Prototype (motorsport)
In motorsport, a prototype is used to describe racing cars and motorcycles that were only designed for racing. Similar to formula cars, these vehicles have little or no relationship to series vehicles and can therefore be built for the special requirements of motorsport.
In sports car races there are not only Gran Turismo vehicles but also so-called sports prototypes . These occupy the highest classes in sports car races. As a result of the famous long-distance races of Le Mans and Daytona , special regulations were developed for sports prototypes, the class of which is named after the respective long-distance classic. For example, there are the Le Mans prototypes , also known as LMP for short, for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Daytona prototypes for the 24 Hours of Daytona . In addition to these annual races, there are also racing series in which these sports prototypes are used. In addition, vehicles run in series according to the technical regulations of Group CN . In Europe in particular, this standard is used in national semi-professional championships.
In the meantime, prototypes are no longer restricted to sports car races. There are also touring car classes in which the vehicles have a similar substructure to the sports prototype, but the silhouette is based on a production model. These touring car prototypes were also specially designed for use on the racetrack and mostly only show similarities with a model from series production for marketing reasons. One of the first European series with silhouette vehicles was the V8-Star in 2003 ; the DTM is currently pursuing this concept in Germany .
Special prototypes are also being developed for rallying . In desert rallies like the Dakar Rally, there is a prototype class for which the vehicle was developed purely with the needs of such a rally in mind.
In the motorcycle world championship , in contrast to the production-based Superbike class, prototypes in classes up to Moto3 , Moto2 and MotoGP are used.