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All these cars will become "generic" if they force every manufacturer to build Identical chassis, the way Rolex tried to. What I fear is that IMSA pressure will lead FIA-ACO to adopt truly generic chassis and body—where every car has to submit bodywork for aero testing, and all bodywork has to be within a narrow performance range (Rolex did this, ridiculous as it sounds) and all chassis regs are defined so narrowly that every chassis is effectively a carbon (fiber) copy of every other.
This is what Rolex actually did, and even though it failed, I don't think the former Rolex officials ruining (not a typo) TUSC today have learned any lessons at all. Basically, they had and still want a field of absolutely identical cars, with absolutely identical performance—the same aero, the same engine performance (really, horsepower and torque curves pre-determined?) with the lowest common denominator—the worst "styling cue" bodywork—determining the performance of the whole field.
This is so far removed from the actual sports, and even from FIA-ACO's cost-capped P2 regs currently in operation, it seems ridiculous, but this is exactly what Jim France et al are lobbying for.
The problem is, even if FIA-ACO adopts even a portion of these rules, it kills the sport.
FIA-ACO might not allow "brandable bodywork" but if they give in on individual chassis and bodywork, if they accept "generic" bodywork which all has to perform the same on every car, we will be watching NASCAR with right turns—essentially spec racers with absolutely nothing about the cars which matter from the first engineering drawing to the last race of the season. Might as well buy identical Kias off the nearest dealer's lot and race them.
I don't think FIA-ACO will buy the whole TUSC proposal, but if the go for most of it, the North American arm of the sport is over. WEC will be fine, because it has ZP1 where real sports car racing can still survive, and P2 is just a secondary class. In North America, we will have a second-best version of second best. Why even bother?
I fully expect TUSC to allow "brandable bodywork" whether FIA-ACO allows it or not—teams would buy a complete car from the manufacturer and then buy (subsidized no doubt) banded panels from the engine supplier (if it were Chevy or Ford—I don't see Nissan or Honda wasting cash on this crap.) However, if the current P2s are merely grandfathered for a few years and totally generic "P2" spec chassis and bodywork is mandated ... Well, PWC might consider adding an enduro series, because the crowd will be there.
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