Prototype racers: We know them, we love them, and many pine for the glory days of GTP racing from the eighties and nineties. Well, they’re in luck: IMSA is reviving the GTP class for 2023, and the competitors are already starting to roll in. Even Cadillac is on board, and today the brand teased its 2023 GTP car — one it hopes can take the crown at Le Mans.
Cadillac calls the video a “tease,” but there’s a lot of detail to be found in the 22-second clip the brand posted on YouTube. There are wide shots showing the entire car, close-ups down the side, and a hint of the car’s engine note as it peels out of frame. The verdict? It looks and sounds great.
Cadillac is working with Dallara for the chassis, like it did for the outgoing DPi-V.R prototype, but with any luck the Project GTP car won’t follow its older sibling’s naming convention. Even “Project GTP” is a lot more pronounceable with a human mouth than “Dee pee eye dash vee dot are.” I’m not asking for it to be called the Catera (at least, not explicitly), but something that sounds like a car rather than a barcode would be nice.
The Project GTP in the video is devoid of any obvious logos or decals, but its colors closely match the scheme run by the existing Mustang Sampling Cadillac IMSA team. Look closely as the video pans over the car’s side — Cadillac’s black and silver are subtly accented with Mustang Sampling’s bronze around the window and on the wheels.
The Project GTP prototype will make its first race appearance at the Rolex 24 at Daytona next January, running a “new Cadillac engine package” alongside the spec GTP hybrid setup. Cadillac hasn’t specified what this engine package might be, but the exhaust note in the video certainly sounds brawny — please, homologate it.