Color me indifferent.
Lola, producers of LMP1 and LMP2 chassis for ACO-based sportscar racing, revealed their version of the new, lower cost 2011 P2 chassis today.
With a new class limit of €325,000 ($420,000), minus engine, or complete at €400,000 ($517,000), the B11/40 renderings reflect the need to greatly reduce manufacturing costs to stay within the 2011 cost cap. For the sake of comparison, a fully kitted 201 Lola P2 Coupe, minus engine, costs just over $975,000.
To meet a new sale price reduction of more than half, the popular Coupe version of Lola's P2 car -- as used by the Dyson Mazda team in the ALMS, for example -- has been abandoned, giving the B11/40 a similar look, at some angles, to the B07/40 that preceded the B08/80 Coupe. The tooling and production costs to manufacturer a Coupe version of a prototype, as most manufacturers confirm, is prohibitively expensive.
Designed to accept a wide variety of engine solutions, the British firm expects production-based motors from Nissan, HPD, Toyota, Jaguar, BMW and Ford to be available for installation.
Lola's familiar nose treatment, with tapered dive planes, a central nose duct and rounded cockpit rollover structures makes use of the lessons learned from their prototypes offered through 2009. More recent design aspects -- seen at the end of 2009 in P1 and this year in P2 -- have been carried over, especially with their sidepod sculpting that falls away in front of the rear wheels, and the tidied rear substructure.
Continued use of the P2-spec narrow rear wing span can also be seen, along with the new-for-2011 stabilization fin on the engine cover. Intended to reduce the likelihood of a blow over at extreme yaw angles, the prominent fin also offers an impressive amount of new signage space for sponsor logos.
More details on the B11/40 are due out shortly.
