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Originally Posted by FormulaFox
That's news to me, and frankly I find that quite concerning.
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Why? The cars are designed to a cost-cap and around a spec power-train. 'Adding lightness' costs a bunch of money that you can't recoup under a cost cap, especially when a large chunk of the car's weight (engine, transmission, etc) is out of range for any improvements anyway.
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From what I've heard the engine aren't being run anywhere close to their capability, so cost increase for a small power upgrade should be minimal.
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From dailysportscar:
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The proposal though was heavily opposed by LMP3 teams in Asia, many of whom are very new to the class and whose current business plans would be affected by the additional expenditure incurred with both uprating their current engines, and the inevitable effects that the move would have on service intervals etc.
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Dunno about you, but that doesn't sound completely trivial to me. On the other hand there's this:
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A senior ACO source confirmed the proposal had been prompted by concerns over the number of contact incidents in the ELMS between LMP3 and GTE cars, and that the introduction of even quicker 2016 spec GTEs would likely increase the risk of further incidents.
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So the cost of the engine upgrades might be set off by having less crash damage from altercations with GTs, but that of course isn't really a factor in IMSA competition.