Thank you for your reply. It's a shame that the Valkyrie program has been canceled, the car is very nice and with a V12 at 11000 rpm it sure would have been wonderful. I also remember that they talked about 4 Valkyries , 2 factory and 2 R-Motorsport
From a spectator point of view, and someone who attended its first Le Mans in 1963, I think that's where endurance went wrong. The rules slowly allowed the cars to be purpose-built, and become completely alien to what is to be found on the road. That may suit the engineers, but I am not convinced it improves the show on the track. One of the best era for me was when the top category were called GT-Prototypes, in the 60s. Even if some never became marketed GT road cars, they had to abide to a set of rules that could have made suitable for road use in an instant. For instance, they were genuine 2-seater, with minimum cockpit width, minimum windscreen size, minimum seating height. They had to have a minimum luggage space, to replicate the GT needs, they had to carry a spare wheel in those days, etc ... Those cars could be driven on the road, and many were from their garage to the track at Le Mans. I am talking about the Ferrari P series, the Ford GT40, MKII, the Lola GT70, the Ferrari 250LM, the Porsche 904, 906, 908, 910, etc ... Over the years, the rules have gone too far, by allowing cars to be developed beyond recognition of road use. Most LMP are almost single seater, and couldn't take a passenger. Look at the size of the doors? Completely unpractical! And look how far the aero have been allowed to go! Too far. For many years, I have found that my interest in endurance is watching GT racing rather that LMP, and I think Hypercars won't change that.
There aren't many of them. Toyota (Lexus) has already been mentioned, rest Nissan (Infinity), Mazda, and Honda (Acura).
Here I found the Subaru and Le Mans connection, they had made an engine for private LMP1s, but no car used its engine. I knew that something had read from Subaru although it was something different. https://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/subaru-engine-for-le-mans-revealed/
A McLaren F1 from a Japanese team won Le Mans in 1995 and an Audi R8 LMP1 also from a Japanese team won in 2004.
This is the Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH. The car will be in Vallelunga on Thursday. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158808527017348
I wish Glickenhaus all the best and would love to see them fighting at the front, but I think it's almost impossible that they will be competitive. Imagine the thousands and thousands of hours of aero data that Toyota got from their wind tunnel testing, the inumerous engine prototypes that they designed, simulated, tested, etc. And now you have an army of F1 engineers from Ferrari doing the same... I think Glickenhaus is now officialy the guy with the most expensive hobby in the world.
But LMH is a BOP category, it's not like LMP1 was. Then the BOP could compensate the Toyota's wind tunnel hours therefore will depend of the BOP that the ACO assigns to each car.
Well, do you remember the Ford GT at the Le Mans 2016? BOP didn't work out. It seems that they simply sandbagged during testing and when it came the race they were invencible. Still, BOP can try to equalize the cars for a single lap, but in a 24-hour race the teams with the biggest budgets and technical knowlodge will win.
Strangely, unlike Toyota and Peugeot, Glickenhaus hasn't intended his 007 LMH to be an hybrid, I read. That could prove to be an handicap at Le Mans,even more if Porsche and Audi join later with hybrid cars. Toyota has well mastered the technique of temporary FWD on accelaration that gave him the last 3 wins. As for Porsche and Audi, they have tons of experience with hybrid. Also, Glickenhaus has chosen to have its V8 engine built by an unknown builder. Pipo Moteurs is a French engine specialist with rallying experience, but no endurance background.
Even though the ACO will try to do the best with BOP it will be very difficult. The main issues are: 1.) How to BOP brake regen for a 4 wheel hybrid against a car with only rwd. 2.) How to BOP the distinct advantage a 4wd Hybrid will have on acceleration. All the work I did when doing "my" LMP Hypercar Hybrid showed a really big advantage to a 4wd using a nice 300kw traction motor up front. The difference in low end acceleration to a rwd only car was pretty amazing. Coming out of a corner the hybrid was always in a better spot. 3.) And if it rains at all the 4wd hybrids will walk away from everyone else. And pleaes enote that the LMd-h cars will not be 4 wheel drive, the hybrid unit will boost power to the rear axle only. And the amount of boost (hp) is pretty small. Not sure if teh number has been worked out but I hear 45 kw. Which begs the question: Why even bother with a hybrid like this. But I think that Jim is looking at this way: (He can of course-correct me.) He is trying to create a heritage for his cars. And what better way than compete (and maybe win) at LeMans. If I could afford his cars I would be buying one, as he is an American that is doing real road cars and race cars for LeMans. There was another guy whoi did the same thing 50-60 years ago. His name was Enzo Ferrari. Jim is just following a proven recipe and I hope he does well with it all. Doing sports cars, racing at LeMans is really hard and not for the timid.
I guess the BoP will be based on lap times. Yes, it will be difficult and some will call it unfair. BoP is always a compromise, not an exact science.