Weekend Wallpaper: Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes
By Mike Gillilan | October 9, 2011
Porsche / Chevy / Porsche Grand-Am Daytona Prototype sandwich
So, what exactly is a Grand-Am Daytona Prototype (DP)?
Starting in 2003, Grand-Am created a series to keep the price of race cars / race car development from skyrocketing, yet keep the cars very “raceable”. We aren’t talking spec-miatas here, these are full on race cars with 500HP and aerodynamics at play.
To race in Daytona Prototypes, teams start off selecting a chassis from manufactures like Lola, Riley, Dallara. Then select an engine block from the likes of Ford, Infiniti, BMW, Porsche, Honda, Pontiac/Chevy and others.
The engine blocks must be based on production cars. Unlike their production based counter parts, these engines are modified to produce 500HP.
Based on engine displacement, you get either 5 forward gears (for 4.5L and above) or 6 forward gears (for smaller displacement engines). Turbos or super chargers are not allowed…nothing but pure natural aspiration.
In other words, pick your chassis, bolt in your favorite engine, and GO!
Pictured above are two Porsche powered Brumos Racing DPs and a Chevy powered Beyer Racing DP. The Porsche, powered by a 3.8L venerable flat 6 and the Chevy, powered by a 5.0L V8. All 3 cars are running in a Riley chassis.
So, do you think Daytona Prototypes has enough combinations of engines, chassis, and specifications to keep things “interesting” on the track? Or will it lead to a stifling of innovation and ruin competition?
Weekend Wallpaper is a weekly series featuring the auto photography of Mike Gillilan. You can see more of his work on Flickr
