Regular bloggers will recall that we promised to make an effort as far as LMP2 is concerned. I now begin to think it may be a silly idea... read on !
Some things are relatively straight foward.
For a start LM P2 cars have basically fairly similar characteristics to the bigger, quicker LM P1 cars like carbon-fiber monocoque type of chassis but they have to meet some very strict cost controls.
The cost of the chassis is capped at a mere €362,000 and the cost of the engine is also capped at €78,750.
The engines need to come from a major manufacturer so currently engines come from Nissan, Honda and Judd... Judd? Remember that Judd base their engines on a BMW block.
Finally, every driver lineup must include at least one driver of amateur or gentleman standing.
Now it starts getting a bit like a rather pricey computer game! Select one of several chassis, Oreca, Morgan, Honda,Lola, Lotus or Zytec and then select one of the three engine suppliers and you have a choice of around eighteen different chassis/engine combinations. The trouble still is they all still look the same!
That was the easy bit.. a cursory glance at the entry list will now tell you that we have evocative names like Lotus, Morgan and Alpine out there and if you look very carefully you will find the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan that appears in Caterham colours.
Now it gets interesting.. The LMP2 Lotus is actually built for Lotus by a German company called Kodewa. Lotus are currently owned by Proton who are, of course, Malaysian.
Morgan is a bit of a mystery since we can't really see what a manufacturer of classic English sportscars based in the beautiful Malvern Hills is doing sticking their badges on an OAK racing Nissan powered prototype. It is complex and expensive way to get passes to Le Mans!The link? As far as we can tell the only link seems to be that OAK team boss Jacques Nicolet is a great Morgan fan and owns one of the new three wheeler cars. We suspect, but without detailed research, that are very few Morgan factory sourced parts on the race cars! They do have a track record here at Le Mans having been here six times in the past with their own cars
The arrival of an Alpine badged car at Le Mans is not as surprising since they were here in one form or another throughout the mid sixties and seventies. This time the badge appears on the #36 'Alpine' Oreca 03 Nissan. They are here for a rather more commercial reason and that is their relationship with Caterham with whom they are planning on building a' joint venture' road car.
The Caterham deal with #41 car is a bit harder to fathom since it was struck only a week or so before Le Mans. It equally taxing to try and remember who owns what in the wonderful world of Caterham, F1etc. However we did notice on the way to Le Mans that the Caterham factory is boarded up !
So that is all clear now?!
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