EVEN AS THE engines are cooling and the drivers resting after 10 hours of racing in the season finale of the 2001 American Le Mans Series at Road Atlanta - Audi closed its successful 2001 motorsport season with a superb 1-2-3 victory - Team Cadillac is already gearing up for the start of the next racing season. An all-new Cadillac Northstar Le Mans Prototype (LMP) was presented to the media yesterday and will take to the track as Cadillac celebrates its centennial in 2002.

In the first two years of the LMP effort, Team Cadillac laid the foundation for its first comprehensive motorsports program in international endurance racing. Now the team is assembling the essential elements for its 2002 campaign: an aerodynamic new chassis, an efficient and reliable power train, and a culture that is focused on performance.

“Constructing an entirely new car and creating a totally new team to campaign it is a complex undertaking,” said Herb Fishel, GM Racing Executive Director. “We are competing against teams that have decades of experience and deep financial and technical resources. The performance standard has been raised considerably in the two years since Cadillac launched its endurance racing program, but we are quietly confident that the 2002 Cadillac LMP will be a credible contender.”


FACTS
· New Cadillac for American Le Mans Series 2002
· V8
· 4.0-litre
· Twin turbo
· New 180-degree crankshaft
· New sequential gearbox permits semi-automatic gear changes with paddles mounted on the steering wheel.
· Debut at the 12-hour race in Sebring, Florida on March 16, 2002.

Images
Cadillac LMP 2002 model – 2 images – this years Cadillac LMP photographed at Road Atlanta Sunday