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Following Audi and Porsche's recent announcements of their Le Mans return, the 24-hour classic could be headed for a new golden era.
Of all the world's great races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the one that does it for me, but I've never been. For years, the opportunity never presented itself, or I wasn't interested. Lately, I've found Le Mans hard to get excited about-I grew up with the golden era of LMP1. Now with only Toyota left in the top LMP1 hybrid class, that golden era is well and truly over. The contraction of the GTE class only adds insult to injury.
But finally, things are looking up. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear that Audi would return to Le Mans with the new Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh), and then yesterday, Porsche announced the same. Porsche confirmed that its LMDh car will debut at Daytona in 2023, and it seems that could be the case for Audi's as well. The LMDh formula seems to be winning automaker favor with the promise of relatively low cost, and eligibility for both the IMSA WeatherTech Series and the World Endurance Championship. Acura has confirmed it's working on an LMDh "design study," McLaren has publicly expressed interest, as has Mazda.
Those cars will go head-to-head at Le Mans with the new WEC Hypercars. Toyota and Peugeot are the only two major automakers to confirm LMh cars, with smaller racing firms ByKolles and America's own Glickenhaus working on entries as well. While any number of things could happen between now and 2023, it seems we could have at least four major manufacturers and a handful of privateers battling for the win at Le Mans.
It's hard not to think of the good old days. Grids of Group C cars from major manufacturers all fighting for wins in the Eighties and Nineties; the wild GT1 era, where the definition of "production-based" was stretched to its breaking point; the Audi-Porsche-Toyota LMP1-h battles of 2014-2016. Le Mans is at its best when major automakers are all competing at the top end of the grid.
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The 1990 Le Mans 24 grid. Porsche, Toyota, Jaguar, Mazda, and Nissan all present.
Of course, all those glorious eras were killed by costs getting wildly out of control, and all the relevant governing bodies need to make sure that costs are kept in check. LMDh in particular seems to be designed to discourage spending wars between automakers, but it's too early to predict what will happen.
Admittedly, the LMDh class isn't as exciting from a technical perspective as its predecessors. Porsche and Audi LMDh cars won't be the mad science projects that the 919 and R18 e-tron were, but the costs associated with developing and running sports prototypes like those were impossible to justify. I would rather see Audi and Porsche running LMDh cars than nothing at all. And, arguably, LMDh machines will be far more interesting than Formula E cars.
Maybe I'll go to Le Mans sooner than 2023. It would be great to see the spectacle, and in 2022, we should have at least Toyota and Peugeot running their hypercars. But, it seems like 2023 will be the year to go. I'm daydreaming about it now-Audi, Porsche, Acura, Toyota, Peugeot, and more, all rounding Terte Rouge on lap one, headed for the Mulsanne straight. It would be a glorious sight, and I wouldn't want to miss it.