Full on Racing in LMGTE

While there are two LMGTE classes in the FIA World Endurance Championship and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am, the cars that run in the ELMS are run to LMGTE Am rules.

The official definition from the regulations are - The "Le Mans" Grand Touring Endurance car ("LM" GTE) is a car having an aptitude for sport with 2 doors, 2 or 2+2 seats, opened or closed, which can be used perfectly legally on the open road and available for sale thanks to the dealer network of a manufacturer recognised by the Endurance Committee.

In this group only cars having 1 year old or fully in compliance with the specifications of the previous year car - unless specified in these regulations - will be admitted.  This means that the cars that ran in the LMGTE Pro class in 2016 will be eligible to be entered for the 2017 ELMS.

Manufacturers must be able to show that they produce a minimum number of road cars (100) to be in compliance with the homologation (25 for “small manufacturers”). The engine must also be based on a road going unit that has a production minimum of 300 units.

Other global specifications covered in the regulations are:

• Overall length: 480cm
• The minimum weight is 1245 kg.
• The maximum amount of fuel is 90 litres maximum on board whatever the ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure.
• The gearbox must have a maximum of 6 forward ratios and one reverse gear.

Dunlop has been designated as the only tyre supplier for this category. Two specifications of tyres for a dry track (slicks), one intermediate tyres specification and one specification of wet-weather tyres are allowed for each model of car for each event of the 2017 ELMS season.

There are no limits on the number of tyres.

At the end of the season the LMGTE Champions and Vice Champions will be invited to the 2018 24 Heures du Mans.  However, the Selection committee will confirm the 24 Heures du Mans invitations only to the competitors who took part in all the 2017 ELMS events.

The first opportunity to see the cars on track will be during The Prologue, the official pre-season test, at Monza on the 28/29 March 2017.