IMSA: ACO raises P2 cost cap price for 2015

With a wave of new P2 coupes built to the ACO's 2015 regulations, the French sports car sanctioning body will allow P2 manufacturers to raise prices in an effort to cover the significant expenses required to produce the second-tier prototypes.

The previous cost-capped price of €375,000 ($485,690) for P2 cars sold to the current specification has been increased to €450,000 ($582,830) for 2015-spec coupes. As with the previous cost cap, the €450,000 sum is for the complete car, minus engine.

The elevated costs could be a concern for teams competing in the World Endurance Championship and the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. P2 car counts have been limited in 2014, yet manufacturers and both series are hoping the brand-new coupes reinvigorate the category.

"We knew this was in the works," said Honda Performance vice President Steve Eriksen, whose HPD ARX-03b chassis will be replaced by the ARX-04b coupe (pictured) next season. "We're involved in all the manufacturer discussions, and the world council had to vote on it before it went into action."

Manufacturers were notified of the increase this week, and as Eriksen notes, the move was long overdue.

"It was universal for everybody, because even at the €375,000 price for the open-top cars, it wasn't reasonable for the quality of car being built and I think everybody was probably selling them at a loss and trying to make it up on spares costs."When you add a coupe into the mixture, which is where the market has gone and the desires of the ACO has gone, you add the additional construction costs and things like doors and air conditioning and wind screens and wipers and all of the items that were never on the bill of materials for open-top cars. The impetus was to move the [cost] to reflect the increase we're seeing on the manufacturing side."

Eriksen says HPD has kept its ARX-04b customers in the loop on the possible price increase.

In reality, it's not the car costs that drives whether a team can compete or not; it's the ongoing costs of running the cars," he added. "We've kept our customers and interested clients aware this was on the way, and they all built it into their expected budget. If you look at [P2] teams that operated last year in the ALMS and this year in the TUDOR Championship, they've seen their running costs go way up – something like 30 percent – and it's not because of the cars.

"It's because of the extra running time in the races, and travel and all of the things associated with the championship. The [P2] cars themselves aren't the issue and we don't expect that to change with the coupes coming on-line next year."

At least two of HPD's ARX-04bs are expected compete in the TUDOR Championship next year, and it's possible more of the 2015-spec P2 coupes will follow from manufacturers like Ligier and Oreca. P2s share the Prototype class with Daytona Prototypes that have recently undergone costly upgrades intended to balance performance levels between the two types of cars.