Le Mans Hypercar-derived Vanwall Vandervell 1000 Begins Testing
German racing team ByKolles has unveiled for the first time a new hypercar derived from the Le Mans hypercar that will compete in the 2023 World Endurance Championship.
The hypercar began testing this week near ByKolles' headquarters in Grading, Germany.
ByKolles plans to enter the LMH racing car in the WEC hypercar class under the brand name of the historic Vanwall British racing team, although it is not at all certain that the car will actually race under that name.
The original Vanwall was a British racing team whose drivers included Stirling Moss and Lotus founder Colin Chapman, and won the F1 constructors' championship in 1958.
Despite the ambiguous use of the name Vanwall, Bykoll is still developing the LMH racing car under the Vanwall brand name. The official name is the Vanwall Vandervell LMH; the road-going version is called the Vanwall Vandervell 1000, a number that refers to a target output of 1,000 hp.
ByKolles did not provide any information, along with a photo of the Vanwall Vandervell 1000 posted on Social Model. The team has previously announced plans to launch a version of the LMH race car for circuit enthusiasts and a version for public roads. The track car will be powered by the same Gibson V-8 engine as the race car and will weigh only 2,094 pounds, as it will not have the ballast that the race car must carry due to balance-of-performance rules. The road car was said to have a V-8 with an additional hybrid system,
producing a total of 1,000 horsepower.