction which supported its ‘road car’-based platform and left something of a mess for both Toyota and Glickenhaus. The GR010 platform was modified as a result of the revisions necessary to accommodate the Valkyrie and the 007 needed a replacement engine from its originally planned Alfa Romeo unit.

Aston Martin’s new owners did little to impress the rulemakers after referencing the potential Le Mans lap times of the AMR Pro version of the Valkyrie in all of the launch publicity. This came shortly after its racing pull-out, and a series of public statements from Lawrence Stroll sometime later that very directly indicated that Le Mans was still on the cards for the brand seem to have been based again of grabbing attention and column inches rather than in the real world of programme commitment.

The initial plan saw cars filled by a factory team with a then likely privateer car to be fielded by the now stalled R Motorsport outfit from Switzerland.

Audi

Early adopters of the LMDh regulations with an Audi rework of the Multimatic-Porsche that became the 963.

The programme progressed sufficiently to have a chassis delivered (above) and Nico Muller and Rene Rast announced as drivers, with WRT all but confirmed as the factory WEC team.

The initial plan was for parallel WEC and IMSA programmes, the IMSA aspect later reeled back before the brand’s new management determined that they would prefer to progress an engine programme for Formula One. The effort was first postponed then later cancelled.

Bentley

DSC is aware of at least three attempts to bring the British luxury brand into the hypercar market, all based around the LMDh ruleset and with at least one (and most likely two) of the projects focussing on a car based around the Multimatic ‘spine.

The first, entirely private, project fell foul of timing and supply chain woes, two further pushes more directly included the factory – neither progressed beyond the evaluation stages.

BMW

BMW’s M Hybrid V8 LMDh car with a Dallara-supplied ‘spine is competing in IMSA in 2023 with a pair of cars contesting the full IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship fielded by BMW Team RLL.

The Turbo V8 powered cars struggled at Daytona but were much closer to the pace at Sebring where the late race carnage gave the team a second place finish.

Team WRT will field a pair of factory cars in the FIA WEC in 2024 and DSC is aware of the potential for a third car in the world championship as early as next season too!

Bosch

Bosch supplies the Motor Generator Unit (MGU) for the single-source hybrid drive for LMDh cars.

Bugatti

There were vague rumours that Bugatti’s track-only Bolide might morph into an LMH Hypercar but absolutely nothing of real substance emerged from those reports.

ByKolles

See Vanwall

Cadillac

Cadillac’s Dallara-based V-Series LMDh was redubbed the V-Series.R after Daytona, IMSA keen to have their cars described as GTPs and WEC equally keen to maintain the Hypercar moniker.

Three cars are fielded this season – two full-season cars in IMSA, and a single car in WEC. In the USA, there is one car apiece for Cadillac Racing (Ganassi racing) and Action Express. In the WEC there a second Ganassi-run car running under the factory banner in the world championship.

There was a podium finish at Daytona for the #01 and a last-gasp win at the 12 Hours of Sebring for the Action Express car.

All three cars contested the Rolex 24 Hours and will do so again at Le Mans. If DSC’s sources are correct we could see all three at two more races this season too, with a likely pair for an additional race!

We’re unlikely though to see customer Cadillacs before 2025.

Dallara

The Italian motorsport engineering giant supplies the chassis ‘spines’ for the LMDh cars for both BMW and Cadillac and also built the chassis for the Ferrari 499P

De Tomaso

Sources close to the revived De Tomaso marque suggested last year that a racing hypercar derivative of its forthcoming P72 road car might be under consideration.

Interestingly, whilst other sources within the organisation denied the project was under consideration, focusing instead on an extreme track-only car, the positive response the stories received have, at the very least, persuaded the outfit to take a look at the scale of project that would be required to go racing.

The V12-powered car though is still listed here as ‘unlikely’.

Dodge

Another Stellantis brand and another to have been linked to a potential campaign with a car based on the platform of the Peugeot 9X8 for an IMSA programme.

That said, the early noises that suggested this as a real possibility have gone very quiet in recent months with absolutely no confirmation whatsoever of any sort of live programme.

Entop

‘Who?’ You may ask…

This Afghan design studio has produced the seemingly roadgoing Mada 9 ‘Black Swan’ supercar, promoted via a bewildering range of YouTube videos.

With imagery somewhat reminiscent of the Taliban regime there is something ‘strange’ about the whole affair, not least the fact that the car is apparently powered by a tuned Toyota Corolla engine.

At least two of Entop’s films feature the car with prominent ‘Le Mans 24’ branding on the side of the car, and one mentions an intention to work with Multimatic to prepare the car to race at La Sarthe.

DSC has established that neither the ACO nor Multimatic have had contact with or from the enterprise.

Fangio

The car dreamed up by ex Team Veloqx owner Sam Li was never seen in racing specification and has not been heard of since a soft ‘launch’ of the brand at Yas Marina Circuit in early 2022.

There the team behind the idea to field a road-car-based LMH ran what appeared to be a Ferrari-based front-engined supercar in front of an invited audience.

The car comprehensively destroyed its brakes and little or nothing was heard thereafter from an outfit that had, at one point, seemed set to employ ex Audi Sport engine guru Ulrich Baretsky

Ferrari

Ferrari’s 499P is the first top-class sports prototype to be fielded by the factory since 1973. An in-house design with input from Dallara.

It brings with it new global interest in the WEC from Ferrari’s loyal fans and it brings real opposition to Toyota’s dominance. That much was proven with a shock pole position for Antonio Fuoco on the car’s debut in Sebring and a run to the podium

The LMH design car has real speed and, with multi GTE title-winning squad AF Corse running the factory effort, the somewhat error-strewn debut race at Sebring is likely to be a competitive low-point.

Customer cars are under consideration but seem unlikely until 2025.

Ford

Another industry giant to have had at least two sniffs around the ruleset tree.

Ford looked at Hypercar and GTP while the plans for convergence were in their early stages, before deciding instead to focus on a GT3 platform with the forthcoming Mustang.

A more recent evaluation was shelved as the brand decided instead to fund an F1 engine programme.

Ganassi Racing

See Cadillac.

Geely

See Lotus.

Gibson

Gibson Technology’s sonorous 4.5 litre GL458 normally aspirated V8 powered the now-parked Alpine A480 and continues in the ‘Vanwall’ Vandervell 680 as a much-upgraded version of the very familiar GK428 4.2 litre engine which is the spec unit for LMP2 worldwide.

Ginetta

There was a fleeting possibility that the British outfit might register its G60 LMP1 car as a grandfathered 2021 Hypercar – the notion was not progressed.

Glickenhaus

Jim and Jesse Glickenhaus provided some early competition for Toyota (and Alpine) with their very pretty, retro-styled SCG 007 LMH Hypercar.

After being initially designed to be powered by an Alfa Romeo turbo V6 the changes to the early regulations after the addition of the Aston Martin Valkyrie saw them looking for a different engine. Ironically, the withdrawal of the Valkyrie and the later convergence process would likely have seen the Alfa unit as fit for purpose, but by then the outfit had committed to a new-build twin-turbo V8 from rally and race specialists Pipo Moteurs.

The SCG 007 has raced for two partial seasons, thus far in conjunction with Joest Racing and now enters a third campaign. The effort’s highlights to this point have been scoring pole position twice in the WEC and finishing on the podium four times, including at Le Mans in 2022 where the team’s two cars have a 100% finishing record across 2021 and 2022.

The second car, raced as #709 twice at Le Mans and in selected WEC races, is owned by Glickenhaus customer and dealer HK Motorcars.

The 2023 season opener at Sebring as a low point for the programme, the #708 car off the pace having not tested in the off-season. The longer term future for the programme depends, it seems, on a turnaround in form and fortune with Jim Glickenhaus again making it clear that the next steps forward need support from sponsors.

Green GT

Named as the powertrain supplier for the proposed, but currently delayed, Hydrogen fuel cell top-class ruleset, Green GT has been involved in hydrogen tech for several years with their prior and current projects including both a delayed Garage 56 car and involvement with the ongoing H24 technology demonstrator.

Honda

(See Acura) If the Acura ARX 06 was to race at Le Mans it would need a full-season FIA WEC entry.  And that would need to be under the Honda brand (Acura is a North America-only brand).

DSC is aware that more than one WEC team investigated the potential for a Honda programme for 2023 without success. As noted in Acura above, customer cars are not set to feature for some time yet.

There is though every possibility that Andretti Autosports might consider an early additional programme in the World Championship to secure a place at Le Mans. That programme though would require approval from Honda in Japan

HPD

Honda Performance Development in the USA is behind the design and build of the high-revving 2.4 litre twin-turbo V6 that powers the Acura ARX06, the engine initially designed to do double-duty in GTP and Indycar before a volte-face by the singe-seater series.

HWA

The German engineering outfit (and former DTM stalwart) was commissioned by Isotta Fraschini to produce the internal combustion engine for its forthcoming Tipo 6 Hypercar.

The 3-litre turbo V6 is understood to be based on a VAG production unit but heavily reworked for its new racing life.

Hyundai

The Korean giant is known to have evaluated developing cars for both LMDh and the currently paused Hydrogen Fuel Cell regulations, the latter looked, for some time, to be the most likely entry point for an entry into the sports prototype marketplace.

That prospect though has faded dramatically in the past 12 months or so with no immediate prospects of an entry into the fray.

Isotta Fraschini

The next new car to enter Hypercar looks set to be the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH with the group behind the project hoping to see the car entering an FIA WEC race or two later in 2023.

The project has quite a back story, initially conceived as part of a start-up for a bespoke EV manufacturer with a famous old brand name.

Then COVID happened and the initial plan stalled.  Happily now though the plan is very much alive again with an all-Italian leadership group headed by ex-Ferrari, Maserati and Lotus motorsport boss Claudio Berro.

The car is being designed and built by Michelotto at its headquarters, to LMH regulations with an HWA-designed and built internal combustion engine and a bespoke hybrid drive system driving through the front axle.

British team Vector Sport will race help test develop and race the first car in the FIA WEC, having won the opportunity to do so against stiff opposition from JAS Motorsport, Joest Racing and Emil Frey Racing.

Jaguar

Parent company Tata was involved in the initial industry round of technical meetings to develop the Hypercar ruleset with Jaguar the most obvious brand in their portfolio to step in.

That interest though was fleeting.  No programme is live across the group.

JDC Miller

See Porsche

Joest Racing

See Glickenhaus and Isotta Fraschini

JOTA

See Porsche

Koenigsegg

Christian von Koenigsegg spoke in the early days of the HyperCar regulations about the potential for his Swedish supercar company to take a look at the prospects for racing.

That has not progressed to a firm programme, but DSC did see an early road-car based LMH concept drawing from within the company.

Lamborghini

Currently the last of the major brands involved to commit to the Hypercar and GTP formulae.

The VAG-owned Italian supercar maker is set to join the fray in 2024 after a test programme from Summer 2023 with a single factory-entered LMDh car featuring a Ligier chassis. This is set to be powered by a Lamborghini-developed twin-turbo V8 and entered for a full season in the FIA WEC Hypercar class and into the GTP class for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Michelin Endurance Cup with Iron Lynx.

Lamborghini intends to double up at Le Mans in 2024 and again at the Rolex 24 in 2025 with two factory cars ahead of the release of cars for customers soon afterwards.

Lexus

Lexus has evaluated an LMDh project more than once for IMSA but has repeatedly opted to stay with the GTD (and GTD Pro) platform with the incoming new car to replace the current RC F GT3.

DSC understands too that Toyota in North America also at least considered a programme featuring a single GR010 LMH car, but this too was not progressed.

Ligier

Involved with the Peugeot 9X8 programme as a carbon fibre component supplier, the French chassis maker gained its first LMDh customer with Lamborghini, supplying the ‘spine’ for its 2024 contender.

Lola

The revived Lola marque has expressed interest in a role in the top class, though how and when that might happen is not yet clear.

It is unlikely to see a bespoke Lola chassis involved but rather the company might seek a route into the market where it can work with multiple OEMs through its developments in advanced tech and design capabilities.

Lotus

Indications were that Lotus might be collaborating with Alpine on a Hypercar programme, that proved to be a false rumour but the brand was in the mix when parent company Geely sat around the table for early industry meetings to determine the shape and direction of the Hypercar regulations.  That interest is now defunct.

Maserati

Yet another Stellantis brand that is believed to have evaluated Hypercar. However, the Italian supercar maker decided to focus on a mix of Formula E and an incoming GT2-spec MC20 instead.

McLaren

The mystery package of the Hypercar market.

Firstly, what is known?

The brand has progressed an evaluation of an LMDh car to the concept stage, understood to be in conjunction with Oreca. However, there is no confirmation that Oreca would be the chassis partner should a programme emerge.

A variety of potential engine partners have been involved in discussions with Ford, BMW, Honda and Porsche all having racing heritage with the brand. Only Ford has specifically counted itself out of an engine supply arrangement.

The last public statement from McLaren CEO Zak Brown was that the earliest possible launch date for the programme was 2025.  Silence since then, coupled with current problems for the brand’s F1 team, likely means that a programme from Mclaren is further delayed.

Whilst multiple teams have expressed their interest in running a programme for Mclaren to DSC, there’s little surprise that the frontrunner is United Autosports with its prototype racing track record, UK location and with Zak Brown as a co-owner.

Mecachrome

The French specialist engineering concern is believed to be involved with the design and development of the engine for the 2024 Alpine LMDh car. The engine has been in bench and dyno-testing for some time but Alpine has, as yet, released no details.

Mercedes-AMG

Despite numerous rumours of a racing version of Mercedes-AMG’s extraordinary, but troubled AMG One supercar, there is no sign of any racing programme from the brand aside from the well-established range of GT race cars based on the AMG GT (GT2, GT3 and GT4).

Meyer Shank Racing

See Acura

Michelin

Tyre supplier for both the IMSA GTP class and FIA WEC’s Hypercar class.

In WEC the teams have two dry weather choices: Soft Hot for average-wearing or ‘rubbered’ track surfaces, temperatures in excess of 15°C and Medium for abrasive track surfaces, demanding track configurations, temperatures in excess of 30°C.

IMSA allows only the Soft Hot. Both championships have a single wet weather tyre, with no intermediate option.

Michelotto

Previously involved in the Ferrari GT build programme, now the primary technical partner for the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH. The cars are being built at a dedicated facility within Michelotto

Multimatic

The Canadian industry giant provides the ‘spine’ for the Porsche 963 (plus the now-defunct Audi) and has already delivered well over 20 such chassis for future customer orders, factory cars and spares.

At least one of the now-dead Bentley projects would also have involved the Multimatic chassis.

Multimatic was also heavily involved in the now-defunct Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH programme and builds the AMR Pro versions of the car, effectively, at least in part, a non-BoPped version of the Hypercar project

Nissan

Whilst no interest in Hypercar has been announced or confirmed by Nissan, DSC is aware that senior management was in contact with a number of teams and industry bodies up to and including last year to investigate the marketplace.

Whilst it seems that no programme is currently live, the timing and content of the contacts is intriguing.  Might the brand be persuaded to return to the top class they left after their disastrous 2015 LMP1 adventure?

Oreca

The French motorsport industry giant undertook both LMDh and LMH concept commissions and is currently building LMDh ‘spines’ for both Acura and Alpine.

They are known too to have undertaken concept work for McLaren.

Pescarolo

See Peugeot

Peugeot

The return to the top class with the radical ‘no rear wing’ 9X8 saw Peugeot’s first entry into the FIA WEC after their last-minute withdrawal prior to the start of the championship in 2012.

The car was greeted with huge enthusiasm, for its unique style, but has struggled for reliability in its part-season in 2022 (the team ran the three races post-Le Mans) and at Sebring this year. The team has two full-season entries in the WEC.

A fix is en route for the next round to a continuing electronic gearbox actuator issue (a hydraulic system will replace it). But the clock is ticking for the effort to make the required strides forward against convincing-looking opposition.

There is interest in a privately entered 9X8 from the new (and entirely unconnected with Henri) Pescarolo effort.

Despite significant media attention on the effort, there is a near vertical climb ahead of them to find the funding required with the team behind the project hoping to net a major sponsor – known to DSC. That deal looks unlikely to come to fruition, and certainly not to the extent that the Pescarolo squad are hoping.

For now, file this one as ‘possible’ rather than ‘probable’.

Pipo Moteurs

The French engine specialists, multiple World Championship winners in WRC and World Rallycross provides the 3.5-litre twin-turbo V8 that powers the Glickenhaus 007 LMH, the engine based on the architecture used in their successful four-cylinder turbo motors.

Podium Engineering

The Italian concern is a long-term engineering partner to Glickenhaus and co-ordinated the design, and undertook the build of the SCG 007 Hypercars.

Porsche

Porsche’s 963 was an early adopter of the LMDh regulations based around the Multimatic chassis and a 4.5 litre Porsche turbo V8 based around the highly successful non-turbo engine from the Porsche RS Spyder.

Porsche has ordered c.30 or more Multimatic chassis with the majority already delivered for current or future test, race and/or spare chassis requirements (show cars do not require a full chassis).

Currently, there are full factory efforts fielded by Penske Motorsport under the Porsche Penske Motorsport banner in both IMSA and WEC, with two cars in each championship. In the WEC this will expand to a three-car effort at Le Mans this year (the two WEC cars plus one from IMSA).

Both factory programmes have already got underway with privateer cars to follow.

First up after the promised late April deliveries for the first batch of cars will be Hertz Team Jota with a single car set to join the FIA WEC from round three at Spa.  The team is also looking to double up in 2024 and for one of those cars to take in the Rolex 24 and other North American races.

Proton Competition meanwhile is set to add a car apiece in both the WEC and IMSA and has opted to delay its programmes until after Le Mans. The debut for the German team is targeted for Monza in the WEC and Road America for IMSA. Proton, like JOTA, has outlined plans to double up, potentially with both programmes, for 2024.

The final IMSA customer in 2023 is JDC Miller which is targeting Laguna Seca in May for its competitive debut.

In 2024 Porsche has confirmed that it is set to release a further four customer cars, with new customers set to emerge and Jota and Proton exploring expansions of their efforts (see above).

Proton

See Porsche

R Motorsport

See Aston Martin

Rahal Letterman Hannigan (BMW Team RLL)

See BMW

Red Bull Advanced Technologies

Involved in the design of the Aston Martin Valkyrie and also with the proposed chassis (in conjunction with Oreca) for the currently stalled top-class Hydrogen Fuel Cell regulations.  Repeated rumours of the organisation’s interest in Hypercar have thus far come to nothing.

Sauber

Has been involved with aero consultancy and wind tunnel proving work with multiple programmes including Glickenhaus, Isotta Fraschini and Vanwall.

Signatech

See Alpine

Tata

See Jaguar

Team Penske

See Porsche

Toyota

2023 sees the third FIA WEC season for the now third iteration of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 Hybrid Hypercar.

It arrived in Sebring with a second World Championship title and a second Le Mans win on its racing CV. For this season it has been updated, giving better handling and cooling. Coupled with a well-drilled and experienced team in the garages and on the pit wall, Toyota is going to be very tough to beat for some time yet!

Toyota is certainly relishing the competition but is continuing with what is essentially a very conservative programme, but supported by a world-class factory facility in Cologne.

There has been some interest in evaluating a potential IMSA programme with a single GR010 but that prospect disappeared some time ago. Toyota has expressed privately too, some interest in adding a race run at Daytona, again though with no certainty of a programme emerging. DSC understands that Toyota hasn’t fully explored the costs and work involved in converting its GR010 for IMSA GTP competition.

As for the future, the effort seems to have real staying power, though Toyota has shown real interest too in hydrogen technology, initially at least in the fuel cell regulations, though more recently a switch of focus to hydrogen combustion tech seems to be in play. Whether that happens at all, happens in parallel to, or could become an eventual replacement for its current hybrid tech is very firmly in the ‘wait and see’ bracket…

Tyrrell

The famous British F1 team’s brand was an early target for the ByKolles organisation. For reasons unknown, it switched its focus to the even earlier Vanwall brand.

Vanwall

After a number of efforts over the past decade in LMP2 and later LMP1 under a variety of monikers with very limited success, Colin Kolles’ ByKolles team, via an associated company PMC GmbH, registered the Vanwall trademark in Germany ahead of a Hypercar programme aimed at the WEC in 2022.

Whilst the car was built, despite still ongoing legal woes regarding the use of the trademark (see DSC’s archive for past stories) the team’s entry was not accepted for 2022, but was listed for the current season.

The non-hybrid Gibson-engined car debuted at Sebring and was reliable but off the pace in the race until hit from the rear by a Peugeot, the damage subsequently leading to suspension failure.

The team plans to change its driver line-up post-Le Mans and did not enter a promised second car for Le Mans in 2023.

Vector Sport

See Isotta Fraschini

Vision 1789

Something of a wild card, the Vision 1789 supercar from Vision Automobiles Paris was designed to be powered by bio-methane with some reports suggesting that the car might be the basis for a future ‘Garage 56’ innovative car Hypercar project.

The project had a powertrain designed by Gerard Welter of Peugeot, WM and WR renown with initial involvement in the project from racers Matthieu Vaxivière, Ines Taittinger and Paul-Loup Chatin.

The project has been quiet for some time now though…

Wayne Taylor Racing 

See Acura

Williams

Williams Advanced Engineering is a partner in the ‘single-source’ Hybrid drive for the LMDh cars and also provides technical support for the Isotta Fraschini LMH project, helping to develop and prove the aero modelling.

WRT

See BMW

Xtrac

The British powertrain specialist provides, amongst other things, key components for the ‘single-source’ LMDh hybrid drive systems.

The post The Complete A-X Of Hypercar & GTP: Action Express To XTrac first appeared on dailysportscar.com.