Quote:
Originally Posted by Akrapovic
Yes evaluations mean nothing - actual projects mean something, and there are 4 DPi manufacturers. Nobody believes the rumours posted on S365, we're talking about actual products - and DPi is a much more popular one than anything else right now. We can sit and say that manufacturers want to build there own cars, but there's very little evidence of this. We could say LMP1-H got too expensive so isn't a good example, but before that we weren't overflowing either.
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Well, here's something to think about regarding the attractiveness of DPi relative to other clases.
Every manufacturer in DPi was already involved with either DP or LMP prior to the creation of DPi. Honda had P1 and P2 cars, Mazda was running a P2 car, GM had the Corvette DP, and Nissan was the least involved by merely providing the most popular P2 engine for WEC and ELMS(which makes it unsurprising that they're least involved in their DPi program - Ed Brown and Ligier have put more money into the program than Nissan).
When you consider that it's not a poor assumption to conclude that DPi's success isn't so much about being attractive to manufacturers as it is that it's the only class that made any sense for such programs to be shifted to. It's even believed that the delay in Honda starting their DPi program had much to do with initially wanting to build their own car; GM and Mazda obviously weren't concerned with that, after all, both of their programs relied on cars built by other dedicated chassis manufacturers.
But the most widely popular classes historically for manufacturer participation HAVE been build-your-own-car classes. GTP, GT1, DTM, Super GT, etc. Whether true GTs or prototypes or prototypes disguised as GTs, history shows us that manufacturers do for the most part want to build their own cars.
History also shows us that the moment the costs get too high they'll abandon ship faster than you can snap your fingers.