Surprise Entry: The ByKolles Vanwall Hypercar to Race at Le Mans

Longtime FIA World Endurance Championship privateers ByKolles Racing have been approved for a one-car entry in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship season with their Vanwall Vandervell 680 Le Mans Hypercar. The entry will be driven by Tom Dillman, Esteban Guerrieri, and 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve.

The privately built car, revealed in April 2022, has faced significant legal and regulatory troubles over the past year. That makes the approval to race a relative surprise, particularly after the team's entry with the same car was rejected just last season. Given that the class is meant to be restricted to automakers, the approval a year later is still a bit surprising.

A car wearing the Vanwall name last raced in 1961. The company's trademark has changed hands many times since, but the company has only produced 2003's short-lived GPR V12 road car and a series of Formula 1 replicas announced in 2020. The brand plans to eventually build a road-going variant of its hypercar racer, but the car seen in testing seems to simply be a former Vanwall test car with license plates and bodywork changes. Production of a serious, road-legal hypercar could still be years away. In other words, the Vanwall name reportedly held by the ByKolles team hardly represents any road car manufacturer, in the past or today.

Nevertheless, a Vanwall entry has been approved for the FIA WEC going forward. That means the semi-fictional marque will be part of the fight for the overall win with Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, Peugeot, Toyota, and fellow boutique manufacturer Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus at Le Mans later this year. While Porsche and Cadillac's cars are built to the IMSA-style LMDh regulations, the Vanwall entry will be built to the same Le Mans Hypercar rule set used by Peugeot, Toyota, Ferrari, and Glickenhaus.