ANALYSIS: How new DPis stack up vs. Prototypes

Reigning IMSA Prototype champion Dane Cameron is in a unique position to compare and contrast the new Daytona Prototype internationals with the cars they have replaced.

Coming off the 2016 season where he piloted the No. 31 Whelen Corvette Daytona Prototype to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype title with Action Express Racing teammate Eric Curran, the duo have moved right into a testing program with its successor, the Cadillac DPi-V.R, as a new season beckons in January.

With his previous experience driving P2 cars in the American Le Mans Series, the Californian is among a small group in the 2017 Prototype class to have driven those previous-generation carbon fiber cars, tubeframe DPs, and the brand-new carbon DPis.

Starting with his DPi-V.R (pictured below), Cameron says sports car fans will witness more speed and overall performance in IMSA's top class.

"I think without a doubt we are going to go faster, we are going to go really fast depending on the track," said Cameron, who will face manufacturer opposition in the DPi ranks from Mazda and Nissan. "Hopefully we don't hear too much of the evil three-letter B-word (Balance of Performance), which remains to be seen, I think. But certainly a lot of unknowns at the moment because you don't really know what everybody else has. You don't really know what you should be doing. Should we be doing x amount faster or y amount faster, or a totally different number entirely?

"I would say we are definitely going to go faster. You are going to see their prototypes go quicker at the racetracks in every sort of facet, I guess if you want to call it that, corners, and maybe straightline."

Cameron's freeform description of driving a Corvette DP versus the new DPi-V.R is amusingly insightful.

"So far [the DPi] has been a lot of fun from the driver's seat," he said. "And at the end of the day, we are all racecar drivers, none of us are all really that smart, all we want to do is just go fast. I think this [DPi formula] is going to tick the box moving forward and create a good platform for prototype racing and sports car racing in this country.

"The old Corvette DPs (Cameron pictured below) were sort of this funky almost hybrid of a GT car and prototype. They were seriously fast and hard to drive and they had good downforce and good power, but they still sort of drove like a GT car in a lot of ways. A really good one, but still a bit like a GT car.

"The feel through the steering wheel, the seating position and not really having, the DP didn't really have head surround and that sort of thing. Just sort of felt a little bit GT-ish and it felt a little bit you were manhandling the thing. It definitely wasn't figure skating, it was more roller derby, I guess.

"You were kind of elbows up in the thing, for sure, you were trying hard, you were taking risks, you were sliding the car around. You were always fighting something. Like in a big GT car, it's never perfect. You're always chasing one end or both ends."

With the Cadillac, Cameron has found a purebred performer.

"Now the DPi-V.R is cool for me because it feels a little more like coming home, more like being in a formula car again," he continued. "You've got your feet up, you're a little more laid back in your seat position. You've got really nice headrests again. Everything is a little more claustrophobic inside so it starts to feel a little bit more like you are in a single seater again, which is cool for a lot of us who came from down that road. It has been a while for some of us since we have been in that kind of thing.

"It comes back more to that. Really responsive and steering, all of the inputs are little more direct, a little more responsive. For sure, the steering feels a lot different from what we used to have. And you just feel more like you are on rails and you are making smaller inputs and smaller adjustments, you are making changes and they are smaller changes. You definitely feel like more of a watchmaker as opposed to a construction worker.

"You hear and see from IndyCar guys a lot when you start chasing the really small changes to make small improvements to get the lap time. So it is exciting to be back there from the driver's seat. You have to be really sharp and really precise to get it done which I think is really going to suit me so I'm really excited about it."

Having driven a Lola-Judd P2 car for Dempsey Racing in the ALMS, Cameron says the advancements made with the DPi formula, especially in the engine bay, make it hard to find any driving similarities between the cars.

"Power levels are quite a bit different from what we were in that time when I was in the Dempsey car," he added. "That was probably the low point of the cost cap era where the performance was pretty well back to an expensive PC car, really. We are making a fair amount more power so now these days so everybody starts to get some speed in a straight line again.

"I've spent quite a lot of time in PC cars as well so it definitely has a little bit of that feeling again where you're not really sliding the tires on top of the road anymore like you would in the DP 'GT' car, so it gets more back to that and more back to precision driving a little bit, as opposed to just pure almost risk-taking or physical effort to get lap time, what it would feel like in a DP when you're trying to hustle the thing.

"Especially last year when we were on the back foot [with] pace as compared to the LMP2 cars, [where] you felt like you were driving your ass off to make the DP go faster. So it's going to be fun to have a little more outright pace and performance in the [DPi-V.R] racecar, to not feel like you're having to kill yourself so much to get the pace out of the thing. It's going to be more about execution I think and your driving technique, so it is a little bit different how it is going to be."

Catch the rest of Cameron's interview where he describes the increased physical toll the DPis are delivering from the cockpit, the development process involving Cadillac, Dallara and AXR, and shares his recommendations on the best corners for fans to visit and see the DPis perform at their peak at Daytona International Speedway.