Ginetta is set to join the LMP1 club

While the departure of Audi from the LMP1 class in the FIA World Endurance Championship left the question of how will the ACO attract another manufacturer to the top flight hybrid class, a new force for the privateer LMP1 class is set to be coming in 2018 with Ginetta announcing their plans for a new machine.

Even though the last foray into the LMP1 market for Ginetta dates back from 2009, they recently became strongly active in the lower prototype ranks, being the first manufacturer to deliver a LMP3 machine, with some of them racing in the Asian Le Mans Series now, and then stepping up in the game with the powerful G57-P2 model, participating of various races and championships around the world outside the ACO rules, like the VdeV Endurance Championship and the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, mostly due to their failed bid to fit in the LMP2 class as they weren’t selected as one of the few builders approved.

The upcoming Ginetta prototype will be essentially for customer racing, which may seem to be the correct approach for any class at the moment, and the manufacturer is quite serious in this project as Chairman Lawrence Tomlinson and Ginetta gave important details of the project. Adrian Reynard, of which the Reynard 02S became quite a legacy in design for various other modern prototypes like most of the Zytek lineup, was brought in to lead the aero development and Paolo Catone, responsible for the design of the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP LMP1 and of the BR Engineering BR01 LMP2, will add the new LMP1-L machine to his list.

About what’s under the bodywork, conversations with Mecachrome seem to be good to bring them as an engine supplier, and reliable drivetrain company XTrac may join in. According with comparisons with the current LMP2 crop, the new LMP1 is expected to be 870 kg heavy and with a power of around 800 hp.

The announcement of the new program already attracted attention of the current Ginetta customers, with ARC Bratislava, Ginetta’s main force in the Asian Le Mans Series, leading the list of potential customers for the new LMP1 effort.

PHOTO: Ginetta Cars, 25 Hours of Thunderhill, ARC Bratislava