ByKolles has experienced a real roller coaster of emotions in recent months. Despite his determination to have his LMH prototype ready for the first bars of the 2022 season, the FIA and ACO rejected his registration and left the German team composed and without a boyfriend. The fact of having the support of a manufacturer like Vanwall did not carry enough weight for the WEC Selection Committee, so ByKolles has had to keep his project alive without the prospect of being able to compete this year.
Nevertheless, work at the ByKolles facilities has not stopped. In fact, the new Vanwall Vandervell LMH is already a reality. Collin Kolles’ team has completed the assembly phase of its LMH prototype and the car is ready to start track testing before April. The new ByKolles LMH, under the banner of Vanwall Racing, mounts a Gibson V8 enginevery similar to the one carried by the LMP2 prototypes or the Alpine A480 that competes in the queen class of the WEC.
Despite the fact that the project is progressing at a good pace, Colin Kolles has been quite scathing when talking about it, throwing a dart at the FIA and ACO after the rejection received by the team in January: «If we receive a welcome, we will be ready to compete. In the end, being in the WEC is something that is not up to me to discuss, because it is not in our hands. All I can say is that we have built a product to a very high quality standard.. We don’t know anything, except that our entry was not accepted. I am not 100% aware of the reasons.
Collin Kolles says the Vandervell LMH could have entered track testing sooner if the team had had a WEC berth, skipping the 1,000 Miles of Sebring to start his season at the 6 Hours of Spa. Faced with the rejection of the FIA and ACO, In ByKolles we have chosen not to rush the deadlines so much and delay this first test until the last days of March or the beginning of April. Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri, development drivers of the team, it seems that they will make their debut at the Most Autodromein the Czech Republic.
Atypical circuit for a test of a prototype intended for the queen class of the WEC, but which can well be used for a small test as a shakedown before starting tests on other tracks with a more classic profile like MotorLand, Monza or Paul Ricard. Scenarios in which the Vanwall Vandervell LMH will be able to start showing its performance after a long process of design and construction that has been carried out entirely in the ByKolles facilitiesalthough the naturally aspirated 4.5-liter V8 engine was developed by Gibson.
Photos: Vanwall Racing