HPD's chief Erik Berkman readily admits Acura has not done any engine development since the Sebring season-opener.
"We want to develop the engine and the chassis to be better and better, but we're coasting right now," Berkman said. "We're racing, but we're not trying to make real progress. We built that car so we could develop it to be a giant-killer, but at the moment there's no incentive for us."

Meanwhile a veteran team owner and manager with close to forty years experience said at Lime Rock that if no new manufacturers front up with P1 cars for next year IMSA will create an equivalency formula to encourage Grand-Am Daytona prototypes to race in the ALMS.

So Acura is basically done with the project unless another major competitor (manufacturer) shows up, and the prototurtles will go ... head to head with GT2?

My guess is the would be an LMP class approximately equivalent to the current P2, and a DP class.

Not a bad idea.

Except it might embarrass Grand Am, when fans see so clearly the difference between DP cars and real racing prototypes.

If this all happened and I don't think it will, there would be - as mentioned in the text - an equivalency formula: Give the DPs carbon breaks, Michelins and a proper rear wing and they might be able to run with 2011 P2-cars, which would have a more sophisticated chassis but less horsepower.

During the January Daytona test Christophe Bouchut set a time that was only a few tenths off the track record for the current configuration, set by Dalmas in 1998 in a 333SP.

marshallbanana - 20 July 2009 09:05 AM

at the bottom of gordon kirby's latest column was an interesting remark from someone in the ALMS paddock (as a counterpoint to the stuff which originally came out of the Grand-Am paddock)...

http://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/columns/theway/2009/the_way_it_is_no193.html

Talk about opening a can of worms. That would be the ultimate desperation move!

LateToStart - 20 July 2009 10:21 AM

marshallbanana - 20 July 2009 09:05 AM

at the bottom of gordon kirby's latest column was an interesting remark from someone in the ALMS paddock (as a counterpoint to the stuff which originally came out of the Grand-Am paddock)...

http://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/columns/theway/2009/the_way_it_is_no193.html

Talk about opening a can of worms. That would be the ultimate desperation move!

Perhaps a new class...LMP-Chicane?

I don't hate a DP class running in the ALMS in order to save the series. As long as they leave the idle classes open for business, and the DP class is the only one not bound by LM rules, why not?

It would be annoying for Atherton to call Grand-Am stupid and evil (I'm pretty sure those were his exact words) and then add a DP class to the ALMS.