(Cadillac)
Cadillac’s latest model is no luxury car.
The DPi-V.R unveiled today is its entry in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s new Daytona Prototype international class for the 2017 season. The move marks Cadillac's first foray into top flight prototype endurance racing since 2002.
(Cadillac)
The quick Caddy replaces the Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype that won the series this year. Rules changes facilitated the move to a redesigned machine.
The Dpi-V.R is based on a spec Dallara chassis and powered by an Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 regulated to around 600 hp, according to Road & Track. The bespoke engine shares its displacement, but little else, with the automaker’s production V8s. A rearview camera mirror is one piece of tech borrowed from the showroom cars.
(Cadillac)
The reigning three-peat champion Action Express Racing team and Wayne Taylor Racing will both be fielding the cars in full season efforts that kick off at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January.
The program is meant to promote Cadillac’s V-Series current lineup of high performance sedans and coupes, but with its long-running Pirelli World Challenge race cars already resembling one of those, could a super-Caddy be in the works?
General Motors has been recently spotted testing what appears to be a mid-engine supercar that’s purported to be a new Corvette, but Cadillac president Johan De Nysschen told Fox News at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show that “I think there is room for a halo performance car such as that in our lineup,” and that one “will come.”
----------
CADILLAC'S VISIONARY SEDAN:
