Cadillac Racing Intrigued By IMSA LMDh Regulations
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General Motors’ newly appointed sports car racing program manager, Laura Wontrop Klauser, says the automaker’s Cadillac and Chevy brands are intrigued by the Le Mans Daytona Hybrid (LMDh) class that is set to be adopted by IMSA and the Automobile Club d’Louest starting in 2022.
Speaking to Autosport, Wontrop Klauser said the automaker has already taken an in-depth look at the LMDh ruleset and is now deciding whether or not it makes sense to enter its Cadillac or Chevy brands in the new hybrid prototype category.
“LMDh has caught our attention,” she said. “We’ve taken a good look at the rules, and what we’re doing now is looking through where we want to place ourselves in sportscar racing in its entirety.”
Wontrop Klauser previously ran the Cadillac DPi-V.R program before being moved to an all-encompassing sports car racing role that has put her in charge of both Cadillac Racing and Corvette Racing. She now has the difficult decision of deciding whether to continue with the Cadillac brand in prototype racing, leave IMSA’s top-level category, or enter the Corvette brand in LMDh in the wake of the GTLM category’s downfall.
“It’s a package deal in our mind, where in the past it was a little bit separated – Corvette Racing was its own thing in GTLM, Cadillac was its own thing in Prototypes,” Wontrop Klauser said.
“Now it’s a different story, and LMDh has been very much part of the evaluation. Does it make sense to be there? What brand does it make sense to run?”
GM could also stick with its current strategy of continuing with Cadillac in prototypes and Corvette in GT cars. This would require developing a new LMDh-spec Cadillac and a new GT3-spec Corvette, however, which could be a costly endeavor with potentially limited returns.
“The good news is that IMSA’s GTD Pro is also going to allow a bit of factory backing going forward,” she explained. “So all of these things we’ve looked at to try and figure out where we want to be.”
The hybrid LMDh rules make sense for both the Chevy and Cadillac brands, which are both beginning to branch out more into electrification. All LMDh cars will be based on an existing LMP2 chassis and will feature a 630 horsepower internal combustion engine and a 50 kW spec electric motor supplied by Bosch. The combined system output of the hybrid prototypes would be around 670 horsepower.
Porsche, Audi and Acura have already committed to the future LMDh regulations, with other brands expected to sign on eventually as well. Whether or not one of those brands will be Chevy or Cadillac should be clear soon enough.
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The only real choice for Corvette is GT3 Pro. You take the real car you build and race it vs the global exotics. This to me is better than the GTLM where th3 cars were far from stock based.
As for the prototype class. That one is all Cadillac or a generic Chevy as it is not a Corvette and not should it be called one.
The prototype class is going to take a ton of money and would be fun to watch but will it really benefit GM as with the economy as it is I see more teams pulling out of these classes only leaving high dollar Porsche and a couple other factory efforts.
IMHO, Cadillac should be racing Audi, Acura, etc. But with Porsche also being in the top class makes me want to see Corvette taking it to them there also
So you just want a Corvette by name racing? We did that in the Daytona prototype series already and no one cared.
No, I don’t want that either. GM could put the Vette in the WEC Hypercar class. Its the top class along with LMDh.
As of now none of the Hyper cars are based on a production road going car.
If GM chose this for the Corvette there is no real tie to the real car other than a badge or name.
Many are questioning the lack of any real tie to a street car and expect that this could doom the series from the start. Even if al, they do is look production is key.
EDITORS— Your math conversion is wrong for converting KW to HP. 50 KW equals 67 HP. Combine the 630 HP of the gas engine with the 67 HP electric power equals 697 HP total, not the 670 HP total that your article mentions.
670 HP is the maximum limit set by LMDh rules. Besides, you can’t add them since the peak power of an electric motor and ICE aren’t at the same speed.
I think that the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class is the right way to go for Cadillac.
This is meant to replace the top LMP1 prototype class, but has in my view many characteristics of the LMP2 class, for which the Cadillac DPi-V.R had all specifications, except that GM did not want to use the one and only allowed engine, but use their own.
en.wikipedia dot org has an article on “LeMans Hypercar”.
I found quite instructive to me reading the articles on Peugeot’s development of their “Les mans Hypercar”, found on media/peugeot-sport dot com