Oreca 07

Last updated
Oreca 07
AO LMP2 WGI25 04 (cropped).jpg
The No. 99 Oreca 07 of AO Racing at the 2025 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen
Category Le Mans Prototype 2
Constructor Oreca
Designer(s) Christophe Guibbal (Head of Design, Oreca) [1]
David Floury (Technical Director)
Jean-Philippe Pélaprat (Technology Engineer) [2]
Predecessor Oreca 05
Technical specifications [3]
Chassis Carbon fibre monocoque
Suspension (front) Double wishbone, push rod operated over damper
Suspension (rear) Double wishbone, push rod operated over damper
Length4,745 mm (186.8 in)
Width1,895 mm (74.6 in)
Height1,045 mm (41.1 in)
Axle track front 1,570 mm (61.8 in)
rear 1,550 mm (61.0 in)
Wheelbase 3,005 mm (118.3 in)
Engine Gibson GK428 4.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 mid-engined, longitudinally mounted
Transmission Xtrac P1159C 6-speed sequential manual [4]
Power603 hp (2017–2020)
536 hp (2021–present)
Weight930 kg (2,050 lb)
Fuel Total
VP Racing Fuels
Lubricants Motul
Pennzoil
Tyres Michelin
Dunlop/Goodyear
Continental
Competition history
Notable entrantsOreca 07:
Flag of Italy.svg AF Corse
Flag of Portugal (official).svg Algarve Pro Racing
Flag of France.svg Alpine Elf Team
Flag of Slovakia.svg ARC Bratislava
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Cool Racing
Flag of Luxembourg.svg DKR Engineering
Flag of the United States.svg DragonSpeed
Flag of France.svg Duqueine Engineering
Flag of the United States.svg Era Motorsport
Flag of France.svg Graff
Flag of France.svg IDEC Sport
Flag of Poland.svg Inter Europol Competition
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jota
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nielsen Racing
Flag of Italy.svg Prema Racing
Flag of Germany.svg Proton Competition
Flag of the United States.svg PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports
Flag of the United States.svg Starworks Motorsport
Flag of France.svg TDS Racing
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Tower Motorsports
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Autosports
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Vector Sport
Flag of Poland.svg Team Virage
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Team WRT
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg BHK Motorsport
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg CEFC Manor TRS Racing
Flag of Russia.svg G-Drive Racing
Flag of Denmark.svg High Class Racing
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Jackie Chan DC Racing
Flag of Japan.svg K2 Uchino Racing
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Mühlner Motorsport
Flag of France.svg Panis Barthez Competition
Flag of Germany.svg Phoenix Racing
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Racing Team Nederland
Flag of India.svg Racing Team India
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg RLR Msport
Flag of the United States.svg Team Penske
Flag of France.svg Ultimate
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Vaillante Rebellion
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg 99 Racing

Alpine A470:
Flag of France.svg Signatech Alpine Elf

Aurus 01:
Flag of Russia.svg G-Drive Racing
Debut 2017 24 Hours of Daytona
First win 2017 4 Hours of Monza
Last win 2025 4 Hours of Silverstone
Last event 2025 4 Hours of Silverstone
RacesWins Podiums Poles
184162490159
Teams' Championships34

The Oreca 07 is a Le Mans Prototype built by French manufacturer Oreca to meet the 2017 FIA/ACO LMP2 regulations. [3] It made its official race debut in the opening round of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 24 Hours of Daytona, [5] and its FIA World Endurance Championship debut at the 2017 6 Hours of Silverstone. The car is the successor to the Oreca 05.

Contents

Its performance and reliability versus rival LMP2 sports cars has allowed the 07 to become the de facto number one option for prospective racing teams, finding more buyers every year since its launch, including those switching away from other brands. [6] [7] [8] Since first launching in 2017, nearly all teams competing in series featuring an LMP2 class or similar have used the Oreca 07. [9] Over 140 Oreca 07s have been developed by Oreca in-house. [10]

Development

A field of Oreca 07 sports cars racing with a Toyota GR010 Hybrid at the 2022 1000 Miles of Sebring. 2022 1 000 Miles of Sebring Start of the race.jpg
A field of Oreca 07 sports cars racing with a Toyota GR010 Hybrid at the 2022 1000 Miles of Sebring.

The preparation of the prototype traces back to the development of the Oreca 05. The 05 was developed with the consideration of what the factory knew about the new technical rules for the LMP2 class in the FIA World Endurance Championship for 2017. Taking prior knowledge from the Oreca 05's performance into account, Oreca decided to develop a new car and base it around the predecessor. Their goal was to maximize the performance by focusing on the energy and resource usage. The team opted to use this strategy not only to build a car based on a proven predecessor, but also to allow teams update their Oreca 05 sports cars within financial reason. The chassis of the Oreca 07 is mainly based on the 05, with its monocoque taking less of a priority to develop. The Oreca 07 came equipped with a Gibson GK428 V8 engine producing 600 hp (450 kW; 610 PS). [3] [11] Years later in 2020, power output was decreased by 60 hp following the announcement of the Le Mans Hypercar regulations. [12] [13]

The car performed its first factory shakedown test in late October 2016 at Circuit Paul Ricard. [11]

As a result of Oreca's development direction, the 07 quickly became the most dominant car in its class in 2017. After the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, the car's performance difference against the field prompted the Automobile Club de l'Ouest to allow the rival LMP2 brands, Dallara, Ligier, and Riley/Multimatic, to create extensive upgrade packages to match the performance of the Oreca 07 while also preventing Oreca from doing so in the process. [14] Despite attempts to prevent Oreca from improving upon the 07, it continued to succeed as a chassis, which has also resulted in teams heavily favouring Oreca over other brands when selecting a chassis to compete with in LMP2 racing. [9]

Oreca continue to receive healthy demand for the 07, with over 140 cars developed by Oreca as of 2025, which includes chassis for the Acura ARX-05 programme, updated Oreca 05 race cars, and rebadged Alpine and Aurus cars. [15] [16] The 100th chassis (though technically the 99th due to skipping the number 13) was delivered to Cool Racing for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans and later displayed at Oreca's showroom. [15] [17]

Variations

Acura ARX-05

A variation of the prototype, the Acura ARX-05, was created for IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype class under the DPi regulations. The car was developed through a partnership between Honda Performance Development and Oreca. [9] The powerplant of the vehicle is a production-based 3.5-litre Acura AR35TT twin-turbocharged V6. Other alterations from the 07 include Acura-specific bodywork. [18]

From 2018 to 2020, Team Penske entered a pair of ARX-05s, winning the title in the latter two seasons. For 2021 and 2022, Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing each campaigned one of the ARX-05s previously run by Penske. [14]

Alpine A470

Ahead of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, Alpine unveiled the A470 to race with alongside Signatech. It carries Alpine branding, but remains internally identical to its Oreca 07 base. [19] It is the successor to the Alpine A460, which itself was also based on a preexisting Oreca chassis. [20] Alpine raced with the A470 for four years, winning the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams with Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão, and Pierre Thiriet. [21]

Aurus 01

Russian manufacturer Aurus Motors entered a partnership with G-Drive Racing in 2019 to compete in the European Le Mans Series using a rebranded Oreca 07, known as the Aurus 01. The 01 carries Aurus branding, but is technically identical to the Oreca 07, using the same chassis and internals. [22] G-Drive and Aurus raced the 01 for three years, scoring four victories, before withdrawing amid sanctions from the FIA following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [23]

Rebellion R13

The Rebellion R13 was a variant of the Oreca 07, built by Oreca on behalf of Swiss-based team Rebellion Racing to race in the LMP1 class. [24] It would later be renamed by Alpine to the Alpine A480 when it was rebadged to run in grandfathered condition in the Hypercar class in 2021 and 2022. [25] Both the R13 and A480 routinely competed against Toyota in four seasons of competition for the overall FIA World Endurance Championship titles, finishing in 2nd overall in all four occasions across both iterations. The renamed A480 variant was succeeded by the Alpine A424 two years later. [26]

References

  1. "ORECA 07 Media Kit" (PDF). Oreca . Retrieved April 28, 2025.
  2. Pruett, Marshall (January 23, 2017). "IMSA 2017 Prototype Tech Profile: ORECA 07". Racer . Retrieved April 28, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 ""ORECA 07 Media Kit"" (PDF). Oreca. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  4. "Entry List 2023" (PDF). 24 Hours of Le Mans (in French). Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  5. ""Oreca 07 Turns First Laps at Paul Ricard"". Sportscar365. 26 October 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  6. "Team Nederland switches to Oreca for 2019/20 WEC". Filip Cleeren. motorsport.com. 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  7. "Inter Europol Competition steps up to WEC in 2021". Jamie Klein. motorsport.com. 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  8. "ARC Bratislava Request Switch To ORECA Chassis". Graham Goodwin. dailysportscar.com. 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  9. 1 2 3 ""Acura DPi Set to Begin Testing This Month"". sportscar365.com. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
  10. Lord, David (2022-05-24). "Oreca 07, 100 Cars Up, All The Teams" . Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  11. 1 2 ""Oreca 07 LMP2 On Track At Paul Ricard"". dailysportscar.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-19. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  12. "LMP2 Power Reduction to be Applied Across All Series – Sportscar365". 2020-11-05. Retrieved 2025-09-01.
  13. Goodwin, Graham (2024-03-22). "LMP2 Power Boost Confirmed For 2024 ELMS" . Retrieved 2025-09-01.
  14. 1 2 "Acura Confirm 2021 DPi Programmes With Wayne Taylor Racing & Meyer Shank Racing". www.dailysportscar.com. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  15. 1 2 ""2017 Alpine A470"". Ultimatecarpage.com. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  16. "Healthy Demand With Two Seasons Remaining Of Current LMP2 Regs". 27 October 2021.
  17. "Cool Racing Set To Race ORECA 07 Chassis #100 At Le Mans". dailysportscar.com. 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  18. "Acura Selects Championship-Winning Teams for 2021 DPi Effort". IMSA . 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
  19. "Alpine unveils its new car and driver line-ups for the WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans". 24h-lemans.com. Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  20. Panait, Mircea (2017-03-28). "Alpine Takes On The World Endurance Championship With A470 LMP2 Racecar". autoevolution. Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  21. Kilshaw, Jake (2019-06-16). "Signatech Alpine Clinches LMP2 Title With Class Victory – Sportscar365" . Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  22. Goodwin, Graham (2019-04-02). "G-Drive Racing Confirm Aurus 01 Gibson Effort In 2019 ELMS & Le Mans 24 Hours – dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-08. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  23. Dagys, John (2022-03-07). "G-Drive Confirms Withdrawal From WEC – Sportscar365" . Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  24. "ORECA Confirm Rebellion R13 Moniker For New LMP1 Contender – dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  25. Thukral, Rachit (30 December 2021). "Alpine resigned to another "compromise" season in WEC". Autosport . Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
  26. Kilbey, Stephen (2023-06-09). "Alpine Unveils A424 Beta Hypercar" . Retrieved 2025-08-11.