WHAT THE HELL IS LMDh?

THE GREATEST ENDURANCE RACE ON EARTH IS ABOUT TO ENTER A GOLDEN ERA THANKS TO A NEW CLASS OF PROTOTYPES

- CAMERON KIRBY

LET’S BE HONEST. The last couple of runnings of the 24 Hours of Le Mans haven’t been the greatest in the endurance classic’s nearly 100 year history. Toyota, the sole factory LMP1 team since 2018 has romped home to win with ease, having no serious competition. It’s like dynamiting fish in a barrel.

In just a few short years that is set to change, with the most prestigious endurance race in the global motorsport calendar set to enter a new golden era thanks to a new American-run type of prototype known as LMDh.

Standing for Le Mans Daytona hybrid, the new set of regulations has been created by IMSA, which is responsible for sports car racing in North America, and has already lured the two most successful manufacturers in Le Mans history, Porsche and Audi, to return to La Sarthe in 2023.

IMSA is owned by the France family – the same empire that built NASCAR – as well as its blue-chip flagship races such as the Daytona 24 Hour, Twelve Hours of Sebring, and Petit Le Mans (a 10-hour event at Road Atlanta). From 2023 the FIA will allow LMDh cars to compete at Le Mans and other World Endurance Championship (WEC) races, alongside its own ‘Hypercar’ or LMH rules that are being introduced this year.

The newly finalised LMDh rules allow manufacturers to supply their own engines capable of up to 470kW, which will be paired with a ‘spec’ 50kW electric motor supplied by Bosch for a combined total hybrid system output of 500kW.