FanPost

Thursday Morning Warmup: P1

Chris Trotman

This weekend is one of the few, but important, times that sports car racing gets the spotlight. IMSA is doing a double-bill with the World Endurance Championship at Circuit of the Americas, and that means this country plays host to what is, arguably, the most important class of auto racing currently running: LMP1.

LMP stands for "Le Mans Prototype", and as you can imagine, the cars are the premier (hence the 1) class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans annually. There are two breeds, the privateer-run P1-L (light) and the factory backed P1-H for hybrids. It's that hybrid category that has become the most fascinating division on the planet. There are currently three manufacturers running in the class - Audi, with the here-to-fore dominant R18 e-Tron Quattro, Toyota with the monstrous TS040, and Porsche with the new and geektacular 919. Next year, Nissan is joining the fray, with major announcements to be made later today, and there's a rumor about Ferrari that just refuses to die.

What's cool about these machines is that each one is very different. The Audi has a turbodiesel V6 with it's flywheel based hybrid system almost an afterthought, Toyota's got a monster V8 with an equally monstrous high-capacity electric supplement, and Porsche has an amazingly tiny turbo-4 with a similarly lightweight flywheel system to compliment it's svelte and tiny car. Three different companies, three very different machines, and so far this season, not a hell of a lot between them.

Let me get back to that tiny thing, too - the closed cockpits on these cars make them look pretty impressive without context, it's not until you get up close that you see how cramped they are. No one would confuse a 911 for a land yacht, but when Porsche put their GTE car next to the 919 for a press photo this year, it looked positively gargantuan next to the P car.

The WEC race airs on Fox Sports 2 starting at 6PM on Saturday, which means none of us will be able to watch it. But follow it online and look out for highlights later on. Especially since that GTE class is nothing to sneeze at either...

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