Cadillac's Return to Endurance Racing

[ccap41]

" It's a golden autumn morning in rural upstate New York. Backpacked kids wait by mailboxes for the school bus. I'm driving through pockets of valley mist to New York state's most famous racing circuit, to witness the shakedown testing of a race car so top-secret, it's still wrapped in camouflage.

After a 14-year absence, Cadillac is readying its return to endurance racing. The last time the American automaker competed in top-level prototype racing was 2002, when the ill-fated Northstar LMP finished 9th at Le Mans. Audi's dominant R8 prototype notched its third consecutive victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe that year.

Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli were co-drivers in that final Cadillac attempt at Le Mans. They'll both be at the track today. Taylor, 60, has graduated from the driver's seat to run Wayne Taylor Racing, the principal team partner in Cadillac's new motorsports endeavor; Angelelli, 49, shares co-driving duties with Taylor's sons Ricky, 26, and Jordan, 24.

All four will be responsible for the imminent future of Cadillac endurance racing, in a program that tasks itself with making top-level sports car racing engaging and relatable again. I'm here to learn if Cadillac, and the series itself, can cut it.

The camouflaged Caddy you see here is officially known as the DPi-V.R. It's built to IMSA's new Daytona Prototype international (DPi) formula, to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starting in 2017.

Think of DPi as an effort to make top-level prototype racing a little more interesting, and relatable, for casual race fans. The cars share a chassis with the LMP2 prototypes that compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, built by one of four approved constructors—Dallara, Onroak Automotive, ORECA or Riley/Multimatic. ..."

http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a31697/cadillac-dpi-v-r-exclusive-photos/

 

[David]

Cool, Very cool, but I do have to question this expense of money when the focus needs to still stay on building the right auto's at the right luxury level to drive the sales and profits of Cadillac.

H'mmmmmm

  Wait and Watch.

[ccap41]

Part of Cadillac's problem is image though.. Racing helps build a reputation and image that noting else really can. Will it help? I cannot answer that. But I think if they're successful it will help their brand's image.

[David]

1 minute ago, ccap41 said:

Part of Cadillac's problem is image though.. Racing helps build a reputation and image that noting else really can. Will it help? I cannot answer that. But I think if they're successful it will help their brand's image.

Agree, that racing can help with the image issue. Yet this can also be handled with a proper marketing campaign that many here including myself feel Cadillac is still missing. Their marketing / advertising leaves much to be desired. I feel it is still a failure and if they did it right they could get the image issue resolved while building better auto's.

[hyperv6]

Lets face it they could spend the money flying a XT5 to a fashion show in NYC or they could race a car and leverage it to get global attention.  Later they could use it to promote their new engines when it arrives.

Hmm tough choice there LOL!.