IMSA President John Doonan told MotorsportWeek.com that the new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Class, GTP, is “the ultimate expression of brand and performance, but in an environmentally responsible way.” .
In an interview with MotorsportWeek.com, Doonan said of the GTP: The ultimate expression of brand and performance, but in an environmentally responsible way. ”
The new 2023-class hybrid element for IMSA’s headline championship is the MGU-K unit, which recovers energy from the brakes that would otherwise be lost as heat and converts it to electrical energy, located in the rear. Powers the electric motor. axle.
This motor can generate 50kW of continuous power or 180kW of peak power, complementing the internal combustion engine in the car. That’s a relatively small amount of power given that total power output from both the engine and electric motor is limited to 671 horsepower.
Also, the hybrid part of the power unit of the GTP car is a spec unit. That is, it is supplied by an external supplier and cannot be developed by the manufacturer. This eliminates the possibility of MGU R&D and subsequent “trickle-down” of each brand into road-going vehicles.
IMSA’s renewable fuels, on the other hand, are cellulosic fuels derived from non-food sources and therefore have no impact on the food supply chain. This fuel is converted from vegetation unsuitable for human consumption into ethanol to power cars and release far fewer greenhouse gases to the environment.
Next year’s GTP vehicles from Acura, Cadillac, Porsche and BMW will be powered by this biofuel, which Doonan says will be greener than previous DPi vehicles.
Rolex 24 in Daytona in late January will be the first to see racing action in the GTP class, the traditional opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
