Enlarge / A Porsche 963, one of the four different kinds of hybrid prototype racing cars built to the LMDh rules, running in IMSA's GTP class at the 2023 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October. (credit: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

IMSA provided flights from Washington, DC, to Atlanta and four nights in a hotel so we could attend Petit Le Mans. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

The crowd streamed onto the track before the race, seizing their last chance to see the brightly liveried cars up close. Daytona had been busy in January, but the crowd at Road Atlanta seemed even larger. To be honest, though, the race the fans were here to see would not be one for the ages. A 52-car grid packed into just 2.8 miles of race track promised potential trouble, and the 10-hour race saw 14 interruptions by the safety car, never getting into a rhythm. But I’m not sure that mattered much; the main draw for many in attendance that Saturday was simply seeing this new era of hybrid prototypes in person, and on that score, everyone left with smiles.

We’ve spilled plenty of pixels over the past 18 months or so delving into some of the minutiae of this new class of racing car, variously known as LMDh or GTP . Briefly, these are purpose-built racing cars, which start with a carbon-fiber spine from one of four racecar constructors and then add an engine, bodywork, and software from one of the four OEMs that participate, and then the same Xtrac gearbox, Williams Advanced Engineering lithium-ion battery, and Bosch electric motor as a way to keep development costs reasonable.

The rules purposely limit the amount of aerodynamic downforce a car can generate relative to the amount of drag it creates, and they positively encourage each car maker to give these race cars styling that calls out to their road-going products.

Enlarge / When Aston Martin first announced the Valkyrie it planned to take it to Le Mans. That plan got put on hold for a while, but now it's happening for real. (credit: Aston Martin)

Aston Martin is set to return to the world's premier endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a prototype Valkyrie hypercar in 2025. The return to Le Mans also signals the marque joining the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Often talked about in hushed tones by people in the know, the idea of Aston Martin's halo hypercar entering the top flight of endurance motorsport has long been wished for, and the firm's announcement is sure to make race fans happy. The Gaydon, UK, company intends to enter at least one Valkyrie in both WEC and IMSA from 2025, giving itself a chance to take the top step at Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The basis for the competition car is set to be the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro , an even more hardcore version of the already rather raucous Valkyrie road car. The car with license plates boasts a Cosworth-developed 6.5-liter V12 packing 1,000 hp (745 kW), mated to a 160 hp (120 kW) electric motor, giving it an F1-style kinetic energy recovery system. Its hybrid setup makes it a ferocious thing.

Enlarge / Ferrari last won Le Mans overall in 1965 and hasn't competed at the top level since 1973. This year it returned and won with the hybrid 499P hypercar. (credit: Ferrari)

On Tuesday morning, a triumphant Ferrari celebrated its latest race win. Not this past weekend's F1 race in Montreal, though; 2023 is still looking rough for Scuderia Ferrari's open-wheel racing program. Instead, the glory was brought back to Maranello by its new endurance racing effort, which just won the 24 Hours of Le Mans after an absence of 50 years. It did it with an all-new car, against tough opposition, and the enormity of that result has taken a little time to sink in, according to Ferdinando Cannizzo, technical director of Ferrari Competitzione GT and technical director for the Ferrari 499P program.

"What I can tell you is that it is clear for us that the challenge that we accepted was very ambitious, that we finally achieved a very historical result," Cannizzo told Ars. "We are aware that the company achieved an historic results, and I think everything will mature in the days that will come; we can probably realize the value of what we have done all together."

Endurance racing is flat-out now

The nature of the Le Mans race has changed a lot since Ferrari last won overall in 1965. Then, as now, overall victory was usually up for grabs for one of the cars in the prototype class—cars designed just to go racing rather than the converted road cars that contest the GT class. And the race still takes place for 24 hours on a circuit that still includes some public roads. But in the 1960s, endurance racing was not a flat-out sport; cars were fragile, and making it to the end meant leaving plenty in reserve and being kind to the machinery.

Enlarge / Race winners, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Antonio Giovinazzi arrive down the pit lane toward parc ferme at the end of the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe on June 11, 2023, in Le Mans, France. (credit: James Moy Photography/Getty Images)

One hundred is something of an arbitrary number, an accident of how many fingers we happen to have. But in years, it represents a long time to keep doing something again and again: like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an annual race around an 8-mile circuit in France that exists not just as a way to entertain but also to improve the cars we drive on the road. Windshield wipers, disc brakes, fuel injection, and laserbeam headlights are just a few examples that were proved in the cauldron of the 24 Hours before appearing on cars like the one you might drive.

This weekend saw the centenary edition of the race take place. Anticipation had been building for months thanks to a new ruleset that has revitalized the top class of prototypes , now called Hypercars. After several years of Toyota facing little competition by meagerly funded privateer teams, 2023's entry list also included cars from other major manufacturers—Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, and Porsche.

Legends return

Each has raced at Le Mans before, the European makes with quite some success. Across 91 actual races—world wars prevented running some years—Porsche's entries notched 19 wins, more than anyone else. Audi has the next-best record, but it has opted to spend its racing budget on Formula 1 for the foreseeable future .

#24 NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet ZL1 driven by Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller is seen during practice for the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe June 7, 2023 in Le Mans, France." src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/GettyImages-1495838998-800x533.jpg" />

Enlarge / The NASCAR/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 leads a Ferrari 499P and assorted other racing cars at a test day at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. (credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

When Le Mans renovated its facilities in 2012, it built 55 pit garages for regular entrants in its annual 24-hour race and one more for entrants that want to demonstrate something new (there are actually a total of 62 entrants this year, but the special one is still called Garage 56).

These have included the pint-size Nissan Deltawing in 2012 and the closely related electric Nissan ZEOD RC in 2014. In 2016, quadruple amputee Frédéric Sausset did something neither of those two Nissans could manage, finishing the race in a specially modified prototype with the SRT 41 team, which repeated the feat with a pair of paraplegic drivers in 2021. And there have been attempts to run a hydrogen-powered racer from Garage 56 . But this year's entry is a bit different—and a little more familiar to Americans. It's a NASCAR stock car.

It was certainly an incongruous sight as the NASCAR stock cars took to the track this weekend with the normal prototypes and GT cars at a test held before next weekend's race at Le Mans. NASCAR stock cars are not exactly small, and they're known for going fast in a straight line, not for their cornering prowess. There was even talk of trackside marshals waving a white flag—for a slow car ahead—to warn other competitors if they were going to encounter the stock car in one of the track's more curvy sections.

Enlarge / The #6 Porsche Penske 963 and the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 run on Daytona's banking during the 2023 Roar Before the 24. With so many miles of testing completed, the Porsches are probably the favorites, but 24 hours is a long time in racing, and a lot can happen. (credit: Jake Galstad/LAT Images)

BMW provided flights from DC to San Francisco and back, plus five nights in a hotel, so we could attend Monterey Car Week. While I was there, I spoke with people from Acura and Lamborghini. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

This past weekend saw the successful conclusion of the International Motor Sports Association's "Roar Before the 24," the series' preseason test ahead of this coming weekend's Rolex 24, a 24-hour race held each January at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. This year, the preseason test was more important than most, as there's a new kind of race car, called the GTP, competing in the Rolex 24 in 2023.

The new hybrid prototype category has attracted more manufacturer interest than we've seen in many years, with brands like Acura and Porsche building new cars to compete and others, like Lamborghini, waiting in the wings to join next year. But the biggest question is whether these new race cars will be able to make it to the end of the race. As in the larger automotive industry, supply shortages mean that spare parts are scarce, so the consequences of a crash are calamitous.

But what makes GTP—originally called LMDh—so attractive to car makers? I asked David Salters, head of Honda Performance Development, which oversees the Japanese OEM's racing activities in North America.

Enlarge / After 50 years away, Ferrari is building a works endurance prototype again. (credit: Ferrari)

Ferrari provided flights from DC to Bologna and back, plus three nights in a hotel so we could meet the 499P and drive the 296 GTS. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

IMOLA, ITALY—After a break of 50 years, Ferrari is returning to top-level endurance racing with a new hybrid prototype race car. It's called the 499P, and in 2023 Ferrari will campaign a pair of cars in the World Endurance Championship, a series with the 24 Hours of Le Mans as its crown jewel.

As I've written before , 2023 is going to be an exciting time for fans of prototype racing. After the cubic megabucks-era of LMP1h collapsed under the weight of unsustainable budgets , the top class of the World Endurance Championship has spent a few years in the doldrums as Toyota faced minimal opposition from much smaller teams. But the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (which runs the Le Mans race) has a new ruleset now, called LMH (Le Mans Hypercar), designed to attract the interest of automakers by keeping costs sane—€30 million versus the €80-200 million that LMP1h cost—and, with less reliance on aerodynamic downforce , allowing for a closer visual link to their road-going products.

And so far, it's working. Toyota was first to LMH with its GR010 , followed by boutique manufacturer Glickenhaus, then this year saw Peugeot ease its way back into to endurance racing with its new 9X8 —still not sporting a rear wing—ahead of a full campaign in 2023. But none of those brands have quite the same magic as Ferrari. Even though it last won Le Mans outright in 1965, it still has more of those overall wins (nine) than Toyota (five) and Peugeot (three) combined, trailing just Audi (13) and Porsche (19).

Enlarge / Porsche knows the road to a Le Mans win involves tens of thousands of miles of testing. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Porsche provided flights from DC to Daytona Beach and back, plus a night in a hotel so we could attend its private 963 test. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.—Car companies like to keep new models far from prying eyes during the development process. That goes doubly so when they’re going racing, like Porsche is with its new 963, which made our invitation to watch the car test on Friday, while still in development, a rare chance to watch expertise at work. Doubly so considering that Porsche's partner with the 963 is Penske Racing, an organization that has racked up more than 600 wins across a range of disciplines over the past 56 years.

The 963 has been built to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and endurance races like it and will compete next year in IMSA's new GTP category as well as the FIA WEC's Hypercar class. Built to a rule set known as LMDh , it's more of a collaboration than the Porsche crest on the nose might lead you to expect. Multimatic in Canada provides the car's carbon-fiber spine, or chassis. Xtrac supplies the transmission, Williams Advanced Engineering provides the lithium-ion traction battery, and Bosch is responsible for the electric motor/generator unit, all three of which are tightly packaged together.

But Porsche has built the twin-turbocharged 4.6L V8, which traces its roots back to the mid-2000s RS Spyder race car, with a road-going derivative also found in the 918 Spyder hypercar. Power is capped at 680 hp (500 kW) for the internal combustion engine and hybrid system working together and is measured by sensors to ensure no one gets over-creative.

Enlarge / This is the Cadillac GTP Concept, which is our first look at what will become Cadillac's endurance racing car in North America and at Le Mans. (credit: Cadillac)

This weekend saw the annual running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. It was hardly a race for the ages—don't worry, no spoilers here—but with any luck, that will change next year with the introduction of a new class of hybrid race cars (known as LMDh cars, for Le Mans Daytona hybrid) from manufacturers like Acura, BMW, Porsche, and others.

We've seen a teaser of the Acura ARX-06 , and BMW showed off a semi-camouflaged version of its new M Hybrid V8 earlier in June . Porsche's car, which started testing at the start of the year , will be formally unveiled and named later this month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.

And on the eve of Le Mans, Cadillac released the first public images of the Project GTP Hypercar, which the company says previews the design of the car that will contest the North American IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and the global FIA World Endurance Championship (which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans).