British engineering company Perrinn has announced that it has sold a pair of its 2018 LMP1 chassis to a European team which will take part in the 2018 FIA World Endurance Championship. The customer team’s identity and details of its engine will be released shortly.

The company has already completed the design phase and crash test simulations of its 2018 racer. The car – which as of yet doesn’t have an official name – is expected to be formally revealed in November ahead of the start of its testing programme in December. As well as its pair already sold, Perrinn is confident that it can supply further cars for next season too.

Priced at £1.2m for the rolling chassis, the car will rely on torsion bar front suspension with coil springs over dampers at the rear and is expected to weigh ‘significantly under’ the mandated limit of 830kg.

“Increased support and stability from the FIA and ACO, coupled with programmes from other manufacturers has meant we’ve had a lot of discussions with teams seeking more freedom than the new LMP2 category,” said designer Nicolas Perrin.

“LMP1 offers a route to progress from an engineering and pace point of view. In just a few short months, the programme has progressed very quickly to the point where we’ll have two cars plus enough spares to build another car within six months. We have ensured we have capacity to do more should some of our other discussions develop.”

With over 15 years’ experience across sports car and F1 projects as well as automotive technology programmes including most recently an electric supercar, Perrin will oversee the build at a facility in Northamptonshire using a range of trusted subcontractors.

“Motorsport leads the way in advanced manufacturing techniques and we are now capable of producing the car in an innovative fashion,” added Perrin. “We will nominate the best suppliers to produce parts and deliver to our subcontractors to undertake the assembly on our behalf.”

“I am using open source as a way to focus resources and talents around our project,” says Perrin. “I want Perinn to achieve success at Le Mans by becoming a much bigger organisation than it can be if we limit ourselves to a centralised closed company. Our workforce is decentralised and global. Our team is open and accessible.”

This news means that Perrinn joins BR Engineering, Ginetta and ByKolles as announced provisional chassis suppliers for the 2018 season. DSC understands that Benoit Morand is also putting together an LMP1 effort, but with no known customers.

Further updates on the project will become available in due course.