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58-663: The Lola B05/40 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Lola Cars International for use in the LMP2 class for the American Le Mans Series , Le Mans Series , and 24 Hours of Le Mans . Developed in 2005, it was intended as a replacement for both the Lola B2K/40 and the MG-Lola EX257 . It shares various structural elements with the larger LMP1-class Lola B06/10 . Following a change to Le Mans regulations by

116-434: A 4.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8. In seasons 2017 through 2020, the engine produced about 600  bhp . Dallara , Onroak Automotive (Ligier), Oreca and the joint-venture Riley Tech / Multimatic were selected by FIA as the four exclusive chassis constructors, which must be closed-cockpit designs. Before the start of the 2021 season LMP2 cars have been slowed down to ensure the necessary lap time difference between

174-562: A class above production-based grand tourer cars, which compete alongside them in sports car racing . Later, LMP1 designs included hybrid cars that use electric motors to assist acceleration. The Le Mans Prototype LMP1 class has been replaced by Le Mans Hypercars in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans from the 2021 season . Non-hybrid LMP1 cars were eligible to be "grandfathered" for two more seasons and compete alongside

232-629: A new B05/40 for use with their Mazda project, switching from a previous Courage chassis. Ray Mallock, Horag, Binnie and ASM Team Racing for Portugal would all remain in the Le Mans Series, all running with the 2007 upgrades. Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype ( LMP ) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans , FIA World Endurance Championship , IMSA SportsCar Championship , European Le Mans Series , and Asian Le Mans Series . Le Mans Prototypes were created by

290-510: A new Indian Le Mans Project, with the intention to bring Indian drivers to Le Mans and the Le Mans Series in association with the factory squad. This project never came to fruition. Pescarolo, forced to change their cars in order to conform to 2007 rules, continued to use their modified bodywork from the old C60, but changed the chassis as well. Thus their new cars, dubbed the Pescarolo 01, no longer bear any relation to Courage chassis, although

348-624: A two car effort in the Le Mans Series , with major backing from Yokohama Rubber Company and Mugen Motorsports . Mugen would replace Courage's Judd V10s with their own V8s in exchange for a new Courage chassis to be run by Mugen in the Japan Le Mans Challenge . At the same time, Courage officially replaced the aged C60 with the new LC70 LMP1. A fourth LC70 would be sold to the Swiss Spirit team, also campaigned in

406-740: Is commonly referred to as a Le Mans car in the media. The first use of what would become Le Mans Prototypes was at the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans . In an attempt to increase the number of entrants beyond the small field of Group C competitors that the World Sportscar Championship had to offer, older Porsche 962s were allowed entry in Category 3. To further increase the size of the field, small open-cockpit race cars using production road car engines which were raced in small national championships were allowed in Category 4. Later, ACO announced its intentions to completely replace

464-759: The American Le Mans Series LMP2 championship could not be retained due to new competition from the Porsche RS Spyder , even though Intersport scored three wins. A similar situation would occur in the LMS, with Barazi-Epsilon's Courage Competition outdoing the Ray Mallock EX264, which had one win. Although Chamberlain Synergy's chassis scored three wins during the season, their take over by ASM Team Racing for Portugal meant that

522-599: The American Le Mans Series season, while Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport, Lista Racing, Ray Mallock Ltd. and Binnie Motorsports competed in the Le Mans Endurance Series . In the ALMS, Intersport would easily take the LMP2 championship with five victories over the season. Meanwhile, in the LMES, Chamberlain-Synergy would take the LMP2 championship, while Ray Mallock would take second and Horag fourth, with each of

580-563: The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which saw the LMP900 and LMP675 classes eliminated in order to make way for the newer LMP1 and LMP2 classes, many teams found that their old chassis would no longer be legal when the new regulations came into full effect in 2007. Lola's older chassis would be among those deemed illegal, requiring them to develop an all new car to meet the new LMP2 regulations. The B05/40 can be seen as an evolution of

638-531: The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The technical requirements for an LMP include bodywork covering all mechanical elements of the car. As of 2023, there are two classes within Le Mans Prototypes, designated LMP2 and LMP3 . While not as fast as open-wheel Formula One cars around a track, the LMP1s were the fastest closed-wheel racing cars used in circuit racing. Le Mans Prototypes are considered

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696-508: The MG-Lola EX257 (also known as Lola B01/60), in that many mechanical and aerodynamic elements are shared between the two cars. While the front fenders appear similar in shape, there are major dimensional differences between the two cars (1000 mm over hang vs. 810 mm) such that the B05/40's fenders are bespoke to the car. The nose is raised in a fashion similar to the EX257 while lacking

754-582: The NACA ducts with a single opening in the nose. Although all chassis have been upgraded, the naming of each car varies depending on the team, with B05/40, B06/40 and B07/40 all being used. Another modified B05/40 was used by Ray Mallock Ltd. While called a MG EX264, this car is effectively 90% B05/40. It was later upgraded to include the 2007 bodywork, while retaining the EX264 name. For their initial season in 2005, one B05/40 would be used by Intersport Racing in

812-476: The 2004 season, where both Pescarolo and Courage began competition in the new Le Mans Endurance Series . Courage's own C65 would take the LMP2 teams championship in the first season, although the team failed to finish at Le Mans. Pescarolo's own cars would take a 4th place overall at Le Mans, behind the dominating Audis . Also at this time, Courage began to supply customer chassis to teams, with Paul Belmondo and Epsilon Sport of France and Miracle Motorsports of

870-822: The 2015–2019 first-generation ruleset were the Ginetta-Juno P3 , Ligier JS P3 , Norma M30 , ADESS-03 , and the Ave-Riley AR-02. The cars were eligible in a number of series, such as the Asian Le Mans Series, the European Le Mans Series, as well as the V de V Endurance Series and the IMSA Prototype Challenge . A number of championships for the class have also been created, such as the FRD LMP3 series and

928-412: The B05/40, including various bodywork upgrades for improved aerodynamics. In late 2006, a new chassis for Fernández Racing 's Acura team was built which included slight upgrades, leading to Lola terming the car B06/40 . However, for the beginning of the 2007 season, Lola unveiled further upgrades that were used by nearly all B05/40 customers. These upgrades included a redesigned front end, which replaced

986-818: The British LMP3 Cup. First-generation cars were powered by a 5.0-litre normally-aspirated Nissan VK50 V8 engine , producing 310 kW (420 hp). A 2nd Generation ruleset was introduced for 2020, with new cars introduced: the Ginetta G61-LT-P3 , Ligier JS P320 , Duqueine D-08 , and the ADESS-03 Evo. These cars can be built from its predecessors using an upgrade kit. The new LMP3 prototypes are used in Asian Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup , IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge , European Le Mans Series, and Prototype Cup Germany. For

1044-572: The C1 class and finish 7th overall at Le Mans, followed up with 11th place in 1991. Due to rule changes in sportscar racing, Courage was shuffled to the C2 class (cars complying with the older rules) for Le Mans in 1991 and C3 (a class for Porsche-powered cars) in 1992, and no longer able to run in the diminishing World Sportscar Championship due to their continued usage of the Porsche turbocharged Flat-6, which

1102-589: The Ford Cosworths. To better fit the Porsche turbocharged flat-6 engine, Courage debuted the Cougar C12 chassis. The team saw immediate success with this combination as they finished 20th in 1985, followed by 18th in 1986. All of this built up to the team's greatest achievement so far in 1987, as they managed to finish 3rd overall, behind only the factory Porsche 962 and their own team's 962 . During

1160-632: The GT class regulations, forcing the ACO to promote them as prototypes. In 2000, changes were made to the LMP regulations, as the ACO once again split the open-cockpit LMP class. The two new classes became known as "LMP900" and "LMP675", with the numbers denoting the minimum weight requirements (in kilograms) for each class. The LMP900s were to be more powerful and faster in top speed, but also heavier and more cumbersome. The LMP675s were to be smaller and more nimble, yet lack

1218-519: The Group C cars with Le Mans Prototypes . Two classes were created, with LMP1s running large displacement custom-built engines that were usually turbocharged, and LMP2s using the smaller displacement production-based engines. Both classes were required to have open cockpits. However, LMP1 cars that year were just former Group C cars, some still with closed cockpits ( Toyota 94C-V , Courage C32 , Kremer K8 Spyder , Porsche 962C GTI , ALD C289 and Alpa LM). At

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1276-741: The Hypercar category, a single aero kit has been made mandatory across the whole season and is limited to the Le Mans specification in the WEC; the ELMS teams have retained the right to switch between the aero kits. LMP3 is an entry-level prototype class intended for introducing young drivers and new teams to endurance racing before they progress to the higher classes of prototype racing, LMP2 and ultimately Hypercar. LMP3 uses closed-cockpit chassis, which can be built by any licensed constructor. Cars eligible for

1334-598: The LC75 LMP2 chassis to replace the C65. Acura officially bought three for the American Le Mans Series , although they have extensively modified the bodywork and the cars have been re- homologated as the Acura ARX-01a . Other former C65 teams in the Le Mans Series also changed to the newer LC75. Courage ended their collaboration with Mugen Motorsports and utilized AER power in the factory cars. Courage announced

1392-545: The LMP2 and a new class—Hypercar. In the original version of the new ruleset, revealed in November 2020, only the power of the Gibson engine has been reduced—to 560 bhp. Right before the start of the season, the cars were further weakened, by trimming an additional 20 bhp to a total of 540 bhp. The minimum weight of the cars has also been increased by 20 kg and has been set at 950 kg. Furthermore, mirroring

1450-521: The Le Mans Series team's championship in the hands of the Barazi-Epsilon squad. In the American Le Mans Series , Mazda 's official factory effort used a C65 to finish 3rd place in their teams championship. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Pescarolo's C60s would take 2nd and 5th place overall, while Courage's factory LC70s would fail to finish. Miracle Motorsports and Barazi-Epsilon would both bring their C65s home as well. After 2007 Courage created

1508-560: The Le Mans Series. Pescarolo Sport meanwhile would continue to campaign their own heavily modified C60. Pescarolo dominated the LMS LMP1 championship, winning all 5 races, while Swiss Spirit was 4th and Courage's teams 8th and 10th. The new Courage suffered scathing reliability issues with the Mugen engine, which hampered their chances of taking an overall win despite being a competitive car. In LMP2, Courage's customer C65s would also claim

1566-499: The Mont-Dore. However, in 1977, Yves Courage moved to sports car racing, participating in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans . In 1981, along with Jean-Philippe Grand, Courage's Lola -BMW managed to finish the race and take victory in the under 2-liter sport class. With this success, Courage decided to found his own company and began building prototype chassis with which he could compete at Le Mans. On this premise, Courage Compétition

1624-587: The Nissan VRH35Z 3.5L Turbo V8, similar to the one from the R390 GT1. However both Nissan cars failed to finish while the Porsche cars succeeded. For 1999, Nissan would continue their involvement with Courage. Nissan would purchase a Courage C52 chassis for their own team to run alongside their own R391 prototype, while Courage would continue to use and develop the Nissan powerplants in their own car. At

1682-524: The United States being the first to receive customer C65s. Eventually ten C65 chassis would be built, making it the largest manufacturer in LMP2 at the time. Courage would return to concentrating on the C60, now upgraded to a "hybrid" prototype in 2005. The team would manage 8th place overall, while Pescarolo's heavily modified C60 would finish 2nd overall. In 2006, Courage Compétition as a team became

1740-413: The cockpit. Various engines have been used in the B05/40, with no standard engine being used when designing the chassis. The B05/40 was designed to accept a wide variety due to its use as a customer chassis for privateers. Engines used included Nicholson-McLaren V8s, Judd V8s, Zytek V8s, Acura V8s, AER turbocharged Inline-4s and Mazda turbocharged Inline-4s. Since 2005, Lola continually upgraded

1798-538: The costs, FIA introduced a new set of LMP2 regulations, which will be locked in through 2020, aiming for a significant power increase, to the range of 150 horsepower (which is expected to lead to a four-second decrease in lap time at Le Mans). Gibson Technology is the exclusive engine supplier for LMP2, producing a four-litre normally-aspirated V8. Biofuels , specifically petrol with 10% ethanol and biodiesel ( BTL ), are allowed in both LMP1 and LMP2 categories. The fuel tank size and minimum weight for non-hybrid cars

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1856-430: The departed Nissan. At the same time, Pescarolo Sport would upgrade their Courage C52 with a new Peugeot turbocharged powerplant. Pescarolo's older chassis would manage a 4th-place finish at Le Mans, while Courage's own chassis failed to finish towards the end of the race. For 2001, Pescarolo would upgrade not only to the C60, but would purchase two of the chassis. One of the new cars would finish 13th overall, while

1914-545: The end of the race, Courage's car had finished 6th, Nissan's car 8th, with Pescarolo Sport 's old Courage-Porsche in 9th. However, with Nissan's R391 failing to finish and being deemed a failure, Nissan decided to drop out of sports car racing and end their involvement with Courage. For 2000, Courage would debut a new state-of-the-art chassis for the LMP1 class, dubbed the C60 . The C60 would use an all new V10 Judd engine to replace

1972-564: The lead in the #13 Courage C34. In the end though the team would have to settle for 2nd place overall, losing by a single lap to a McLaren F1 GTR . In 1996, Courage's reliability continued as they finished 7th and 13th, but were actually 2nd and 3rd in their Le Mans Prototype (LMP) class. One of the two teams was actually run by Henri Pescarolo , who would begin to develop his own team in association with Courage. The duo continued their success in 1997, taking 4th, 7th, and 16th places overall. However, by 1998, Courage's partnership with Porsche

2030-662: The new class for the 2021 to 2022 seasons. Starting from the 2023 season of WEC and IMSA SportsCar Championship, Le Mans Hypercars are joined by Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) cars. These two kinds of prototypes will form the top class of endurance racing: Hypercar in WEC and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) in IMSA. Le Mans Prototypes have used various names depending on the series in which they compete. The FIA 's equivalent cars were referred to as Sports Racers (SR) or Sports Racing Prototypes (SRP). The American IMSA GT Championship termed their cars World Sports Cars (WSC), while

2088-401: The opening grill at the tip. This opening is instead replaced by two large NACA ducts placed on either side of the nose. Behind the cockpit, now mandated twin rollover hoops replace the single roll hoop which originally sat behind just the driver. The air intake for the engine is placed in a nacelle between these rollover hoops, while turbocharged cars use a large duct placed to the left side of

2146-456: The same class structure as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, meaning it was the first championship to use the LMP name. At the same time, the ACO greatly altered their LMP classes. The smaller LMP2 class were briefly eliminated, while a new class of closed-cockpit prototypes was allowed in, known as "LMGTP" (Le Mans grand touring prototype). These cars were evolutions of production-based road cars that the ACO considered too advanced and too fast to fall under

2204-494: The same time, the IMSA GT Championship announced the end of their closed cockpit GTP and Lights classes, deciding as well to replace them with a single open-cockpit class of World Sports Cars equivalent to LMP1. This formula continued up to 1996, with many manufacturers embracing the LMP and WSC classes, including Ferrari , Porsche , and Mazda . In 1997, the first European series based around Le Mans Prototypes

2262-406: The same year, Courage participated in a partial season of the World Sportscar Championship , managing 8th in the teams championship with their Cougar C20 and Porsche 962 . Following this success, and believing that his chassis and team were capable of succeeding at Le Mans, Yves Courage officially retired from driving in order to concentrate on running the factory. Unfortunately for 1988, the team

2320-404: The second failed to finish. Courage's own Judd-powered car would also fail to finish. This would continue into 2002, as Pescarolo's one finishing car managed 10th, while Courage's own car would manage 15th. In 2003, the C60 would reach its highest point, as Courage's own car finished 7th, and Pescarolo's cars were 8th and 9th. Later in 2003, Courage would debut another chassis, known as C65, for

2378-475: The second generation, engines were upgraded to the 5.6-litre Nissan VK56 , increasing horsepower to 340 kW (455 hp). For 2025, the engines used in the class are set to be replaced with the twin-turbocharged 3.4-litre Toyota V35A , bringing about a power increase to 350 kW (470 hp). LMPC ( Le Mans Prototype Challenge ) was an earlier entry level class, introduced in 2009, consisting of competitors running identical Oreca FLM09 cars. The class

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2436-521: The short-lived United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) used the classic Can-Am (CA) name for their prototypes. Since 2004, most series have switched to referring to these cars as Le Mans Prototypes . The American Le Mans Series , the successor to the IMSA GT Championship and the predecessor of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, officially referred to the cars simply as Prototypes (P1, P2, or PC). An LMP

2494-441: The smaller LMP675 (later LMP2) class. This chassis would debut at the 1000km of Le Mans exhibition race and take class victory and 4th overall, behind Pescarolo's 2nd-place finish. At the time, Pescarolo had begun to modify their C60 chassis. By 2004, they had reached the point that they no longer resembled Courage's own C60s. Thus the cars became known as Pescarolo C60s. These modified cars would show great success leading into

2552-424: The sponsorship of Primagaz to help financially, while the chassis would be renamed Cougar instead of Courage, a trend which would continue for many years. However, the team would fail to finish at Le Mans again in 1983 and 1984. For 1985 however, the team announced a deal with Porsche which would bolster their capabilities. For 1985, Yves Courage signed a deal with Porsche to use their engines in replacement for

2610-665: The sportscar championship of the 1970s. However, the USRRC collapsed before the end of 1999, with the series becoming the Rolex Sports Car Series chose to use the FIA's SR1 and SR2 formula instead. 1998 saw a great expansion for the ACO's LMP classes. Following the cancellation of the IMSA GT Championship at the end of 1998, the ACO allowed for the creation of the American Le Mans Series. This series used

2668-500: The team's points were split, denying them the championship. For the 24 Hours of Le Mans , Ray Mallock would again take the LMP2 victory, with Intersport, Binnie and Chamberlain-Synergy also participating. For the 2007 season, Intersport would move to the LMP1 class with a new chassis, while Fernández Racing would join the series with an upgraded B05/40 for use with the Acura Le Mans project. B-K Motorsports would also purchase

2726-498: The three teams managing one win over the season. In the middle of the season, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , Intersport would join Ray Mallock and Chamberlain-Synergy for the endurance event, with Ray Mallock taking the LMP2 victory. Going into 2006, all of the B05/40 teams would remain, although Chamberlain-Synergy's team would be taken over by ASM Team Racing for Portugal midway through the Le Mans Series season. For Intersport,

2784-456: The time attempting to run in the GT classes with their R390 GT1 , were looking to develop an open cockpit prototype for 1999. In order to assist them in the project, Nissan turned to Courage Compétition to help them not only develop a chassis, but also to use their Nissan motor in order to help Nissan gain much needed testing and mileage. Thus in 1998, alongside two Porsche-powered Courages, two Nissan-powered Courages were also entered. Both used

2842-482: The top speed of the larger class. Both classes were intended to be able to compete for overall wins. Audi , Chrysler , Cadillac , and Panoz opted to use the LMP900 formula, while MG were the only major manufacturer to attempt the LMP675 class. The LMGTP class also continued, with Bentley being the only manufacturer to build a closed-cockpit prototype after the regulation changes in 2000. In 2017, in order to limit

2900-403: The two teams continued to aid one another in development. On September 14, 2007, Oreca announced their plans to purchase Courage Compétition. Yves Courage will remain with the company, while Oreca will use Courage's engineering expertise to develop an all new Le Mans Prototype . These are the designations of the chassis that Courage Compétition has built since its inception. The date listed

2958-446: Was subject to adjustment to reduce the difference in performance between hybrid and non-hybrid cars. There were no limits on the number of cylinders for any type of engine. Bodywork was required to cover all mechanical elements of the car, so that they couldn't be visible when the car is viewed directly from the front, side, or top. The LMP1 cars were generally the most powerful, with higher straight-line speeds. The LMP1 category

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3016-526: Was dropped in European Le Mans Series in 2014 . As the cost of running an LMPC team was found to be comparable to that for an LMP2 team, the class was dropped after the 2017 season in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Courage Competition Yves Courage (born on April 27, 1948) began his racing career in 1972, racing in various hillclimbs throughout the 1970s. By 1980, he had won over 80 hillclimb races, including

3074-581: Was founded with the construction of the Courage C01 prototype in 1982. Debuting at the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans , Courage's first C01 chassis participated in the also new Group C class using a Ford Cosworth DFL V8. Unfortunately the car managed to last a mere 78 laps before it was forced to retire. Courage would continue on in the following years with the C01 and its follow-up, the C02. The team also earned

3132-451: Was launched, known as the " International Sports Racing Series ". Using classes similar to LMP1/WSC and LMP2, these cars were known as "SR1" and "SR2" by the FIA. 1998 saw the creation of another series of Le Mans Prototypes, with the new United States Road Racing Championship attempting to break away from the IMSA GT Championship. To differ from IMSA'S WSC class, the USRRC named their open-cockpit prototypes " Can-Am " in an attempt to resurrect

3190-824: Was no longer legal in WSC. However, at Le Mans the C3-class Courage C28LM took class victory and finished 6th overall. This car was driven by Porsche factory driver Henri Pescarolo who would form a relationship with Courage in the later years. With the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1993, Courage would return again to the C2 class and take both 10th and 11th-place finishes at Le Mans (5th and 6th in class), and then followed by another 7th-place finish in 1994. In 1995, Courage mounted its best challenge yet, with drivers Bob Wollek , Éric Hélary , and Mario Andretti challenging for

3248-450: Was not able to follow up on its success, failing to finish any of its three entries at Le Mans and only managing to score points in a single World Sportscar Championship round. This was quickly reversed for 1989 as the team managed to win the C2 class at Le Mans with a 14th-place finish, and take 11th place in the World Sportscar Championship by scoring points in over half of the races that season. The next year, Courage would switch back to

3306-560: Was over a decade old, as was the design of the engines that Courage was using. Courage's last outing with the Porsche powerplants showed the lack of pace as the team managed to finish only 15th and 16th against newer Porsche , Ferrari , Nissan , and Toyota prototypes. Henri Pescarolo would keep the Porsche-powered Courages alive into 1999 when he raced an older chassis for his newly founded team and would achieve an unlikely 9th-place finish. Nissan Motorsport , at

3364-429: Was retired at the end of the 2020 season, replaced by a new top class of the endurance racing: Hypercar . From 2017, in order to limit the costs, FIA introduced a new set of regulations, which will be locked in through 2025. The rules allow a significant power increase (150 horsepower) which is expected to lead to a four-second decrease in lap time at Le Mans. Gibson Technology is the exclusive engine supplier, producing

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